Lemon and poppy seed cake
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Serves 10
Ingredients
- 250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the tin
- 70ml whole milk
- 45g poppy seeds
- 250g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 250g plain flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 2 lemons, 1 zested, 2 juiced (you’ll need about 1½ tsp of zest and 55ml of juice)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
ICING
- 1 lemon, juiced (you’ll need about 30ml of juice)
- 200g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
Method
- STEP 1
Butter a 23cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper. Heat the oven to 165C/fan 145C/gas 3½.
- STEP 2
Tip the milk and poppy seeds into a small pan and bring to the boil. Immediately remove from the heat and leave to cool – the milk will become infused with the poppy seeds.
- STEP 3
Beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
- STEP 4
Separate 3 of the eggs and set the whites aside. Mix the egg yolks with the remaining 2 whole eggs and, little by little, beat this into the butter and sugar mixture. Sift in the flour and fold to combine along with the baking powder, lemon zest and juice, the vanilla extract and infused milk. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold this gently into the cake mixture.
- STEP 5
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until the top springs back when pressed lightly and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin while you make the icing.
- STEP 6
For the icing, stir together the lemon juice, icing sugar and poppy seeds until smooth. Remove the sponge from the tin and spread with the icing.
