Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Bernice Baran
Mar 28, 2018
3 min read

I wanted to bake a cake.

I also wanted it to be spring outside.

So I basically baked spring.

I promise, it tastes like spring! ...I guess something like rose or lavender would taste more like spring but lemon will do for now.

Also, I used my mom's basic cake recipe (if you don't know my mom, she's a fabulous baker:) and added lemon and poppy seeds to it. It turned out wonderful, except it's not that easy to make. I mean it's not hard but every time I make a cake, I'm too eager to frost and I don't refrigerate it enough and then it gets all soft and slouchy... which is what happened here. Luckily when I put it back in the fridge, it straightened out a bit. A normal butter/oil cake is a little more sturdy and doesn't slouch as much when it's soft and a little easier to frost.

So I chose to make this out of a sponge cake instead of a butter/oil cake because sponge cakes are more light and fluffy!

LEMON POPPY SEED CAKE

Yields: 1 cake | Prep Time: 15 min | Bake Time: 27 min | Total Time: 42 min + frosting/decorating

INGREDIENTS:

Cake

12 eggs, separated
12 tbsp. sifted flour (not sure why my mom measures in tbsp. lol)
1cup granulated sugar
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ lemon juice and zest
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Syrup

2 cups water
1 cup sugar

Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
12 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla paste (or extract)
1 lemon juice
½ lemon zest
whipping cream *if frosting is too thick

Garnish

2-3 rosemary stems
Lemon Zest
Poppyseeds
Baby's breath flowers

DIRECTIONS:

Before starting, boil together water and sugar for syrup.
Remove from heat and let it cool while baking cake.
Preheat oven to 350F and grease 4 8"pans.
Beat egg WHITES on medium-high speed in stand mixer until huge and peaks form.
Reduce to medium speed and add in sugar, beat until well combined.
Put baking soda on egg yolks and add into mixture, beating until combined.
Reduce to low-medium speed and add in flour, one tablespoon at a time.
Add in lemon juice, zest, and poppy seeds and beat on high for a few seconds, until combined.
Pour evenly into pans and bake for ~25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
Cream butter and cream cheese.
Add in vanilla, lemon juice, and zest.
With mixer on low speed, add in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. I kept adding until I liked the consistency. If it's too thick, add some whipping cream.
Once cake has cooled, transfer first layer to a cake board.
Pour ~1/3 cup of syrup on to the first layer of cake.
Frost with 1/5 of frosting.
Repeat with the next three layers and REFRIGERATE.
You should have 1/5 left to decorate outside as a partial naked cake AFTER refrigerating...don't be like me, so eager, I ruin my cake half the time!

LOVE NOTES

You can prob do this in like 2 10" cake pans if you don't have four 8", or you could do half at a time if you only have 2 8" pans.
Really try not to get any egg yolks into the egg white mixture in the beginning, it will not whip properly.
Don't over-mix after adding the flour, just until well combined.
To know when it is perfectly baked, open your oven door and if the sides pull away from the pan, it is done baking. Mine took 27 minutes on 350F convection.
Make sure when frosting that your cake and syrup is completely cooled.
Don't put toooo much syrup...I did. It was still good but I think better a little less than too much.
Please refrigerate before frosting the outside. It is very probable that it will get too soft and topple over if you mess with it too much.
I put my rosemary on just before photographing and serving, I don't know if it would give it a funny taste.

That's all I got for ya todaaaayyy lovies, hope you all enjooooyyy! Let me know if you make this cake and how it turns out. Also you could use this cake recipe as a base for any cake, just swap out the flavors. If you're making it chocolate, swap out tablespoons of flour for cocoa powder so your dry to wet ratio is still the same. Have a wonderful day darlings!