Lemon and poppy seed cake
Poppy seeds add an enjoyable crunch to this moist, moreish cake, which is made all the more mouth-watering thanks to its citrus-flavoured icing.
1 HOUR 45 MINUTES | SERVES 10 | EASY
unsalted butter 250g, softened, plus extra for the tin
whole milk 70ml
poppy seeds 45g
caster sugar 250g
eggs 5 plain flour 250g
baking powder 1½ tsp
lemons 2, 1 zested, 2 juiced (you’ll need about 1½ tsp of zest and 55ml of juice)
vanilla extract 1 tsp
ICING
lemon 1, juiced (you’ll need about 30ml of juice)
icing sugar 200g
poppy seeds 2 tbsp
1 Butter a 23cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper. Heat the oven to 165C/fan 145C/gas 31/2.
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.
3 Beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
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.
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.
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.
PER SERVING 530 kcals | fat 26.3G saturates 14.3G | carbs 65.1G | sugars 45.5G fibre 1.1G | protein 7.4G | salt 0.3G