Lemon and poppyseed cake

By a baker who can't make cakes

In my family we ‘don’t do cake’. Yep, even on Birthdays -instead we have white bread, slathered with butter and covered in sprinkles with a candle on top, (our cake aversion is clearly not for health reasons). My problem with cake is I find it too complicated to make and usually too sickly to eat.

However this lemon and poppyseed cake is my exception. I’ve been making it for the last month in my bakery and will pretty much have a slab with a dollop of cream or yogurt everyday for breakfast.

It’s simple to make, stays fresh for days and you can eat 2-3 slabs without feeling sick (not that I’ve done this or anything…).

Ingredients

40g poppyseeds ground

180g granulated sugar

2 lemons zested

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 eggs large

130g full fat greek yogurt 

130g olive oil 

230g all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Lemon Syrup

150 grams lemon juice about 3 lemons juiced

100 grams granulated sugar adjust as needed to be 2/3 the weight of the juice that you have

Sugar Coating

100 grams granulated sugar

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c/ 160c fan

1)   Pour your sugar into a large mixing bowl, then rub in the lemon zest and let sit for 5 minutes. Crack in your eggs and whisk into a sugary paste. Then whisk in your yogurt and oil. Once you’ve got a shiny smooth batter (after 5 mins), fold in your flour, baking powder, baking soda and poppyseeds. Finally pour the mix into a 9”x 5” lined loaf tin.

2)   Bake for 50 minutes until golden then poke a skewer into the middle, it should come out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile make the lemon syrup, bring the lemon juice and sugar to a simmer over a gentle heat the poke a few holes in the cake and drizzle over.

Cool for a further 40 minutes, then lift the cake out of the tin, springle with caster sugar and enjoy.