Lemon and Poppyseed Cake

I had a craving for lemon cake the other day. I found the end of a bag of poppyseeds so I decided to add that in as well. I used my cake tin from Ikea and was really impressed by the pattern created by the icing after it cooled. It looks like a beautiful flower. The cake was moist and very lemony and received high praise at J's work. Fortunately, I managed to try a slice but I do wish I had more! Lemon cake is definitely one of my all time favourites. What's your favourite cake? 

 sorry the lighting is really poor this time of the year 

 adding lovely lemon zest and poppyseeds

 ready to bake 

 love the flower pattern 

Recipe adapted slightly from BBC Good Food

For the cake
175g butter
175g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour, sifted
Zest of 4 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
3 eggs
2 tablespoons poppyseed
150mls sour cream

For the icing 
200g icing sugar
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream butter and sugar until smooth.
• Add in the eggs, one at at time, mixing well between each addition. 
• Stir in the lemon zest and poppyseeds.
• Add the sour cream, lemon juice and flour. 
• Pour into a greased baking tin and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes (depending on size of tin) until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• As soon as the cake is out of the oven, use a fork to prick holes all over the cake. Pour 3-4 tablespoons of the icing (see below) on top of the cake and leave it to absorb. 
• Turn the cake out after about 10 minutes onto a serving plate.
• Thicken the icing slightly by adding more icing sugar and pour over the top of the cake. 
• to make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Slowly add the lemon juice and stir until smooth. Initially, make the icing a little runny to spread over the cake then thicken with icing sugar for the glaze.

Lemon and Poppyseed Muffins

I had a baking urge last week but I couldn't decide what to bake! I looked at my cupboards and cookbooks for inspiration but couldn't decide on anything. In the end I made some cookies which will be revealed later and I made these muffins as I had a real craving for something lemony. I found this recipe online which Lorraine Pascale posted on twitter. I added lemon juice and more zest and a lemon glaze and they turned out beautifully. 

I'm entering this to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme this month is spring and lemons definitely feel very spring like to me! 

And to Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes. The theme this month is 'Spring into Action'

 adding poppyseed to the mix 

 ready to go in the oven 

 drizzle with a generous amount of lemon glaze 

Makes 14 - recipe adapted online from Lorraine Pascale 

For the muffins

350g self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of flour

225g golden caster sugar

350ml milk

2 eggs

140g butter, melted

zest of 2 lemons

juice of 1/2 lemon

50g poppyseed

For the lemon glaze

Juice of 1-2 lemons - adjust to the right consistency

150g icing sugar, sifted

• Preheat the oven to 180C 
• Mix all the dry ingredients except the poppyseeds in a large bowl.
• Add in the wet ingredients and mix well.
• Finally stir in the poppyseeds.
• Divide the mixture into muffin cases and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Make the lemon glaze by sifting the icing sugar into a large bowl then adding in the lemon juice 1 teaspoon at a time until you get the consistency required.
• Drizzle a generous amount of glaze over each muffin. 

Secret Recipe Club: Lemon Poppyseed Tea Cakes

It's time for another Secret Recipe Reveal Day! I love being a member of the Secret Recipe Club. Each month, we are assigned a blog (in secret) and we have to choose and make a recipe from that blog and reveal our chosen recipes on the same day. The club has grown so big that we are now divided into groups and I believe there is a waiting list to join. 

My assigned blog this month is The Saucy Gourmet. Shari is a food blogger and food photographer who loves food! Her blog is full of delicious recipes but of course I headed straight for the dessert section. What a wonderful range of choices for me. I narrowed it down to chocolate and peanut butter trifles, chocolate mint squares, red velvet towers and inside out upside down pineapple cheesecake. In the end I chose her lemon and poppyseed tea cake as they are one of my favourite cakes. 

They were quick and easy to make and tasted absolutely delicious! The only adaptation I made was to add some lemon juice to the cake as I love a good tangy, lemony cake :)

 adding poppyseeds 

 mini cake mould 

 mini bundts and mini cakes - the shapes didnt turn out from the mini cake mould but the mini bundts looked great! 

Recipe adapted from The Saucy Gourmet 

Makes 30 mini cakes and 4 mini bundts of the size shown

For the cakes 

375g flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons poppy seed

140g butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

365g yoghurt (1.5 cups)

juice of 1/2 lemon

zest of 1 lemon

For the lemon glaze

185g icing sugar

2-3 tablespoon of lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. 
• Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. 
• Beat in the lemon zest and lemon juice. 
• Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. 
• Beat in one third of the yogurt. 
• Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. 
• Beat in a second third of the yogurt. 
• Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. 
• Be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. 
• Pour batter into cake tins and bake for 15-18 minutes for the mini cakes, 20-25 minutes for the mini bundt cake. If you are making a large cake you will need to bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your cake. 
• The cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• To make the lemon glaze, whisk the icing sugar and lemon juice 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency you require. You can always add more sugar if you want it thicker or more lemon juice if you want it thinner. 

Orange Poppy Seed Mini Muffins

Random Recipes hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen celebrates it's 1st birthday this month - congratulations! So Dom has challenged us to cook from the same book we used for our first random recipe challenge. If it's your first time, just cook from any random cookbook. 

Since I was late to the game and have only participated once, I have to cook from the same book which is Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking. I am secretly pleased as this is a great book especially for bakers. However I was also slightly anxious that I would get something from the pastry chapter or pies and tarts.  Fortunately, when I let the book fall open to a random page, I got orange-poppy seed mini muffins  :) Dried cherry-chocolate muffins were on the same page but I went with these as I immediately fell in love with the picture in the book. 

It's a fairly basic recipe which was quick and easy to make. No fancy ingredients or equipment required! I did have to go out and buy poppy seeds as the ones I had in my cupboard had expired last year and I wasn't brave enough to use them. 

I love the look and crunch of poppy-seeds. The muffins were moist and full of citrus flavour. I particularly liked the glaze (you can tell I have a sweet tooth!) but you can leave this out if you wish. 

 soak the poppy seeds in milk for 20 minutes before baking - this helps to enhance and deepen their subtle flavour

 not quite enough batter for my mini muffins... 

 .. as I wanted to make some heart shaped ones as well :) 

 delicious!! 

Recipe is taken from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, page 79 

I followed the recipe exactly as no substitutions were required and was very pleased with the final result :) 

Lemon and Poppyseed Cake

This was a special request for a friend's graduation celebration dinner. I used an all time favourite Jamie Oliver recipe - his nan's lemon drizzle cake. I got to use my new star mould which I thought would be fitting for the occasion. I made a double recipe to ensure I had enough batter for the mould. I had some leftover so I also made 5 mini-loafs from the same recipe. Aren't they cute?

Everyone loved the cake and my friend managed to divide the star into 30 equal portions. Well done! 

Congratulations on your graduation V! 

cake batter 

star mould mini-loaf

lemon icinglemon syrup

fresh from the oven

with addition of lemon syrup

drizzle effect 

For the cake
115g unsalted butter, softened
115g caster sugar
4 large eggs
180g ground almonds
30g poppy seeds
zest and juice of 2 lemons
125g self-raising flour, sifted

For the lemon syrup
100g caster sugar
90g lemon juice

For the lemon juice
225g icing sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. 
• Add the eggs one by one. beating each in well. 
• Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour.
• Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden.
• Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
• Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. 
• While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over. 
• To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. 
• When your cake is almost cool, put in on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top.
• If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the 'drizzle' effect.