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.