Fan of lemon drizzle cake? Just love poppy seed muffins? How about combining the two in an easy-to-make lemon poppy seed drizzle cake? Mmm!
More than likely just like in thousands of households all over the UK (all over the world, in fact), I have a few go-to cake recipes – some sort of banana cake, Swedish chocolate kladkakka (incredible!), and… lemon drizzle cake!
Now I don’t know whether this is ‘a thing’ in your country too, but just about everyone I know here in the UK loves a good slice of drizzle cake – and knows how to make this cake.
A lemon drizzle cake is one of those cakes that’s incredibly simple to make. It’s also very satisfying – you poke holes in it after it’s done and pour a simple lemon and sugar syrup all over it while it’s still warm. It’s just so… lemony.
The other type of lemon cake that I love, and also find satisfying to make and eat in a sort of quirky way (all those tiny little crackly seeds!), is lemon poppy seed cake.
So I decided to combine these two recipes and make an easy torte-style lemon poppy seed drizzle cake – involving nothing more complicated than creaming together butter and sugar, adding eggs and dry ingredients, plus LOTS of lemon, and pouring into a cake tin. Add lemon icing to the finished masterpiece (if you like) and you’re done.
Well, actually, you have two choices to ‘finish off’ your cake. I do love lemons, and things with deeply lemony flavours, but I have to admit I made my cake FAR TOO LEMONY the first time I made it. Altogether, I think I used about 5 lemons, which made the flavour just far too intense, even I suspect for the most ardent of lemon-lovers.
So I’m suggested one of two things. EITHER poke your finished cake with holes and pour a simple lemon syrup over it (makes the cake super moist!), OR make a simple lemon icing out of icing sugar and lemon juice, and drip over the top!
Here you can see I went with the lemon drippy icing, just because it looks so pretty that way, but really you’ve got enough oomph in your cake already, with the gorgeous poppy seeds, to keep it plain on top. Totally up to you!
Just one little ‘observation’ before you run off to make this cake. I just googled ‘poppy seeds’ to see whether it was one word or two (the shame), and apparently eating poppy seeds can make you test positive for opium!
Fancy that. So make this cake and eat it all, but just maybe not if you’re going to be competing in the Olympics this year!
Lemon poppy seed drizzle cake
Ingredients (UK/Australia? Click below for grams/ml)
- 12 tablespoons butter ( 1 1/2 sticks) left out of the fridge for a while to soften slightly
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup self-raising flour
- 1.75 ounces ground almonds
- 1 ounce poppy seeds
Topping
Option 1
- Juice of 1½ lemons
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
Option 2
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3/4 cup icing/confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch round cake tin with baking paper, and lightly grease the bottom and sides.
- Cream together the butter and sugar in a food processor or with a hand-held whisk until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
- Whisk in the eggs one by one, then stir in the lemon zest and juice.
- Fold in the flour, almonds and poppy seeds, then pour the batter into the cake tin.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the middle of the cake comes out almost clean.
For the topping
EITHER
- (Option 1) Heat the juice from the 1½ lemons with the caster sugar until the sugar has dissolved. When the cake has just come out of the oven, poke the cake all over with a skewer or fine knife, then pour the syrup all over the cake. Let cool, and serve.
OR
- (Option 2) Add the lemon juice to the icing sugar to make lemon icing. Pour/Spread the icing over the cake (don’t worry if it drips down the sides of the cake – it’s supposed to do that!). Let the icing set, then serve.
Nutrition
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Marie says
The cake is lovely but with modifications!
The method as I suspected resulted in curdling as the eggs were added – with the mix still looking slightly curdled when it went in the oven. I should have gone with my gut and added flour to stop it as the eggs went in but the feedback hadn’t mentioned this so I left the method as stated. I will say it did turn out fine, despite not looking great before cooking.
Plus I nearly doubled the flour quantity in order to achieve the right consistency, and it did turn out fine, so I wonder if there was an error with the figure stated.
Helen says
This is helpful feedback, Marie – thank you. I’ll test out the recipe again and check on the flour amount since this is one of my older recipes. Thank you so much for the detailed review!
Kara says
Poppy oil / olive oil ?
Helen says
Hi Kara? Do you mean can you use oil instead of butter? I haven’t tried it but it might work! Just stir the oil and sugar together at the beginning and go from there. I can’t guarantee the results but it’s worth a try.
Liz says
I love the term “lemon drizzle.” Who could resist??? Love that this version has poppyseeds 🙂
Helen says
Hi Liz! It’s a great name, isn’t it? 🙂
Denise | Sweet Peas & Saffron says
I love lemony desserts of all kinds and this one is seriously calling my name…especially that glaze! YUM!
Helen says
Glad it’s calling your name, Denise!
Nancy | Plus Ate Six says
How funny – I ‘tried’ to make a flourless lemon & poppyseed cake yesterday and it ended up in the bin it it was just awful!!! Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.
Helen says
Great minds and all that, Nancy! If it makes you feel any better, my first attempt at this ended up in the bin too!
[email protected] says
How have I never made a lemon poppyseed cake before?? THANK YOU for the idea!!! Besides which your Swedish Chocolate Cake you KNOW is one of my all time go-to cakes!!
Helen says
Glad to have inspired you, Dear Nagi! Have a fun weekend full of loads of good food!
mira says
I love your cakes Helen! So simple, but delicious! The drizzle is the perfect addition! Pinning to try it!
Helen says
Thank you so much, Dear Mira! Hope you’re feeling well 🙂
Eva says
Comme cet année je n’ai pas l’intention d’aller aux jeux olympiques, je peut faire sans problèmes ton cake! Et en plus le lemon cake je les adore. Belle journée Helen.
Helen says
Bravo, Eva… moi non plus! 😉
Marissa says
What a knock-out combination! And I’m not training for the Olympics, so I can eat as many poppy seeds as I want! 😉 The texture of this looks so good, my mouth is literally watering!
Helen says
Thanks, Marissa! Glad you’re OK to chow down on those poppy seeds with me! 🙂
[email protected] says
I love lemon poppyseed anything and the lemon drizzle is a lovely lemon bonus. I’ll take a large slice and a nice cuppa.
Helen says
Enjoy!!
Kathleen | Hapa Nom Nom says
I love lemon drizzle cake! I love poppy seed muffins! The combination of the two is seriously a match made in heaven! I really just want to start licking the screen. It’s morning here and a slice or two of this along with my cup of coffee sounds SO good right now! Then a slice or two for dessert later in the day sounds just perfect. You gotta love a dish that both starts and ends a day beautifully.
Helen says
So glad this is calling your name… at all times of day! 🙂