Almond Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Katyusha Popovych
Feb 17, 2016
2 min read

(serves 8)

For the cake

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

For the lemon syrup

100 g caster sugar
90 g lemon juice

For the lemon icing

225 g icing sugar
1 lemon, zest and juice of

1 Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper. 2 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. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack. 3 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. 4 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 it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top on to the middle of the cake, and let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the ‘drizzle’ effect.