Moist Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients

So, you need lemon zest (necessarily freshly grated) and freshly squeezed lemon juice for the dough. The cake is drizzled with lemon syrup while still warm. And as a topping, there's powdered sugar icing with lemon. Wonderful! Because the lemon poppy seed cake recipe contains three times as much sugar, the dough itself is relatively low in sugar. If you want to make the cake without syrup and icing - which I wouldn't do … - definitely take more sugar.

The lemon poppy seed cake is moist for several reasons: on the one hand, of course, the already mentioned soaking with syrup. Also, in addition to flour, I packed ground almonds into the recipe. And it is a rather heavy sponge cake with plenty of (😉) butter and eggs. The result: delicious! The cake also stays fresh for about 2 days. Just right to bring it to summer parties, garden parties, birthday parties and Co.

How to make the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Recipe Recommendation

No Bake Phiadelphia Cake

The absolute classic refrigerator cake: This refreshing Philadelphia cake can be varied with different toppings and bases and always hits the spot!

Check out this recipe!

This recipe is super delicious AND super easy - trust me. First of all, grease a small springform pan or loaf pan and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Now, beat the soft butter with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until well blended.

Then, mix flour with almonds and baking powder. Wash the lemon in hot water, grate and squeeze. Add about 60 ml of juice to the dough and add lemon juice, lemon zest, flour mix as well as poppy seeds to butter-egg-mixture. Stir vigorously but briefly.

Pour the dough into the pan, smooth it out and bake for about 32-35 minutes. In the meantime, squeeze another lemon for the syrup and measure out about 50 ml of juice. Place in a small saucepan with sugar and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves.

While the cake is still warm, pierce the surface several times with a toothpick and Spread syrup over the warm cake. Then, it's important to allow your cake to cool. If desired, dust with powdered sugar only or decorate with lemon icing. Mix sifted powdered sugar with a bit of lemon juice and spread over the cake. Enjoy!

Top Tip

The following applies to all lemon cakes: Freshly squeezed lemon juice and fresh lemon zest are definitely preferable to the store-bought convenience alternatives. You'll notice the difference in taste - and in the future, you'll only want to bake with lemon bake or lemon juice from a bottle in absolute emergencies.

Recipe Card

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4.3 from 4 votes

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

This lemon poppy seed cake is drizzled with lemon syrup, making it wonderfully moist. An easy lemon cake that the whole family will enjoy and the cake stays fresh for a long time!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Baking Time35 minutes mins

Calories: 237kcal

Equipment

• 1 small springform pan 8 in/ 20 cm

Ingredients

For the dough

• 100 grams (½ cup) sugar
• 4 eggs, medium
• 150 grams (1 ⅕ cups) all-purpose flour
• 100 grams (1 cup) ground almonds
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 40 grams (⅖ cup) poppy seeds
• 1 piece lemon, of which 60 ml juice and zest
• 130 grams (⅔ cup) butter, soft

For the syrup

• 1 piece lemon, of which about 50 ml juice
• 3 tablespoons sugar

For the glaze

• 170 grams (1 ⅖ cups) powdered sugar
• 1 piece lemon, approx. 2 tablespoons juice

Instructions

• Grease a small springform pan or loaf pan and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Beat the soft butter with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until well blended.
• Mix flour with almonds and baking powder. Wash the lemon in hot water, grate and squeeze. Add about 60 ml of juice to the dough. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, flour mix and poppy seeds to butter-egg-mixture and stir vigorously but briefly. Pour the dough into the pan, smooth it out and bake for about 32-35 minutes.
• Meanwhile, squeeze another lemon for the syrup and measure out about 50 ml of juice. Place in a small saucepan with sugar, and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves.
• While the cake is still warm, pierce the surface several times with a toothpick. Spread syrup over warm cake.
• Allow cake to cool. If desired, dust with powdered sugar only or decorate with lemon icing. Mix sifted powdered sugar with a bit of lemon juice and spread over the cake.

Notes

You want to replace ingredients? Here you find tips for baking substitutions!

Ingredient substitutions

Do you want to replace some ingredients? Here you find tips for baking ingredient substitutions!

Variations

Now such a cake is not complicated to make. But I wanted to make it especially moist and super lemony. You can refine any lemon cake with poppy seeds. For example, you could modify my lemon sheet cake recipe with poppy seeds as well. And if you want something healthier, you can also use my fructose-free lemon cake with rice syrup or the low-fat lemon cake without sugar for your poppy seed adventures.