Test Kitchen: Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake.

Posted on by Sandra Liao

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This is a cake recipe that is created by me. It was my excuse to try out a “cocktail” and also use the poppy seeds that I bought from Perth. However, this was an impulsive decision to bake at 2am. So I’m going to tell you how to bake on a whim.

Objective:

  • Use the poppy seeds.
  • To get a beautiful soft, moist crumb that wouldn’t fall apart when cutting.(softer than a pound cake but firmer than a full buttermilk based cake).
  • Light lemon flavoured cake without it being tart.
  • Develop a beautiful line on top of the loaf instead of a “ripped” look.

 

In order to bake on a whim, your eggs must be at room temperature. For the milk/butermilk you can warm it using a milk pan over a low flame till it’s just warm to touch. As for the butter, you can put it in a ziplock bag and hit it with a rolling pin till it becomes flatter and softer.

By the way, I really do enjoy test kitchen experiments. I learn so much more being creative, making mistakes, troubleshooting and pushing myself. I think you should take courage too, to obssess a little, be curious and try. Hope that you enjoy baking this cake recipe  as much as I enjoyed formulating it.

 

Lemon and Poppy seed Loaf Cake

2 Loaf Tins (8″ X 4″)

Oven Setting: 150degC, Fan Forced.

Ingredients:

200g Soften Unsalted Butter (plus extra for the butter line)

360g White Caster Sugar

310g All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Buttermilk

1/4 cup Mascarpone Cheese

1/4 cup Full Cream

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 lemon

4 Eggs

2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds

 

Method:

  1. Whisk or Sift both flour and baking soda together.
  2. Beat soften butter together with the zest of 1 lemon and caster sugar till it is pale and light.
  3. Add in eggs one by one, beating in between and scraping the sides of the mixing bowl.
  4. Add in vanilla extract, juice of 1 lemon and beat till incorporated.
  5. Mix in a measuring cup, buttermilk, full cream and mascarpone.
  6. Alternately add 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 cup of the mascarpone/full cream and buttermilk mixture, repeat till you have added all in.
  7. Fold in the poppy seeds.
  8. Put it into 2 greased and floured loaf tins.
  9. Add soften butter into a piping bag or ziplock bag and pipe a thin butter line on the batter’s centre.
  10. Bake.

 

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