Whole Lemon And Poppy Seed Cake With Lemon Icing

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Lemons for baking

Lemon and poppy seed cake is a classic flavour combination. Any lemon varieties can be used for baking. Meyer lemons are very popular because of their sweeter flavour and are a good choice for this cake, but you’ll need to spend some time removing the seeds. Otherwise you might prefer to choose a low seed variety, like a Lisbon lemon or a seedless Eureka.

If you buy store bought lemons rather than home grown or organic, it’s a good idea to remove any citrus wax before using them in this recipe. Either way, you’ll need to thoroughly clean the lemons first because this recipe uses the whole lemon fruit including the skin.

For the lemon icing and decoration, you’ll need:

• 1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioners sugar)
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (reserved from lemons used in cake)
• extra poppy seeds and optional fresh flowers to decorate

Method

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease and line a 20cm/8inch round cake pan with non-stick parchment paper. (I prefer to use compostable parchment paper.)

Thoroughly wash the lemons and pat dry. Cut the lemons in half. Squeeze one lemon half to produce 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice for the icing, and set aside. Then cut each lemon half – including the one you squeezed – into 4 pieces. Carefully remove any seeds from each piece.

Place lemon pieces in the bowl of a food processor and process until a smooth paste (around 2 minutes). Remove any extra seeds you may have missed.

Melt the butter in a small glass dish in the microwave on medium heat.

Add caster sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla to the lemon paste in the food processor bowl and process again until combined. Next add the flour – half a cup at a time – and process to form a dough.

Note: I use salted butter for this recipe. If you are using unsalted butter, I recommend adding a pinch of salt to the mixture when adding the flour.

Finally, add the poppy seeds and do a quick pulse with the food propcessor to mix them through the dough.

Pour the cake mixture into the preapred pan, smoothing the surface with a spatula.

Place pan in the preheated oven and bake for around 45 minutes, or until the centre is thoroughly cooked. Test by inserting a cake tester or skewer into the centre of the cake, which should come out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing and decorating

Once the cake has cooled completely, it’s time to decorate.

Make the icing by combining the icing sugar and the 2 Tablespoons of reserved lemon juice in a small bowl and mix until smooth.

Spread the icing over the cake, sprinkle with poppy seeds and decorate with fresh flowers if desired.

This cake is quite rich and will serve 12 with small slices.

Making ahead and storage

This whole lemon and poppy seed cake can be made the day before you need it, although I prefer to ice and decorate it on the same day.

Leftover cake will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 3 days, or up to a week in the fridge.

You can also freeze whole lemon cake for up to 3 months, although it’s best to do this with the un-iced cake and decorate it after defrosting.

More citrus inspired recipes

For more delicious lemon recipes, try our sweet lemon macadamia cookies or compound lemon garlic butter . Or for more about cooking with lemons, discover over 70 flavours that go with lemons or our handy lemon cooking tips.

There are lots more tasty citrus recipes to try on our recipes page, using lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruit, yuzu and more.

And don’t forget to subscribe for more citrus inspiration for your kitchen, garden and home.

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