Lemon Poppyseed Cake

How many of you associate lemon with summer? For me, I have some wonderful memories associated with, being served with lemon juice during my summer vacations. Well, who can forget the chilled lemon juice served to the very thirsty and tired kids after having run and play in the sun. Somedays we were given the task to make it by ourselves. It was so funny to see the younger ones wait for the elder ones to make the lemon juice. We, the elder ones would be stirring it for some time to get the sugar dissolved and younger ones would get impatient while waiting for the juice with the empty glasses in hand :).

Well, this summer we wanted to bake something with lemon and we chose to bake this Lemon PoppySeed and I am so glad we chose it. And my kido did most part of it. He thoroughly enjoyed making and eating it as well. And when Big J got back from work, little J with great enthusiasm served it to him saying he made it :). We would be cooking together as one of the activities for this summer. And by the way, I must share it here. For moms of picky eater, engage them in the cooking process of the the food that they hate. In our case, it has really helped us in bringing about a liking towards food that he used to hate.

Coming back to this cake, if you love the combination of sour and sweet, you are definitely going to like it. Try it this summer. And if you happen to try, come back and let me know if you liked it.

Ingredients

For the cake

1. 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2. 1/2 tbsp fo baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp of salt
4. Zest of a lemon
5. 1 stick of unsalted butter (4 oz)
6. 1 cup of sugar
7. 2 eggs @ room temperature
8. 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
9. 1/2 cup of whole milk at room temperature
10. 1 1/2 tbsp of poppy seeds
11. 2 tbsp of lemon juice

For Icing

1. 4 tsp of lemon juice
2. 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan with butter and set it aside.
• In a bowl, take the all the purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Sift it to make it free from lumps.
• In another bowl, take the milk and add the lemon juice and stir it in. Let it sit for a while. It will make the buttermilk that will go into the cake batter.
• In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar untill creamy and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat it in. Add the vanilla essence and lemon zest and beat it to distribute it evenly. 
• Starting and ending with the flour, add the flour and milk alternatively to the cake batter, while you mix/beat everything together. 
• Add the poppy seeds and give it another mix to distribute it evenly.
• Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan.
• Bake it for about 40-45 minutes or untill it gets a golden crust and a tooth pick inserted, comes out clean.
• When the cake is warm to touch(after 15-20 minutes), run a cake knife along the sides of the cake and transfer it onto a cooling rack. Whisk the lemon juice and confectioners sugar together untill it is free of lumps. Brush it over the top of the cake. Let the cake cool completely before storing it in a dry airtight container.

Tips

1. If using salted butter, just neglect the salt from the ingredient list.
2. Do not over mix the ingredients of the cake. Just mix it to ensure that all the ingredients are evenly distributed.