There are so many classics that I love and yet I don't make often! This is particularly the case with the lemon poppy seed cake. It took my friend Anne-Sophie from the blog Surprises et Gourmandises giving me a packet of poppy seeds for me to decide to remake this recipe that I had completely forgotten!
This recipe is inspired by a version by Pierre Hermé that I preferred to modify slightly, in particular by reducing the amount of sugar so that the lemon taste is really intense. The cake is super soft and very fragrant! The poppy seeds give this "crunchy" and visual side to the cake! It would be a shame to deprive yourself of them!
To make the cake even softer, I soak it in lemon syrup as soon as it comes out of the oven. It is very important to soak it while it is hot so that the syrup can really soak into the entire cake. Then let it cool completely before unmolding it.
Then it's up to you to ice the cake or not. Personally I prefer it without icing because of course you will add more sugar. It also depends on the texture of your icing. The more sugar you add, the thicker the texture will be and the thicker the icing will be. Conversely, the more liquid the texture of the icing will be (because of less sugar and more lemon juice) and therefore the less sweet the cake will be. It's really a question of taste! I've still left you the icing recipe for those who want it.
Ingredients for a 25x8cm cake:
The cake batter:
70g butter
4 eggs
190g sugar
240g of T55 flour
6g baking powder
1 pinch of salt
the juice and zest of 2 lemons
130g of whole liquid cream
20g poppy seeds
The syrup:
20g lemon juice
30g of water
30g sugar
1- Melt the butter and let it cool.
2- Mix the sugar with the lemon zest and leave the mixture for about ten minutes with the scent of the zest permeating the sugar.
3 - In the bowl of your food processor, whisk the eggs with the sugar and zest until the mixture becomes frothy.
4 - Add the flour, yeast and pinch of salt, previously sieved. Mix again.
5 - Add the lemon juice, melted butter and finally the whole liquid cream. Mix.
6 - Finish with the poppy seeds.
7- Pour the batter into a buttered and floured cake tin (you can optionally line it with baking paper to make it easier to unmold). Then draw a line of butter along the entire length of the cake right in the center (this will help your cake to expand evenly during cooking).
8 - Bake for 50 to 55 minutes at 160°C. Check the cooking with the blade of a knife which should come out dry.
9- Make the syrup. Boil the lemon juice, water and sugar.
10 - As soon as it comes out of the oven, brush the cake with this syrup. Then let it cool before unmolding it onto a rack.
11 - The cake must be completely cooled before it can be iced.
Icing (optional):
the juice of half a lemon
between 70 and 100g of icing sugar
QS of poppy seeds
1- Mix the lemon juice and the previously sieved icing sugar until you get a liquid icing consistency but not too much. Add a pinch of poppy seeds.
2 - Pour the icing evenly over the cooled cake. Use a spatula to coat the entire cake.
3 - Let the icing set until it hardens before tasting. The cake will keep for 2-3 days at room temperature wrapped in cling film.
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