lemon poppy seed greek yoghurt cake

I’ve had a bee in my bonnet to make a Lemon poppy seed cake for ages because I adore the combination of these two ingredients in baked goodies. The Greek yoghurt and olive oil are wonderful additions too, delivering a super moist cake that is not too sweet with a lovely dense crumb.

I hold onto the theory that cakes made with oil are often better. They seem to be richer and moister than cakes made with other fats. They certainly seem to last longer. Olive oil leaves a slight herbaceous flavour with a tinge of bitterness, so I often use another neutral oil like sunflower instead when baking. Here it seems to work perfectly though, and compliments the lemon so well. Just pick and olive oil that isn’t very strong in flavour.

I’ve made a simple lemon and crème fresh icing to finish this off. It needs the sweetness. The texture of this cake is perfect for a bundt cake too.

This recipe is super easy to make as everything is done by hand in one bowl with very limited mixing involved (apart from sifting the flour which takes place in another bowl but you know what I mean).

Chopped pistachios finish things off to add decoration and texture keeping this very Greek in theme and flavour. The cake, like many, tastes better the next day too.

Recipe – make 1 large bundt cake or 1 24cm round cake adapted from Gabriel Cabrera from Baked the Blog

Cake:

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 lage free-range eggs at room temp

Zest of one lemon

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup Full fat Greek Yoghurt

1 cup Castor sugar

2 cups all-purpose or cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

3 – 4  Tbsp poppy seeds

Icing:

1 ½ cups icing sugar

½ cup crème fraiche

2 tsp lemon juice (extra if needs be)

pistachios to garnish (or another chopped nut of your choice)

Preheat the oven at 160C / 325F.

Grease a bundt cake tin with cooking spray or butter and flour.

In a large bowl and using a whisk mix the olive oil, eggs, lemon zest and juice, yoghurt, and sugar and give it a light beating until things are well combined.

In another bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, and then sift this back into the liquid part in divided parts while lightly whisking to combine. Add the poppy seeds in now too. You don’t need to mix this very much but you want to avoid lumps from forming. 

Empty into your cake pan and bake for 40 – 45 minutes until firm tho the touch and when a skewer or shark knife is inserted into the thickest part it comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool completely before turning it out onto your cake plate or stand.

To make the icing, mix all the ingredients until you get a desired consistency. The icing should be fairly runny and will set a little as it dries. Add a few drops of extra lemon juice if needs be to thin it out.

 

 

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