Best Ever Lemon Poppy Seed Cake is a classic sour cream bundt cake with lemon & poppy seeds. Remember friends, the best kind of cake is one that is shared.
I believe that I have mentioned before that my son, Madden loves Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. It is his favorite. I find this so hard to grasp being a devout chocolate lover. But after his birthday cake snafu, I found myself on the search for the best lemon poppy seed cake and so happy I found it.
I took a classic sour cream bundt cake that I made for my base for my Maple Pecan Coffee Cake. This recipe is to die for and I just love it. So I modified that cake to make this Lemon Poppy Seed Cake and it really is the best ever, just ask Madden.
You can have fun with the cream cheese frosting if you wish and add some extract of your choice. I stuck with the just lemon juice and zest to add flavoring because my husband loves cream cheese frosting, but if it were up to Madden and me only, we would add a dash of almond extract.
This cake is so easy and delicious. Happy Spring friends.
XOXO San
How do you make Best Ever Lemon Poppy Seed Cake?
Prepare a 10-inch bundt pan by greasing and flouring it. Set oven to 350 degrees F and allow it to preheat while you prepare the cake.
In a small mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, I used my stand mixer; cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to mix in fully before adding the next egg. Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and sour cream.
Reduce the mixer to low and stir in the flour mixture until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Do not over mix, if you do your cake will slightly fall in the center, if this happens don’t stress it will still taste amazing.
Spoon in the batter into the prepared pan. Spread out evenly using a knife, place in oven and bake 40-45 minutes. Or until a light golden brown and the cake it starting to pull away from the pan, if your cake tester (ie: toothpick) comes out clean you are ready to remove from the oven.
Let cake cool on a wire rack for 30-45 minutes. Remove cake from pan and transfer to a cake plate or dish.
While cake I cooling on cake plate, make the glaze.
In a medium mixing bowl beat together cream cheese on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, Slowly add sugar and beat until well combined and there are no sugar chunks present. Add salt, lemon juice, and milk; mix on low speed until smooth and creamy. If the glaze is too thick to drizzle, add more lemon juice or milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you desire. I like mine a little runny.
Drizzle the icing over the cake and garnish with lemon zest. Cut, serve, and devour. Enjoy!
Don’t forget to pin this to your favorite Pinterest board.
Best Ever Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 1/2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs room temperature
- 4-5 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 teaspoons poppy seeds
Glaze
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar sifted
- pinch salt optional
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- lemon zest for garnish
Instructions
- Prepare 10-inch bundt pan by greasing and flouring it. Set oven to 350 degrees F and allow it to preheat while you prepare the cake.
- In a small mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds and salt, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, I used my stand mixer; cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to mix in fully before adding the next egg. Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and sour cream.
- Reduce the mixer to low and stir in the flour mixture until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Do not over mix, if you do your cake will slightly fall in the center, if this happens don't stress it will still taste amazing.
- Spoon in the batter into the prepared pan. Spread out evenly using a knife, place in oven and bake 40-45 minutes. Or until a light golden brown and the cake it starting to pull away from the pan, if your cake tester (ie: toothpick) comes out clean you are ready to remove from the oven.
- Let cake cool on a wire rack for 30-45 minutes. Remove cake from pan and transfer to a cake plate or dish.
- While cake I cooling on cake plate, make the glaze.
- In a medium mixing bowl beat together cream cheese on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, Slowly add sugar and beat until well combined and there are no sugar chunks present. Add salt, lemon juice, and milk; mix on low speed until smooth and creamy. If glaze is too thick to drizzle, add more lemon juice or milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you desire. I like mine a little runny.
- Drizzle the icing over the cake and garnish with lemon zest. Cut, serve, and devour. Enjoy!
please can you tell me what 1 and a half sticks of butter weights in gramms or even in cups
1/2 cup or 113 grams
The texture (crumb) of this cake is very soft and tender. I needed to convert all the measurements to grams to make sure it would turn out perfectly as I believe the US cup and our NZ cup are different sizes. It was worth the effort as this cake is delicious.
Yes NZ cups are just slightly smaller than ours here! Converting to grams was a great idea. I’m so glad you were able to enjoy it!