So I woke up this morning craving something sweet and lemony. Of course, the first thought that crossed my mind was poppy seeds. Why? Because lemons and poppy seeds, for some reason, make one hell of a team. I honestly cannot explain why I love this pairing so much. Is it the added texture that the poppy provides, or its subtle nutty flavor? I don’t know and I don’t plan on dwelling too much on the matter. Bottom line is, these two ingredients work together and help elevate each other.
Fortunately, I had everything I needed in my pantry so no need to change and go out. What is great here is that this recipe is really simple and doesn’t require too many ingredients (or too much effort for that matter!). I chose to make mini cakes because I love everything bite-size, and because baking time is reduced to only 15 minutes!
So is it a muffin or a cake that I’m making? Personally, I find that the only difference between cake and muffin is the presence of icing or frosting, or their lack thereof. If there’s icing or frosting, it’s a cupcake or a cake, depending on the size of your dessert. No icing or frosting means that it’s a muffin so you can eat it for breakfast without feeling judged. In this case, I used a thick lemony glaze. My point here is that you could use this recipe to make muffins or cakes, which is why I omitted mentioning either one of them in the title.
Lemon/ poppy seed cakes
Makes 24 mini cakes or 6 muffin size cakes
ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp poppy seeds
Lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 sour cream
glaze (optional)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbsp whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp poppy seeds
directions
Preheat oven at 375 degrees.
Place liners in muffin tin.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix sugar, egg, milk, oil and vanilla until well combined, about 2 minutes.
Add poppy seeds and lemon zest. Continue mixing for a minute.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Incorporate flour mixture into wet ingredients and fold with a spatula until everything is well combined.
Add the sour cream and stir until incorporated.
Spoon the batter evenly in the muffin tin.
Bake for 15 minutes for mini cake, and 22 minutes for muffin size cakes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes rest in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
While the cakes cool, prepare the glaze (optional).
Mix all 4 ingredients (powdered sugar, poppy seeds, milk and lemon juice) in a bowl. Mix well until the mixture is no longer lumpy. Add more powdered sugar or liquid (lemon juice or milk) for the desired consistency.
Pour a dollop of lemon glaze on cooled cakes.
The cakes are super moist, with a crunchy top which is the best! The lemon zest came through and each bite is full of flavor, while the poppy provides some added crunch. And, because I made mini cakes, they are bite=size and can be eaten like pop corn!!!
Variations
Instead of the glaze, you could also insert some lemon custard into the cakes. I opted for a glaze because I was feeling lazy, but the custard is definitely my preferred option.
If you’re not a fan of poppy seeds, you could make the same recipe with ground almonds. I personally find that lemon cakes taste better when there’s a contrasting nutty flavor that’s added. So mix together 1 cup of flour with 5 tbsp of ground almonds, and add 1/4 almond extract in the wet ingredients.
Also, the cakes are also packed with flavor so technically, they don’t really need anything else to improve their taste. You could eat them as they are and be completely satisfied. The up-side here is that if you choose to exclude any form of icing, frosting or custard, you could eat the cakes straight out of the oven!
Enjoy!