Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Curd
A pale, speckled lemon sponge with candied lemon on top, served with bright yellow lemon curd poured warm over each slice.
- Total
- 1 hr 15 min
- Prep
- 30 min
- Bake
- 45 min
- Serves
- 10
- Level
- Medium
- Tin
- 20 cm springform
Lemon cake usually disappoints because the lemon is in the wrong place. Juice goes into the batter, bakes off, and leaves a faintly sweet sponge; all the real flavour is in the zest and the oil it carries.
So four lemons get zested into the sugar, and the juice is saved for where it actually survives: the curd.
The candied slices are a twenty-five minute job that can be done the day before, and they are what makes this look like it came from somewhere rather than from a bowl.
Ingredients
For the cake
For the lemon curd
For the candied lemon
You will need
- 20 cm springform tin
- Fine grater
- Heavy saucepan
- Fine sieve
Method
Oven 175°C · fan 155°C · 345°F
Candy the lemon slices first
Simmer the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves, add the paper-thin lemon slices and cook at the barest simmer for 25 minutes until translucent. Lift them onto baking paper to cool. They can be done a day ahead.
Tip Slice the lemon as thinly as you physically can. Thick slices stay bitter and chewy however long you cook them.
Heat the oven and rub the zest into the sugar
Heat the oven to 175°C / 155°C fan and line a 20 cm springform tin. Rub the zest of all four lemons into the caster sugar with your fingertips until damp and fragrant.
Cream, then add the eggs
Beat the lemon sugar with the butter for 4 minutes, then add the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour each.
Fold in the dry ingredients
Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds, then the yoghurt and the juice of two lemons.
Bake for 45 minutes
Bake for 45–50 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean. The poppy seeds make the crumb look darker than it is, so go by the skewer.
Make the curd
Whisk the yolks, whole egg and sugar in a heavy pan off the heat, then whisk in the lemon juice. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, for 8–10 minutes until it thickly coats the back of a spoon. Take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a cube at a time, then the salt. Pass it through a sieve.
Tip If it scrambles, sieve it immediately and it is usually rescued. The sieve step is not optional either way.
Release and top
Cool the cake 20 minutes in the tin, unclip the ring, and cool on the base. Lay the candied lemon slices over the top in a loose ring.
Slice and pour
Cut the cake and pour the curd over each slice while it is still slightly warm and pourable.
Baker's notes
- Four lemons of zest sounds excessive and is exactly right. Zest carries oil-soluble flavour that survives baking; juice mostly evaporates.
- Poppy seeds go rancid quickly. If yours have been in the cupboard over a year, taste one first.
Keeping it Cake keeps 4 days in a tin. Curd keeps 10 days in a sterilised jar in the fridge and does not freeze well.
Questions, answered
Do I have to make the curd from scratch?
No. A good shop-bought jar loosened with a tablespoon of lemon juice pours perfectly well. Homemade is sharper and less sweet, which suits this cake better.
Why did my curd stay runny?
It came off the heat too early. It thickens at around 82°C, which is later than it feels like it should be. Keep stirring and give it the full ten minutes.
If it goes wrong
Three things account for most of what happens to a cake in a domestic oven. Each has its own guide.
- It sank in the middleSeven causes, told apart by the shape of the crater.
- It came out raw in the centreBrown outside, wet inside, and how to rescue the one you are holding.
- The caramel seizedIt is almost always fixable. The lump re-melts.
