Home » Recipes » Desserts » Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Name: Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake:
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 88 min
Yield: 10
Ingredients: 4-5 lemons (medium); 1 tbsp lemon zest; ½ tsp culinary lavender (1g); ½ cup whole milk (120ml, warmed); 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour (250g); ¼ tsp salt; 1 ½ tsp baking powder (6g); 1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar (379g); 1 tbsp poppy seeds (12g); ⅓ cup lemon juice (80ml); ½ cup sour cream (120ml, room temp); ¾ cup unsalted butter (190g, almost melted); 3 large eggs; 1 cup confectioners sugar (about 120g); Juice from 1½ lemons

Last updated on January 23, 2019 by jkanell 35 Comments Originally Published: April 10, 2018

A sprinkle of lavender adds a wonderful botanical nuance to this delicious lemon poppyseed pound cake. This recipe makes enough batter for a nine by four inch loaf pan or three six inch cake pans. So if you wanted to get fancy you could make this as a layer cake paired with a lemon buttercream. I had to cut this loaf up right after photographing it and give most of it away because I had ZERO portion control around it! If you don’t have any culinary lavender hanging around then make this recipe without it and I guarantee you’ll still love it!

This pound cake is beyond addictive, which is really dangerous when a recipe is this easy to make! I think poppy seeds get a bad wrap because of sad, stale, and often oily store-bought muffins. In this cake they add a wonderful pop of texture and I love the way they look suspended in each slice, like nature’s sprinkles! I maxed out the lemon juice in this recipe, filling each bite with a wonderful zing.

The glaze is so simple but amazing, confectioners’ sugar whisked with fresh lemon juice. It hardens for a wonderful crunch and tastes like lemonade! I garnished my cake with some extra lemon zest but this is totally optional. Did I mention these would make amazing cupcakes? Just adjust the baking time to closer to 25 minutes.

Steps to Make This Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add parchment paper to a loaf pan. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.

2. Add poppy seeds.

3. Whisk together.

4. Zest and juice lemons. Microwave the milk so that it is warm to the touch. Sprinkle in lavender and lemon zest to infuse.

5. In another bowl, combine sour cream and butter.

6. Add lemon juice.

7. Pour in the infused milk mixture and eggs.

8. Whisk everything together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until combined.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared baking loaf pan. Bake for about 60- 90 minutes or until the center is set and the edges are slightly pulling away.

10. In a bowl, add confectioners sugar.

11. Add the juice from 1½ lemons. Mix until you reach a desired consistency. Make sure not to add too much liquid at the beginning.

12. Drizzle the glaze over the loaf.

If you’ve tried this recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

4.91 from 10 votes