Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Raspberry and Lemon Glaze

CAKE RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS
1.75 cup flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
.25 teaspoon baking soda
.25 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
.75 cup sour cream or greek yogurt
.5 cup vegetable oil
zest of two lemons
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon extract
.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon poppy seeds

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, rub the sugar and the lemon zest together using your fingers to allow the lemon oil to come through in the sugar. (Roughly 5 minutes)

In a mixing bowl cream the eggs, lemon zest sugar, and sour cream together until light and fluffy. (Peaks won’t form but the egg mixture will lighten in color by a few shades) I use a kitchen aid whisk attachment on speed 5 for 7-8 minutes.

Add in the vegetable oil and mix slowly. Add in the vanilla extract and lemon extract, and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes to combine.

Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and mix just until combined. Do not overmix! Mix just until there are no large lumps or streaks of flour in the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool completely IN THE PAN before glazing. Glazing in the pan helps to keep the icing on the top only as it sets after 10 minutes or so and stays in place!

RASPBERRY PURÉE
24 oz Unsweetened Frozen Raspberries
1/4 to 1/2 cup white sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp lemon juice

Blend room temperature raspberries for 90 seconds. Add blended raspberries to medium sized bowl and add sugar and lemon juice. Whisk together well until sugar has fully dissolved.

*Optional: After blending raspberries and before incorporating other ingredients you can strain the raspberry purée through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds if you prefer a seedless purée.

LEMON GLAZE
1.5 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon lemon juice
.5 tablespoon milk
.5 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar, milk, lemon juice, and melted butter and whisk to combine.

Pour lemon glaze over cake. Immediately spoon stripes of raspberry puree directly on top of lemon glaze (the lemon glaze sets very quickly!). Use a toothpick and drag through glaze in a zigzag pattern to blend the glaze and purée together.

TIP The lemon glaze sets extremely quickly so I ALWAYS make the raspberry purée first and have it ready before I make the lemon glaze to ensure the smoothest application and end result!