Ukranian Poppy Seed Cake

justcallmetoni's Note:

This was a graduate school favorite that I recently dug out of a very old box of recipe clips. I have no idea where the recipe originated but have fond memories of sitting with my housemates in the kitchen eating hot slabs of this cake right out of the oven.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 24

Yield: 2.0 loaves

• 3/4 cup poppy seed
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 lb butter
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions:

1. Heat poppyseeds and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat just before milk begins to boil. Let stand until milk reaches room temperature.
2. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
5. AIn thirds, alternately beat into the butter and sugar the dry ingredients and milk. Add the vanilla and lemon zest at the end.
6. Lightly butter 2 loaf pans and split batter between pans. Bake 40-50 minutes until a toothpick or knife inserted comes out clean.

Reviews

[Kaarin]

I love the tons of poppy seeds in this, and lemon zest was a great addition! For some reason mine was on the dry side; difficult to cut without the edges crumbling. (Possibly my eggs were too small?) The batter seemed fine, and the cake still tastes really good. I topped with raspberry toffee sauce #142631. I'm going to try freezing the second loaf. Thanks for sharing!

[Helgaf]

This is delicious. Added a little more milk since Kaarin said it was a little dry and the extra milk made the cake perfect. Thanks for sharing. ;-))

[Elisabetta47]

Just wanted to add that the original Moosewood recipe calls for brown sugar and says to bake in two well-greased bread pans. I like the look of Tina and Dave's photo and am going to make it that way right now!