This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This Lemon Poppyseed Cake is a tender, moist cake that’s full of lemon flavor and poppy seeds! It’s covered in a light lemon cream cheese frosting for a cake that’s perfect for lemon lovers!
It’s no secret around here that I love a tasty lemon dessert. I have quite a variety of lemon flavored cakes and this is my latest. Believe it or not – it might just be my favorite!
LEMON POPPYSEED CAKE RECIPE
What I love so much about this cake is the lemon flavor. It’s perfection. There’s a large variety when it comes to lemon cake flavor, but I really love a strong flavor in pretty much anything I eat. That can be tough with lemon, but this cake is just right.
To make this amazing cake, start with both butter and oil. The butter lends that wonderful flavor, while the oil helps with keeping the cake moist. Beat them with some sugar and vanilla extract on medium speed until the mixture lightens in color and gets a fluffier texture, about two minutes.
Next, you’ll add the eggs, then alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk and fresh lemon juice. For our leavener, we’ve got both baking powder and baking soda in order to properly balance the acid in the lemon juice.
Finally, you’ll add some lemon zest and poppy seeds.
WHY ADD POPPY SEEDS?
Poppy seeds add both flavor and a little crunch. They also contain a good bit of fiber, calcium, copper, phosphorus and magnesium. All are good and healthy things. Clearly that means this cake is healthy too! 😉
That said, this cake could also be made without them.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
This Lemon Poppyseed Cake is finished off with my favorite Cream Cheese Frosting, with a little bit of lemon juice and lemon zest added. It adds a subtle lemon flavor, which goes great with the cake.
The final cake is nothing short of delicious! The combination of the full flavored, moist lemon cake with the light flavor of the poppy seeds and cream cheese frosting is heavenly. It’s a wonderful combination of sweet and tangy and such a wonderful citrusy cake for spring and summer. I seriously wanted to sit down with a fork and just eat it one sitting. I hope you love it too!
MORE LEMON DESSERTS TO TRY
Lemon Cake with Lemon Bavarian Cream
Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake
No Bake Lemon Cheesecake
Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake
Lemon Meringue Cheesecake
Triple Lemon Cake
Lemon Poppyseed Cake
- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Lemon Poppyseed Cake is a tender, moist cake that’s full of lemon flavor and poppy seeds! It’s covered in a light lemon cream cheese frosting for a cake that’s perfect for lemon lovers!
Ingredients
Lemon Poppyseed Cake
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (112g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (310g) sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon zest
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 oz (452g) cream cheese, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (172g) butter, room temperature
- 10 cups (1150g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon zest
Instructions
1. Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
3. Add the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until mostly combined.
6. Combine the milk and lemon juice, then slowly add the mixture to the batter and mix until well combined.
7. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
8. Add the lemon zest and poppy seeds and gently stir to combine.
9. Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
10. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
11. To make the frosting, add the cream cheese and butter to a large mixer bowl and beat until well combined and smooth.
12. Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth.
13. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix until well combined.
14. Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Add more or less powdered sugar, as desired for consistency purposes.
15. To put the cake together, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat, if needed.
16. Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
17. Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake.
18. Add the second layer of cake and another cup of frosting.
19. Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost the outside of the cake. Refer to my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake, if needed. To make the line pattern in the side of the cake, I used one of the decorative sides on this icing smoother.
20. Finish off the cake as you like. I added rosettes around the top outer edge and sprinkled on some poppy seeds. I also added some lemon slices.
21. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve. Cake is best served cool, but not necessarily cold.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 715
- Sugar: 94.3 g
- Sodium: 263.6 mg
- Fat: 26.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 115 g
- Protein: 7.5 g
- Cholesterol: 89.4 mg
Categories
This post contains affiliate links.
Hi there! Can I use gluten free flour instead of regular? Has anyone tried this?
I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say for sure. But if it’s a 1 to 1 cup version of gluten free flour, I’d think it’d be ok.
I would like to know if the measurement for the all purpose flour is 2 cups plus half a cup. I actually don’t want to make a mistake.
Looking forward to your response
Yes, 2 1/2 cups.
Hiya,
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’m planning to try it out today for my mom’s birthday tomorrow. I’m just wondering whether you used caster or granulated sugar? Also, would the recipe still turn out okay if I halved it, as I’m only planing on making little finger cakes.
Your response would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I use granulated sugar. And I’d expect halving it to be fine.
Hi dear, thanks for your lovely recipes. Its the second time im trying this and it rises so well in the oven but deflates as soon as i take it out the oven. Could it be because im creaming the sugar and butter way too much at the beginning of the recipe? I mix for about 7-10 minutes. Or its something else different
Wow, 7-10 minutes is such a long time to cream the butter and sugar. It should only be a maximum of 3 minutes.
Very yummy. And the zest plus lemon juice makes it refreshing in a sense. Things I would do different next time are dye some frosting yellow to decorate with, and make half the amount of frosting called for because unless you’re putting roses over the whole thing you’ll have an entire Tupperware leftover like me 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi, did you use the store bought lemon juice or what type of lemon juice did you use? Thank you in advance 🙂
Fresh squeezed lemon juice is best.
Hi Lindsay. Three questions. 1. Can you used a lemon curd as the filling? 2. Can you do a SMBC (vanilla or lemon flavoured? 3. Baking these with cake strips, will it still rise and how do you adjust the baking time?
Lemon curd would be fine for a filling. SMBC should be fine as well. I haven’t used cake strips on it, but I can’t imagine it’d be an issue.
This cake was delicious! The sponge was so fluffy and moist and the cream cheese frosting really gave the cake such a nice tang. Everyone loved it. Will definitely make again!
I’ve mase this cake half a dosen times by now, it’s that good! So I figured I finally needed to leave a review. Everyone I’ve served this to has been all over it, and it has become a staple for me. I looove lemon cake, and this is a really nice fancier version of it.
The only changes I’ve adapted are that I use only baking soda, not baking powder (I ran out of BP once and liked the cake even better with double the BS instead), and WAY less sugar in the frosting – probably half of the recipe amount at max. I’m not from the US so I’ve learned that most US recipes can easily do with a lot less sugar for us.
I also always make a bitter lemon peel topping for this. Once the lemons are zested and squeezed, I cut the “shell” into as thin as possible strips, and carefully boil them with sugar and any leftover juice. This turns into a sweet and slightly bitter topping that (IMO) really compliments the cake.
Here I am still making this cake regularly, haha!
This original comment still rings true, I figured I’d add another note regarding the powdered sugar in the frosting since there are a lot of comments asking about it. I leave out the lemon juice in the frosting, because that’s what causes the need for such large amount of sugar to begin with – just to “dry out” the frosting again. While using much less sugar likely affects the final amount of frosting slightly, it’s definitely still enough to cover and decorate the cake nicely.
The recipe also works for a 2 or 3 layer cake in a 20cm pan without adjustments.
Hi Lindsay!
This cake looks amazing but I think a three layer cake is too much for us. Is it possible to divide the whole recipe by 1/3 so I can just bake a two layer cake? I know baking needs to be precise so I wanted to check. I’m looking forward to baking this Cake for my wife’s birthday this weekend!
It’s so hard to say because some ingredients just won’t divide evenly by 3. Without trying it, I’m not sure if it’ll work well to have to adjust some ingredients or not. You might be best to make all three layers and freeze one for later.
Hi Lindsay,
I did this recipe last night and it was the first time for me making a homemade cake (now i appreciate a lot more the cakes i see on the stores)!
I think i did a lot of mistakes but at the end it taste delicious.
A question for you: did you put the icing in the fridge before decorating the cake?
My cake looked like it was about to melt, and i had cold sponges. I waited for them to get cold.
I promise i will try this again because I love lemon and poppy seeds. 🙂
All the best,
Adelina
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I didn’t refrigerate the frosting beforehand. But cream cheese frosting can be tricky if you aren’t used to working with it. Maybe check out my post on it for some tips to keep it thicker next time. https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/cream-cheese-frosting/
hey i tried making this cake and after combining the mixture it came out watery is that how it’s supposed to be? x
No it shouldn’t be watery. Are you sure you measured everything accurately?
Hi Lindsay,
Thanks for the recipe Im about to try this. Could I use the same frosting to pipe sunflower petals and leaves on the cake?
Thank you!
You could give it a try. Cream cheese frosting does tend to be on the softer side. While you can do some piping with it, it doesn’t always hold too elaborate of a shape well. If you’re really want it to hold up, a buttercream would really be better.
Excellent recipe! For my taste buds and those of my family, I made half the amount of frosting that the recipe called for, and for that I used 1/3 the amount of powdered sugar (3 cups instead of 10). It was still too sweet so next time I will try just one cup of powdered sugar. I also doubled the lemon zest for both the cake and the frosting, and doubled the amount of poppy seeds, all with excellent results. The lemon flavor was perfectly featured without being over the top. I will definitely make this recipe again, with the modifications I mentioned.
I’m planning on making this for Mother’s Day and I was wondering if I could use cake flour instead of All purpose flour.
I haven’t tried it, but that should be fine.
Should the poppy seeds be soaked before being mixed in the batter?
I didn’t soak them.
Hi Lindsay
This looks awesome as usual.
Would this be ok for 2 – 8” rounds?
In theory, yes. But it’d likely end up a little denser than if you used the three pans.
Ok understood. Thank you!