Dib Bakes

This cake is the perfect afternoon snack or post meal treat. Perfectly soft and lightly sweet, you won’t feel guilty after having a slice or two. The cake comes together fairly quickly, with the majority of the recipe time coming from the 55 minute bake time.

Recipe

Time: 1.5 hours

Yield: 8-12 slices

Ingredients

For the cake:

• Butter, for greasing pan
• 1¾ (210g) cup all-purpose flour, more for pan
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• ½ cup (118ml) buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ⅔ cup (79ml) extra-virgin olive oil

For the glaze:

• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• ½ cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar
• At least 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, combine lemon zest and sugar and rub with your fingers until it looks like wet sand.
3. Whisk in buttermilk, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and eggs.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Whisk dry ingredients into the batter, then whisk in oil and poppy seeds.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, about 1 hour.
8. Let cool in pan until warm to the touch, then turn out onto a baking rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.
9. Turn cake right side up.
10. Whisk together 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and the confectioners’ sugar. The glaze should be thin enough that it drips off the whisk. Use more lemon juice as necessary.
11. Use a pastry brush to spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake.
12. Cool completely before slicing.

Tips and Tricks

This recipe is adapted from Mellisa Clark’s “Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake”.

If you don’t have buttermilk you can create some by adding 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to a measuring cup and filling the remaining ½ cup with milk. Stir the mixture and let it sit for a few minutes until the mixture thickens and bake as instructed

You may also use regular milk and omit the ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.