Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

This Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake is bursting with fresh lemon flavor and has a delightful crunch with the poppy seeds.

I’ve found a lot of lemon desserts can be disappointing because they’re either too sweet, too tart or there’s just not enough lemon flavor. You won’t have any of these issues with this cake!

It has 3 main components:

• Lemon poppy seed cake
• Lemon simple syrup
• Lemon glaze

The cake itself has both fresh lemon juice and zest. While the cake is still warm, it gets doused with a lemon simple syrup to really amp up that beautiful fresh flavor. Then once the cake is cooled completely, it’s topped with a delicious lemon glaze.

Even with all the lemon components, it doesn’t taste overwhelming. The hit of lemon is balanced out with the buttery cake and vanilla flavors. The simple syrup not only gives the cake more lemon flavor, but it helps to make the cake perfectly moist. There are also two other ingredients in the cake to ensure it’s not dry like some bundt cakes can be: oil and yogurt. You can use either vegetable oil or canola oil. For the yogurt, you can use greek or regular plain yogurt. Just make sure the yogurt is full-fat and has no added sugar.

The best texture

One of the things that makes this cake so wonderful is the texture. It’s perfectly soft thanks in part to the creamed butter and cake flour (or mixture of plain flour and cornstarch). Bundt cakes are usually a little heavier than regular cakes and not nearly as fluffy. But the addition of cake flour makes this bundt cake as soft as it can be.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• All-purpose flour and cornstarch (or cake flour if you have it)
• Baking powder and baking soda
• Salt
• Poppy seeds
• Butter (at room temperature)
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs (at room temperature)
• Vanilla extract
• Lemon juice and zest (about 5 medium lemons for the whole recipe)
• Oil (vegetable or canola)
• Yogurt (plain or greek, full-fat)
• Confectioners’ sugar

How to make Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake:

• Combine the dry ingredients: first sift the flour and cornstarch into a bowl. Then whisk in the salt, baking powder, baking soda and poppy seeds.
• Cream the butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes. This is an important step to help make the cake lighter. The eggs are added and mixed in one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Then add the lemon juice, lemon zest and oil.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating between the flour mixture and the yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes. My cake took 50 minutes.
• Once done, allow cake to cool inside the pan for 10 minutes. Then invert it onto a wire rack set over a large plate or tray.

• Make the lemon simple syrup: combine the lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until all of the sugar has dissolved. Spoon syrup over the top of the warm cake. Allow cake to cool completely before topping with the glaze.
• Make the glaze: combine confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and stir until incorporated. If glaze is too thick, add a tablespoon more of lemon juice at a time until desired consistency is reached. Spoon glaze over cake and allow to harden for 15 minutes. Then slice & serve!