lemon drizzle poppy seed bundt

At times I think my blog could be renamed What Do You Make Of My Lemon Cake? because I bake them so often. As much as I try to use other flavours, I inevitably return to lemon. It's a firm favourite.

There was a pile of lemons sitting in the fruit bowl last week so I searched the interwebz for baking inspiration and landed on this beautiful bundt recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction. It's packed with lemon flavour and different from my usual lemon cakes in that it also contains poppy seeds and buttermilk.

The buttermilk provides a lovely, creamy balance to the punchy, lemon flavour. I also like that it gives the sponge a soft yet weightier texture, which is perfect for bundt moulds. I should use buttermilk more often.

There were two near disasters with this cake though, the first being the lemon soaking syrup. All the ingredients are weighed using American cup measurements so I got a chance to use my heart shaped cup measures, which are all handily strung together on a loop. Handy for storing, yes, but not so handy when you have just filled 1/2 cup of squeezed lemon juice and the weight of the other of the measures pulls it off the worktop as you pick it up, catapulting lemon juice across your kitchen.

I wasn't best pleased, although it made the kitchen floor smell very fresh.

Luckily I had a spare lemon although I did need to soak up some lemon juice from the floor with a kitchen towel to fill up the cup measure. Before you judge, the floor was clean so I deemed this action acceptable.

Near disaster number two was a pack of writing icing falling out the cupboard and bouncing off the freshly iced cake. Luckily it was a light tube, not a massive bag of flour, so it didn't damage anything. Perhaps I need to clear out that cupboard... 

Other than that, the cake was great. Give the recipe a whirl if you feel like something a little bit fancier than a lemon drizzle loaf. Just don't throw lemon juice around the kitchen like me.

Lemon, almond and poppy seed bundt

After the indulgence of Christmas and New Year, I thought I'd bake my cousin a fresh, citrussy bake for her birthday. It also meant I got to try out the pretty bundt tin and a recipe from the Peggy Porschen book I received for Christmas.

The cake came out the tin beautifully although I almost spoiled the sculptural shape with my icing which was on the thick side. I'm going to blame the fact I've never melted fondant icing before and wasn't entirely sure about the consistency. However most of it smoothed over with a palette knife dipped in boiled water. While everybody marvelled at the fanciness of the cake's shape I admired my aunty's blue and white china.

The poppy seeds looked really pretty inside the cake and added a bit of texture. I also liked the super sweetness of the fondant glaze against the almondy, lemon flavour of the cake. Something a bit different to the traditional lemon drizzle.

Despite my lumpy icing, this was a relatively straightforward cake to make. The most effort involved was thoroughly greasing and flouring the bundt tin. I googled to see if anyone else had baked this cake to save me typing out the recipe (lazy? Most definitely!) and someone has! Here's the link.

I almost want to cry with envy at the baking, styling and photography in Peggy's book Boutique Baking. It's just so beautifully laid out. Even if I never baked from it, it's a beautiful book to own.

Did anyone else get any good baking books for Christmas? I got four in total and I'm still decided which recipe to try next. Possibly some biscuits....