Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake with fresh Lemon Curd:: For Ally's Virtual Baby Shower

There are some amazing bloggers in the state of Iowa. I had the opportunity to meet up with a handful of them a few months ago in Iowa City. Ally organized the entire thing and from that point on, a community was created, a community to share ideas, ask questions, and create opportunities not only for growth, but a great platform to meet some quality people and build networks and friendships.

This community is growing by one more soon as Ally is expecting a little one soon! So a group of us are getting together to host a virtual baby shower for her. Obviously getting together would have been the first choice, but when you have a network of bloggers from across the state with jobs, families and so many other things to juggle, scheduling a get together becomes a challenge. So this is the next best thing!

My contribution to Ally's shower is a fresh lemon poppy seed pound cake with lemon curd. My go to dessert usually involves chocolate, but now that Spring is finally here, I thought something fresh and light would be the perfect contribution.

I haven't made lemon curd before I made this recipe, but now am absolutely smitten with the curd and have made it three times in as many days. The second and third attempts turned out better, thicker, than the first which was great - as I served it with a variation of this cake at the Brewery on Friday and Saturday. Selling out both nights, I knew this would be the recipe to share to celebrate Ally's newest addition to her family.

See all of the contributions to Ally's baby shower here:
Blissfully Delicious & Been There Baked That

Enjoy!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Adapted from "Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake", The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum

3 tablespoons milk

3 large eggs

1.5 teaspoons vanilla

1.5 cups cake flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 tablespoon loosely packed lemon zest

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

13 tablespoons room temperature butter

1/4 cup sour cream

Mix the milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, poppy seeds and lemon zest. Add the butter and half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and gradually add the remaining egg mixture in two batches. Fold in the sour cream

Pour into a prepared loaf pan, or two six inch cake pans and bake at 350 for 55 - 65 minutes (loaf pan) or 25 - 35 minutes (6 inch cake pans). Cake is down when a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes all over and brush with lemon simple syrup (below). Cool in pans for 10 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack. Poke holes on the bottom and brush with simple syrup. Reinvert onto the wire rack and let cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and storing in the fridge for 24 hours.

Lemon Simple Syrup

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine sugar and juice in a small saucepan and cook just until sugar dissolves.

Lemon Curd

Alton Brown does it again with his recipe. I followed this one to a "t" and it came out nicely. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Icing

Combine 2 cups powdered sugar with a few tablespoons of lemon juice and enough water to create an icing that will freely flow over the top and down the sides of the cake. Add 2 teaspoons of poppy seeds if desiered.

Putting it all together

Carefully level one of the cakes and place on cake stand. Spread a thin layer of lemon curd all over the top. Place the second cake on top of the curd and then spread icing over the entire cake.