Poppy Seed Almond Cake
This beauty is a poppy seed almond cake with a light, brushed-on, citrus glaze. I saw the cake on the instagram feed of a home baker who has been baking her way through Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person cookbook, and was inspired to grab my copy off the shelf and give it a try. I love almonds and poppy seeds, and since it was categorized under “easy” – which it truly is – it seemed like a fun afternoon activity. Just beat together the wet ingredients, beat in the dry ingredients and pour it in the pan. And really, any activity that ends in fabulous cake is a good activity, yes?
Photos by Daniel Marks
How I Made It
I halved the recipe including the bake time and made it in my favorite 6 cup bundt pan. It came out light, moist (sorry), and full of almond and poppy flavor. Saffitz makes cutting the recipe in half straightforward since all of the ingredients are given in both volume and grams, even the eggs. I'll definitely make this one again. It would be perfect to bring to a dinner party or a simple make-ahead dessert if you're hosting one yourself since it keeps nicely at room temperature for a few days. The only tweak I made was to the glaze that gets brushed on after the bake. It calls for both almond and vanilla extracts along with orange juice. I chose to use just the vanilla and the juice since there's already a lot of almond extract in the cake. I was pleased with my choice in the end, the almond flavor came through just fine.
But also, can you believe those perfect swirls? Straight out of the pan that way. Magic. Here's a link to the pan if you want to make that magic yourself.
Photo by Daniel Marks
Poppy Seed Almond Cake Recipe:
The recipe can be found in the Dessert Person cookbook which I recommend. You can also find it various places online like this version on Epicurious if you like volume measurements, or watch Claire Saffitz's You Tube video where she makes it herself. The recipe in volume and grams is listed on the You Tube page in the description. I've embedded the video below. Enjoy!
Yield
1 large (or half size!) cake
Difficulty:
As mentioned....easy!
