A Perfect Summer's Lemon Poppyseed Loaf

Summer holiday baking began with a lemon poppyseed loaf. Since I was young, I had a soft spot for lemon poppyseed anything and it's a tad difficult finding the lemon + poppyseed combination here in Australia (everything is orange + poppyseed). I had a search around Pinterest and found this Lemon Poppyseed Loaf recipe by Cooking Classy. I ran the recipe by mom and she said it looked quite promising! The weather has been quite warm in Sydney, and so this is perfect to have on the kitchen counter for anyone who passes by to nibble on. The zesty lemon and sweet glaze is sure to be a refreshing hit! 

The Process

The recipe works in 3 batches - dry, wet, and butter/sugar. It requires you to first rub 2 tablespoons of lemon zest into 1 cup of granulated sugar until you form a paste-y substance to which you add the 1/2 cup of butter and cream until light and fluffy. Don't expect it to fluff up like it would with making buttercream, remember that you have the moisture of the lemon zest in there too. Once you have all your ingredients prepared, to the mixing bowl where you have the creamed butter and sugar, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, 1/2 of the wet ingredients, and then 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice. Repeat this cycle until all ingredients are used up. 

For even baking, butter the pan well and lightly dust flour to cover the butter. This ensures clean removal and an even surface around the loaf. 

I decided not to use a clear lemon glaze (usually made with granulated sugar and lemon juice) and went with one made with icing sugar and lemon juice. Just mix those two until you get a fairly thick consistency (you don't want the cake absorbing all the glaze and you want it to show up on the cake). I had used lemon glaze on a cake before and I found it was way too tart for my liking. 

The Result

The loaf was a bit dry due to my over baking it, but overall it's everything I wanted it to be. It also lacked the kick of the lemon flavour but that was mostly due to not having enough lemon zest. I think I could have also used a bit more poppyseed just to amp up the flavour (probably another 1/2 tbsp?). 

The Verdict

Mom suggested I could bake this again for Christmas Day and it definitely has her (and my) seal of approval. I baked a smaller loaf for Kieran and he loved it. I think that this is definitely a winner and it is fairly easy to bake, so it is sure to come up more than once in the future! 

Do you like the lemon + poppyseed combo?