Fresh Lemon Poppyseed Layer Cake

This easy, moist and delicious lemon poppyseed cake is about to become your new favorite recipe! Light and bright cake full of lemon and poppyseeds, filled with creamy lemon curd, and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting. Basically? Heaven in a bite! (Or two, or three – I dare you to stop at one!)

I have always loved lemon desserts – that comes as no surprise to those of you who have been around here for a while. Just check out my other lemon recipes like x and x! But I was especially excited about this lemon poppyseed cake! I’m a big fan of lemon poppyseed muffins (you can find my lemon poopyseed muffin recipe here). Then paired with homemade lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting is just a dream come true. Can we just agree that mooooost everything is better in cake form? Yes, let’s agree.

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Making layered cakes is actually really easy, even though they can seem intimidating if it’s your first time putting one together. Just like most things, a few easy tips are all you need to become a pro cake maker in no time!

Tips For Easy Layered Cakes:

  • Allow your cake layers to cool to room temperature, wrap well in plastic wrap, and transfer to the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Frosting cold cakes is 1000 times easier than room temperature cakes, believe me! It’s a world of difference.
  • Invest in good cake tools! Even if you only plan to bake a cake or two a year, you’ll be so thankful to have quality equipment. I wrote a whole blog post on my favorite cake tools here.
  • Crumb coat! I never knew what a crumb coat was before I got into cake decorating. It’s basically just a thin layer of frosting that seals in crumbs so that your frosting is smooth on the outside. Stack your cake layers filled with lemon curd and frosting, and then cover the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting. Put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes or until the frosting is hardened, and then frost with the remaining frosting!

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Lemon Poppyseed Cake

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  • Author: Kirsten Bell

Description

An easy and delicious cake for all of your spring and summer parties!


Ingredients

Scale

Cake Ingredients: 

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
Zest of 2 lemons

Lemon Curd Ingredients: 

1/2 cup sugar
Juice and zest of 3 lemons
4 egg yolks
6 tablespoons butter

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients: 

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon


Instructions

Cake Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line the bottoms of three 6″ cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through poppy seeds.

In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated, being careful not to over mix. Add the buttermilk, lemon juice and zest, mixing until all ingredients come together.

Pour batter into the three prepared cake pans, and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.

Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for about 5-10 minutes, and then turn them out on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Lemon Curd Directions: Combine all ingredients except the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Be sure to whisk constantly so the mixture doesn’t burn. Cook about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remember that the curd will continue to thicken as it cools! Remove the curd from the heat, and melt in the butter. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Directions: 

Combine the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat for an additional 3 minutes on high speed. To frost, spread a layer of frosting onto the bottom layer. Use a small frosting tip to create a perimeter around the frosted cake layer. Fill the well with a thin layer of lemon curd. Repeat with remaining layers, and enjoy!


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1 COMMENT

  1. Juliet | 23rd May 20

    Yum! Pinned this recipe for future reference. One of my nieces is going to benefit on her next visit! xo

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