Lime and Poppy Seeds with the Cake Slice Bakers

April was crazy busy, but since I needed a donation for our share table at our regional scholarship meeting in late April, I decided to bake the May Cake Slice Bakers cake then.

I chose the Lime Poppy Seed Syrup Cake and baked it in a Bundt pan that has four different designs. It's fun to see how the cake turns out with the different levels of detail and curves. Sweetie and I ate one of them and the other three went off to be part of the fund raiser.

This is a lovely, fairly moist (due in part to the syrup), tight-crumbed beauty, with great lime flavor and the nice little crunch of poppy seeds. I keep my poppy seeds in the freezer, so I always have some ready for wonderful recipes like this. Usually you see lemon with poppy seed, but the lime was a refreshing change.

Please be sure to visit the other Cake Slice Bakers to see which of the four cakes they baked this month. It's always a treat to see their artistry.

I'm stepping back from the computer a bit over the summer, so I probably won't be baking with this group again until the fall.  Will probably do the last bake from this book, since we change over to a new one in October or November.

Happy Summer fellow Cake Slice Bakers! Bake on.

The following recipe gives the ingredients I used so that the cakes would be dairy free and the plural for cakes and pans refers to how I baked, since I produced four cakes from the recipe.

Lime and Poppy Seed Syrup Cake
From World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey
Serves 16

1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup soy creamer (or use whole milk as called for in the book)
1 cup softened non-dairy butter (or use softened creamery butter)
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour, sifted
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup drained yogurt (or use sour cream as called for in the book)

For the lime syrup:
1/2 cup lime juice
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10 cup Bundt pan well (or equivalent).

Soak the poppy seeds in the soy creamer (milk) for at least 10 minutes.

While poppy seeds soak, cream the butter, lime zest and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Then, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape beater(s) and bowl during this step.

Add in the sifted flours and the drained yogurt (sour cream). When thoroughly combined, add the poppy seed mixture to the batter and mix until well combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour. (Note; if baking smaller cakes, check to see if they are done at about 25-30 minutes.)

While the cake is in the oven, make the lime syrup. Place all the ingredients in a pan and stir over low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Let it simmer until the liquid thickens and the batter has reduced by half. Let cool until cake bakes.

When cake is done a toothpick in the center will come out clean. Remove from the oven and pour the slightly cooled syrup over the cake while it is still warm to allow the flavors to infuse the cake.(If desired, you can use a thin skewer to prick the cake to allow the syrup to penetrate further.) You can remove the cake(s) from the pan(s) and put the cake on a rack over a sheet pan, which allows you to catch any syrup that drips off and to reuse it, or you can put the syrup on the cake(s) while still in the pan(s) and then turn the cake out onto a rack once the syrup is absorbed.

When cool, serve small slices.

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