After more than my share of work travel over the past few weeks, it’s been lovely to be in one timezone and one season for more than five days, and this one, the home one, has spring juuuuust about poking through the San Francisco fog. In a minor celebration of the single ray of sunshine that dared trouble Carl (if you’re from out of town/country, SF named its fog…), I decided that lemon was the word and poppyseeds might as well tag along. This fantastic combo isn’t new, but boy is the fluffiness and moistness (sorry) of this delightful gluten free lemon poppyseed drizzle cake making it’s debut on the bundt stage. It’s practically springy (to the touch) and bursting with mouth-watering lemon in all forms: zest, juice, extract, you name it.
There are quite a few lemon poppyseed recipes out there, so here’s my pitch for how this gosh darn incredible cake stands out among the rest: it’s as if the teetering terraces of the Amalfi Coast all decided to have a pillow fight, resulting in the fluffiest, springiest, brightest cake known to all Italians (and me). Or, if you took all of the lemons from your neighborhood grocery store and chucked them into a magical dreamy cake machine. A bit audacious, but hey, when life gives you lemons, come up with a kick ass gluten free lemon poppyseed bundt recipe. And that is how I spent my entire Saturday (happily).
Lemon has always been a hankering of mine; my all-time favorite pie growing up was lemon meringue, GIANT slices of it with bouffants of cloud-like meringue over the tartest, tangiest, custardy lemon filling. And a crust, of course, but really the show is all about that lemony curd and meringue clouds. Years later, I became very upset that the gluten free lemon bar I purchased at what I assumed to be a good gluten free bakery was entirely disappointing, and made it a mission to develop a REALLY GOOD lemon bar recipe (mission accomplished: it’s here). And I would be remiss to miss mentioning my mother’s amazing lemon poppyseed muffins that got me, and the entire cast, through countless late tech rehearsals in high school theater. All of these have led to this day and this cake, and I claim it as the best lemony cake thing I’ve ever made. Give it a try, why don’t you? And if you’re up for more, try those lemon bars or these buttery lemon poppyseed shortbread bars!
Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Drizzle Cake
Equipment
- 10-cup bundt pan
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 4 large eggs separate yolks from whites
- 2 Cups white sugar
- 3/4 Cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 Cup sour cream
- 1/2 Cup milk
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum
- 3/4 Cup arrowroot starch
- 1/2 Cup almond meal
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 Tbsp poppyseeds
For the Lemon Glaze
- 2 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 1/4 Cup lemon juice plus 1-2 teaspoons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Grease a 10-cup bundt pan with softened butter, then set aside. In a large, clean/dry bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites (be sure there are no bits of egg yolk) until soft peaks form. Add in 1/2 cup of the white sugar, and continue to beat until stiff peaks form, then set aside.
- In a second large bowl, using the same electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar until blended (it will look like wet sand). Add in the softened butter and continue to beat until lighter and fluffy. Add in the sour cream, milk, lemon juice, extracts, and zest, and beat until combined.
- Add the flour, starch, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppyseeds, and salt into the egg yolk mixture and stir with a spatula until fully mixed. Using the same spatula, scoop 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk bowl and mix until combined. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites, 1/3 at a time until smooth (don't over-mix!).
- Pour batter into the greased bundt pan and smooth the top until it is even. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a knife fully inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool almost completely before turning the cake upside down onto a cake platter or plate.
- While the cake is cooling, make the glaze! In a medium bowl, whisk together all glaze ingredients until smooth. You can add food coloring here if you want, or leave as is! I add 1-2 more teaspoons of lemon juice if I want to pour the glaze more easily, but totally up to you! Drizzle the glaze over the bundt cake and you're ready to serve!
Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cake!
Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber
11 Comments
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Kathy
Hi. This was delicious, however it did not rise very much. Any thoughts? Also, I thought I would experience an aftertaste with the lemon extract, but I did not! It was very lemony!
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Lily
Very good gluten free cake. It was a hit at my husband’s birthday party! I used corn starch instead of arrowroot because it’s what I had in my pantry. I did NOT use lemon extract to avoid the artificial flavoring, but did add in candied lemon peel in the cake batter (plus garnished it with candied lemon peel and poppyseeds on top) as well to give it a more lemony flavor. NOTE: the instructions section does not say when you are supposed to add in the poppy seeds, so I very nearly missed including this crucial ingredient.
Lily
One other note: I had this in the over for 60 minutes and I think it was too long – the outside was darker than it should have been and it felt drier than I would have expected. I’d recommend starting to check at around 50/55 minutes next time.
Last, the cake had a spongier texture than I was expecting. Typically bundt cakes have a nice firm exterior “crust”, but this was very soft and spongy.
Amelia Farber
Great note! Each oven is different so definitely go with the time that works best in yours! Interesting note on the texture – this may be dependent on the style of bundt pan you use (cast iron vs silicone vs aluminum)
Amelia Farber
Thanks so much for trying the recipe, Lily! Great catch on the poppyseeds, we just updated the instructions to show where to add them. We definitely recommend finding a “real” or “pure” lemon extract (not all extracts are artificial!).
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Greg Harper
I didn’t realize Gluten free could taste so good! Congratulations and many thanks for sharing your delicious treats.