Moist Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Bright, zesty, and irresistibly moist, this Lemon Poppy Seed Cake is a citrus lover’s dream! Fresh lemon juice and zest give it a vibrant, tangy flavor, while poppy seeds add a subtle crunch. The soft, tender cake layers are topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting that adds the perfect touch of sweetness and creaminess—YUM!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Incredibly Soft & Moist – The lemon cake layers are inspired by my popular soft lemon cake recipe, which has earned over 100 five-star reviews! To ensure the perfect texture, I use a combination of butter and oil in the batter, keeping the cake extra moist and tender. I also incorporate the creaming method, where the butter is beaten with sugar until light and airy, creating a super fluffy cake with an irresistible crumb. This method helps to trap air in the batter, making each slice light yet rich.

Packed with Bright, Zesty Flavor – This cake is bursting with bold, fresh lemon flavor! I use both lemon zest and lemon juice in the batter to ensure that citrus lemon flavor really shines through. To elevate the flavor further, I add yogurt, which not only intensifies the lemony goodness but also contributes to the cake’s soft, light texture.

Perfectly Complemented by Cream Cheese Frosting – The cream cheese frosting is luxuriously smooth and rich, providing the perfect contrast to the tangy lemon cake. It’s indulgent without being overwhelming, and the subtle tang from the cream cheese enhances the citrusy flavor without overshadowing it. The frosting is thick and velvety, but still light enough to allow the cake to shine.

Looking for more lemon desserts? Check out my lemon loaf recipe (with a delicious lemon glaze), lemon blueberry cake, lemon brownies or lemon bars!

How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

You can find the full ingredients list for this recipe in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional and grease two 8-inch cake pans (I use my homemade cake release). Also, line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined and set aside.

In a large bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and lemon zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on medium speed, cream together for two minutes until light and creamy.

Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then.

Add the milk, yogurt, and lemon juice. Mix until well combined—the batter may look curdled, but that’s okay. Now, set your mixer aside, as the rest of the batter will be finished by hand.

Add your pre-sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold until just combined—do not overmix. Finally, add two tablespoons poppy seeds and mix until just combined. Again, avoid overmixing.

Pour the batter evenly into the two 8-inch cake tins, and bake for 33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.

Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl, add the unsalted butter. Using an electric mixer (a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment), cream it on medium-high speed for a few minutes until light and fluffy.

Add in the powdered sugar in three batches while mixing on low. Ensure that each batch of powdered sugar is mixed into the butter well before adding in the next batch.

Next add in your cold cream cheese, vanilla and fresh lemon juice and mix on a medium speed just until the frosting is smooth. Avoid over-mixing. If using a stand mixer, you may need to mix at a high speed to get everything nice and smooth.

How to Decorate Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Begin by levelling the tops of the cake layers. They’re already quite flat, so I only trim off a small amount.

Place the first cake layer onto your cake stand/serving plate and spread out a generous amount of frosting (I use my offset spatula).

Place your second cake layer on top and spread out a generous amount of frosting on the top and sides. You can use a cake scraper to smooth out the edges (see video demonstration). If you don’t want any cake crumbs getting into the frosting, then I recommend doing a crumb coat first. Check out this video for more tips on how to do that.

Place the remaining frosting into a piping bag with a 1M piping tip on it and pipe swirls around the top of the cake. For the final touch, I like to sprinkle some poppy seeds on top. Slice and enjoy!

How to Store Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

This cake can be left out at room temperature for about half a day, but due to the cream cheese frosting, it will need to be refrigerated after that/overnight.

Place in an airtight container before putting it in the fridge to prevent the cake from drying out. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

5 from 10 votes

Print Pin Video

Bright, zesty, and irresistibly moist, this Lemon Poppy Seed Cake is a citrus lover’s dream! Fresh lemon juice and zest give it a vibrant, tangy flavor, while poppy seeds add a subtle crunch. The soft, tender cake layers are topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting that adds the perfect touch of sweetness and creaminess—YUM!

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 30 minutes mins

Cooling Time: 1 hour hr

Total: 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Servings: 12 people

Author: Cakes by MK

IMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.

Ingredients

 

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Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

• ▢ 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour - plain flour in UK
• ▢ ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
• ▢ 2½ tsps baking powder
• ▢ ½ tsp salt
• ▢ ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
• ▢ ¼ cup (60 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola oil
• ▢ 1½ cup (300 g) white granulated sugar
• ▢ 3 tbsps lemon zest - see note 1
• ▢ 4 large eggs - room temperature
• ▢ ⅓ cup (90 g) milk - room temperature
• ▢ ½ cup (115 g) yogurt - unflavored and unsweetened. Low-fat Greek yogurt is okay, but regular type preferred.
• ▢ ¼ cup (58 g) fresh lemon juice
• ▢ 2 tbsps poppy seeds

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
• ▢ 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners' sugar. Use more for a thicker frosting (see note 6)
• ▢ 1½ cup (335 g) cream cheese - cold. Use a firm/block type, not the spreadable type.
• ▢ 1½ tsp vanilla essence/extract
• ▢ 1 tsp lemon juice - must be fresh

Instructions

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

• Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional (see note 2 if using a convection oven with a fan) and grease two 8-inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release). Also, line the bottoms with parchment paper.
• Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined and set aside.
• In a large bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and lemon zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on medium speed, cream together for two minutes until light and creamy.
• Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition.
• Add the milk, yogurt, and lemon juice. Mix until well combined—the batter may look curdled, but that's okay. Now, set your mixer aside, as the rest of the batter will be finished by hand.
• Add your pre-sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Using a spatula, gently fold until just combined—do not overmix. Finally, add the poppy seeds and mix until just combined. Again, avoid overmixing.
• Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8-inch cake tins, and bake for 33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
• Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• In a large bowl, add the unsalted butter. Using an electric mixer (a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment), cream it on medium-high speed for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
• Add in the powdered sugar in 3 batches while mixing on low. Ensure that each batch of powdered sugar is mixed into the butter well before adding in the next batch.
• Next add in your cold cream cheese, vanilla and fresh lemon juice and mix on a medium speed just until the frosting is smooth. Avoid over-mixing (see note 4). If using a stand mixer, you may need to mix on a high speed to get everything nice and smooth (see note 5 if your frosting is lumpy).

Assembly

• See the end of the blog post above for assembly instructions or check out the recipe video for a visual demonstration 🙂

Video

Notes

Note 1. When zesting the lemons, you want to make sure you're using a fine grater, and only grate the top yellow part of the lemon. Don't grate it right to the white part of the lemon as the white part is bitter and we don't want it in our cake 🙂

Note 2. If using a convection oven with a fan, bake at 160C/320F

Note 3. You can use cake flour in replacement of the all-purpose flour and cornstarch in this recipe (270g total required). 

Note 4. Mix the frosting only until smooth. Once it reaches the right consistency, stop mixing, as overmixing can make it less stable. This happens because the liquid in the cream cheese breaks down the powdered sugar.

Note 5. If your frosting turns out lumpy, it's likely because the cream cheese hasn’t mixed in properly—this is more common when using a stand mixer. To fix it, mix at the highest speed. If that doesn’t work, switch to the whisk attachment and mix on high—this should do the trick! 😊 Alternatively, you can whip the cream cheese first until smooth before adding it to the frosting.

Note 6. If your frosting is too soft and won’t hold its shape, you can add an extra cup (120g) of powdered sugar. I recommend starting with half a cup (60g) and adding more as needed.

Nutrition

Calories: 688kcal | Carbohydrates: 82g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 434mg | Potassium: 170mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 60g | Vitamin A: 999IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 221mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.

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