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Lemon Poppy Seed Bread is studded with poppy seeds and topped with a lemon glaze! This easy lemon loaf cake recipe is so moist and tender and makes a great breakfast or dessert.
We love lemon flavored desserts like our Moist Lemon Cake Recipe, Lemon Mousse Recipe, and our Easy Lemon Curd Recipe that makes a great filling for cakes and cookies.
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread is an easy pound cake recipe made with lemon juice, lemon zest, buttermilk, and poppy seeds. This cake is extremely moist and tender and keeps fresh for days. My secret to extra flavorful lemon cakes is to brush them with a lemon syrup just after baking so they soak up the flavor, and then brush them with a thick lemon icing. So delicious!
This Lemon Cake with Poppy Seeds makes a great dessert or afternoon snack and tastes even better than the Starbucks Lemon Poppy seed loaf – perfect with a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea!
Why our recipe
- Our recipe is full of lemon flavor because of the lemon syrup and glaze. This recipe is perfect for lemon lovers!
- Easy instructions and lots of tips to guarantee success even for beginner bakers
- Using butter and buttermilk makes the loaf extra flavorful and tender. We also provide substitutes for the buttermilk!
Julia’s Tips and Tricks
- Baking dish: You can use a 9×5-inch baking pan or a 8×4-inch baking pan. The loaf will rise taller in the smaller pan but takes a few minutes longer to bake.
- Prepping the pan: Line the pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides so you can easily lift out the cake after baking
- Ingredients: Make sure that the butter has room temperature and is soft. For the best results, I recommend having all your ingredients at room temperature, this helps the cake bake more evenly
- Lemon juice: For the best flavor, use freshly squeezed lemon juice! Bottled lemon juice works too, but I prefer the taste of fresh lemon juice. You need 3–4 lemons for this recipe.
- Sugar: For a slightly less sweet breakfast cake, lower the amount of sugar to a 3/4 cup.
- Lemon peel: Use a Microplane zester to grate the lemon peel.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, make your own by combining 3/4 cup milk and 2 1/4 teaspoons lemon juice. Let it sit for a few minutes before adding it to the other ingredients. You could also use 1/4 cup plain yogurt and 1/2 cup milk as a substitute
- Glaze: When you make the lemon glaze for this poppy seed bread, don’t add too much liquid. You want the glaze to be nice and thick, not runny.
How to make Lemon Glaze for Pound Cake
A lemon glaze adds even more lemon flavor to lemon cakes and breads. During baking, flavors often mellow, so to get a more intensive lemon flavor I like to brush the still hot Lemon Bread with a syrup made from lemon juice and powdered sugar and then add a lemon glaze icing on top when the cake has cooled.
Making a lemon glaze is very easy. Start with sifting the powdered sugar to avoid clumps, and then add lemon juice and milk. I always start with only part of the liquid and then add more as needed, so the glaze is thick and creamy and not runny. This way it will form a nice thick icing crust that adds so much lemon flavor.
You can use this Lemon Glaze for Cakes, Bundt Cakes, Cookies, and Loaves.
Storage Instructions
Store leftover cake at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also store it in the fridge for up to 1 week, but it will taste drier because of the temperature, so I recommend taking it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.
You can also freeze the unglazed cake for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before glazing and serving.
More Lemon Desserts
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¾ cup buttermilk, see tips for substitution
- 2 tablespoon poppy seeds
For the Lemon Syrup:
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoon powdered sugar
For the Lemon Icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 teaspoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 9×5-inch (or 8×4-inch) loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides to lift out the cake.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using an electric mixer) cream the softened butter and sugar together at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- With the mixer running on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla extract and lemon juice. Beat on medium-high speed until combined.
- With the mixer on low, add about one-third of the flour mixture and mix until almost combined, then add half the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture and then the last half of the buttermilk, ending with the last third of the flour. Beat until just incorporated. Add poppy seeds and fold in with a spatula.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45–50 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out mostly clean with only a couple of moist crumbs. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours.
- Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. Stir together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar for the lemon syrup. Carefully transfer the cake to a cooling rack, then brush the syrup all over the cake while it’s still warm. Allow the cake to cool completely.
- When the cake is cooled, make the icing. Start with adding 1 Tbsp lemon juice to the powdered sugar, then add as much milk as needed. The icing should be thick and not too runny. Spoon icing over cake and let harden before serving.
My 1st time trying a lemon poppy seed recipe as it is so hard to find in my country (illegal by standard! 🤫)
and this recipe is definitely a keeper. made it and its SOOO nice, moist and soft. Not to sweet just the right amount of lemon too!
Really wish all recipes included grams as well.
Using a cup conversion chart I got the below:
240g plain white flour
180g unsalted butter
180ml buttermilk
200g Sugar
60ml lemon juice
No need to do the conversion yourself, this recipe comes with metric measurements. Just click the button in the recipe card that says “metric” and it will switch to grams and ml.
I’m dying to try this recipe! I don’t have buttermilk on hand and I’m trying to avoid going out right now, do you think sour cream would be an okay substitute? Also was planning on making them as muffins so obviously will shorten the bake time, but would love to hear if you have any tips! Thank you ❤️
Milk and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar will work or you could stir a few Tbsp of milk into sour cream.
I ended up doing 2tbsp of sour cream mixed with 3/4 cup milk and they came out perfect!
Is the cake freezable? Any tips on freezing it?
Yes, it freezes well. Because the bread has an icing on top it is best to place it unwrapped in the freezer for 1-2 hours or until the icing is hard (make sure the cake has room temperature and the icing had some time to dry). Then remove from the freezer and cover the bread with 2 layers of plastic wrap and put back in the freezer.
Delicious recipe!! It took a lot longer than the recipe said, about an hour and 20 minutes. But that’s nothing against the recipe, probably my oven! Will definitely be making this again
Hi, I’m just wondering if I could use a milk substitute instead of buttermilk? Thanks!
The buttermilk is important for the texture of the bread so sadly I don’t think using milk substitute would result in the same texture.
I made this recipe today and instead of lemon juice and lemon rind used orange juice and rind. The recipe calls for an oven temperature of 180 degrees C but does not state if the oven is with or without a fan. I turned my oven down 20 degrees assuming no fan and it took 60 minutes or so to have a skewer come out clean. Is your oven fan-forced?
That sounds delicious, David! My oven is not fan-forced. 60 min still sounds reasonable to me, perhaps your oven is running a bit colder. With my last, fan-forced, oven I often had the problem that the actual temperature measured with an oven thermometer was less than what my oven was showing.
Thanks for your reply. The cake was indeed delicious, but a little dry. I shall try 170 to 180 degrees C and see how that goes next time I bake it. Nice recipe!
Really easy and very very delicious. This recipe is definitely a keeper for me😋
Great recipe and thanks for the tip re the food processor. I made them as you described with a small edition of a tablespoon of lavender. Super tasty!
Yum yum yum! Not to mention such an easy and straightforward recipe. The best part is are the tips you include and explanation. Thank you so much!