Denise says:
This is an attractive looking tea cake that tends to disappear fast! Straightforward to make and will freeze well. Ideal as part of the Purim Seudah and should you wish to add a little crunch to every bite add 30g toasted chopped almonds at stage number 6. The mixture can be made into little cup cakes and used for Mishloach Manot; the baking would then be reduced to about 15 -20 minutes.
Preparation Time: 35 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 – 45 minutes
Serves: 8 people
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil – to grease tin~
75g poppy seeds
250ml milk/Alpro soya milk/ cream
~
180g margarine/ unsalted butter
200g golden caster sugar
~
4 eggs
1 teaspoon almond essence
200g SR flour
Pinch of salt
100g ground almonds
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
~
1 400g tin cherries –pitted and drained
Lemon Icing
150g icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Method
1) Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F / Gas mark 4.2) Grease and line a 22 cm loose based cake tin.
3) Combine the poppy seeds and milk in a saucepan. Bring to the boil for 1 minute and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
4) Place the butter and sugar into the food processor and cream together until pale and thick.
5) Add the eggs, almond essence, flour, pinch of salt, ground almonds and zest and juice of a lemon and whizz together until well combined. Pour in the milk and poppy seed mixture and whizz again.
6) Remove the mixture from the food processor and transfer to a bowl. Stir in the cherries.
7) Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
8) Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9) Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.
10) Meanwhile make the lemon icing by combining the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and beat together until smooth. Pour the mixture into a plastic bag or a disposable piping bag. Using scissors snip off the very tip of the corner of the bag.
11) Drizzle the icing onto the cake by gently squeezing to release the glaze. Sprinkle over some poppy seeds. Leave to dry completely before serving ~ this will take about 20 minutes.