Lorraine's Bitter Lemon and Poppyseed Cake

Sunshine on a rainy day

Makes my soul, makes my soul, 

Trip, trip, trip away

                                      Christine Anu 

It has been grey and cold and wet for most of this week, and today is the winter solstice.  Winter has settled in with a vengeance, and has left us scrabbling for puffer jackets, umbrellas and beanies to shut out the cold while we huddle up and shiver on freezing tram stops. While the days will start to get longer now, the weather is likely to get worse before it gets better, which will be months away. 

A little piece of sunshine in this cold weather is Lorraine's Bitter Lemon and Poppyseed Cake from Not Quite Nigella - recipe here. Just looking at this sunny yellow cake makes me smile:

My cake was not so bitter because I used some beautiful Meyer lemons given to me by Emma at work.  They were the most glorious, blemish-free, bright yellow lemons that anyone could wish for - definitely sunshine on a rainy day!  

I used candied lemon slices to decorate my cake rather than fresh lemon slices and thyme, as I wanted the decoration to be edible. You can find out how here. I think it was well worth the effort (and the extra lemon) to make them.  They are little orbs of sunshine all by themselves.

I thoroughly recommend making this delicious cake.  The bright, sharp lemon flavour melds with the crunchy nuttiness of the poppy seeds in this soft, fluffy, tea-time worthy cake.

Enjoy the shortest/longest day of the year (depending on where you are), and see you on the other side!