Lorraine Pascale

Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Preparation info

  • Serves

    8–10

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in

Bake

Bake

By Lorraine Pascale

Published 2017

  • About

When I started out as a model in New York, at first I struggled to keep my weight down. I was so used to eating what I wanted, when I wanted, that it was an adjustment to learn that I had to eat more healthily. I did fairly well and kept my sweet treats to a minimum, but my Achilles heel was a yellow, shrink-wrapped slice of pound cake that you could find next to pretty much every shop till. The cake was so rich, dense and buttery.

Ingredients

  • 200 g butter, softened
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 200 g self-raising flour
  • 4 tbsp poppy seeds
  • seeds of ½ vanilla pod 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C/350°F/gas 4) and line the loaf tin with baking parchment. I usually put a strip along the whole length of the tin, making sure that it comes well over the edges. This makes it easy to remove the loaf when it is cooked.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream everything together in a stand mixer until it is light and fluffy. You could also use a hand-held electric whisk or wooden spoon for this. Add two of the eggs and half of the flour and beat well, then add the remaining eggs and flour along with the poppy seeds and vanilla. Mix well until everything is combined.

Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin and then pop it into the oven for 50–55 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin, then cut into slices and serve.