Ukranian Poppy Seed Cake

Since I was on a bit of a nostalgia trip (see post below) I decided to bake a cake - not something I do often these days...

I had 500g of poppy seeds that I brought back from Israel with me (yes, I'm sure they sell them in the UK, but I happened to buy  these from the Front Brothers spice shop in Tel Aviv) which I wanted to use, also some French salt caramel that my mum bought back from Paris for me.

The recipe comes from my very old copy of Mollie Katzen's  'Moosewood Cookbook' - well used and well loved.

It is very delicious cake - I follow the recipe exactly, but I add some extra vanilla, some walnuts, and I split it and fill it with caramel spread, or dulce de lece.

Front Brothers Spice Shop, at the entrance of Carmel Market in Tel-Aviv

My old and very used copy of the Moosewood Cookbook, from before she re-wrote the recipes without all the good stuff...

You can tell I have used this recipe before... It has my notes and lots of splashes on...

some rather delicious Creme de Caramel with salt butter that went inside the cake

The finished cake - I'm not a food stylist but trust me - it's good cake!

OK, Here's the recipe with my modifications (mainly the addition of nuts and caramel)

Ukrainian Poppy Seed Cake / Mollie Katzen  from the Moosewood Cookbook
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3/4 cup black poppy seeds
1 cup milk
180g butter (recipe states 1/2 lb)
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
3 eggs

2 cups plain flour (white)
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest

 optional:
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup caramel spread or dulce de lece

Preheat oven to 180C
Grease and flour a 26 cm cake tin

Heat poppy seeds and milk together in a saucepan. Remove from heat right before it boils. Let stand to room temperature.

Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Fold in sifted dry ingredients alternately with the poppyseed mixture, stirring well after each addition.

Stir in vanilla, lemon zest and optional nuts at the end.

Pour into tin and bake at 180C for 40-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean - in my oven it's 40 minutes.

When cool, carefully split and fill with the caramel filling.

This cake freezes very well, also in wrapped slices!

Enjoy!