Lemon Blackberry Poppy Seed Cake

Moist Bundt Cake

A Bundt cake is any cake baked in a doughnut-shaped Bundt pan. It’s the easiest way to make a cake look beautiful because the pan does all the work for you. There are a ton of different designs of Bundt pans out there, so pick one that you like and let it get to work. This lemon blackberry poppy seed Bundt cake has the bright flavor of lemon poppy seed, but adds a swirl of blackberry for a sweet treat inside. Keeping it moist comes down to two thing – not over-baking the cake and the addition of yogurt to the batter.

Lemons and Blackberries

Lemons and blackberries go together as well as lemons and blueberries and the deep vibrant color of blackberries is so nice to use in baked goods. Choose blackberries that are plump and fully black – the berries photographed above are not as ripe as I would have liked, but quite frankly it’s tough to find perfect blackberries in grocery stores. If they are still red or purplish, they still need to ripen fully. The best way to get ideal ripe blackberries is to go to a farmer’s stand or pick them yourself. The good news for this recipe, however, is that we’re making a blackberry sauce and adding sugar to the pot so we’ll be able to sweeten the berries ourselves. 

Make the Blackberry Purée

To make the blackberry purée, simply simmer the berries with sugar, lemon juice and just a little water to help them breakdown. Simmer and evaporate the excess water, smashing the berries as you go. Then, strain the purée through a fine sieve to remove the blackberry seeds.

How to Swirl the Blackberry into the Cake

Once you have your lemon poppy seed batter and the blackberry swirl sauce, it’s time to put them together. Simply divide the cake batter into three portions and the blackberry sauce in half. Start with one third of the cake batter in the pan and add a layer of blackberry. Swirl it into the batter with a butter knife or spatula. It doesn’t have to be tidy! Then, repeat with a layer of cake batter and another layer of blackberry, swirl it in and top with the remaining batter. 

How to Tell When Cake is Done

The cake will take 50 t0 60 minutes to bake and it will crack along the top. That doesn’t matte since it will soon become the bottom of the cake. You’ll know the cake is fully cooked because a wooden skewer inserted into the cake will come out clean. Let the cake cool just ten minutes before glazing it with the lemon glaze.

Glazing the Cake

The best and tidiest way to glaze the cake is to put it on a wire rack over a sheet pan. That way the cake never sits in a pool of glaze and if need be, you can scrape up the excess glaze and go back over the cake again. The glaze should be pourable, but not too runny. You can control that texture with the amount of sugar or lemon juice you add – adding more sugar to make it thicker and more lemon juice to make it thinner. The nooks and crannies of the Bundt cake design will grab the glaze in all the right places. 

Patience is a Virtue

Though the cake may look finished and ready to jump into head first, let it sit for 15 minutes or so so that the glaze sinks in and the cake cools fully. Serve alone with coffee or with a dollop of whipped cream on the side. To store the cake, store in a cake tin or cover it well and let it sit at room temperature for 2 – 3 days. If you’re storing it for any longer than that, pop it in the fridge.