Lemon Poppy Seed Raspberry Layer Cake Tastes Just Like Spring

Are you suffering from a severe case of the winter doldrums? Has the polar vortex and a string of snow days left you desperate for sunny days?

Don’t worry—we can melt away those frozen blues with a freshly-baked lemon poppy seed raspberry layer cake. You will feel like spring has sprung, even if the view outside your window is still cold and bleak.

The beauty of this simple recipe from the blog Style Sweet CA is that it is fresh, fruit-forward and beautifully light. It would be perfect to serve at a spring birthday party, as dessert on Easter Sunday, or to celebrate the end of Passover.

Made with lemon juice, lemon zest, poppy seeds, and buttermilk, this cake is sweet but not cloying, with a tangy, fresh finish. The blogger ices her cake with a buttercream recipe adapted from “Robicelli’s a Love Story, with Cupcakes.” Although she tints her icing with gel food coloring to give it a beautiful pink hue, you can choose any color you like. For instance, pastel yellow would make this cake festive on your Easter table and would suit the lemon flavors of this cake perfectly.

In building your cake’s layers, you also have many options. The blogger at Style Sweet CA uses a simple raspberry jam, but the blogger at Fake Ginger makes a raspberry curd with fresh lemon juice, egg yolks, butter, and a pint of fresh raspberries. (You can use a bag of frozen raspberries if that’s all you have).

By the way, curd differs from jam in that it contains eggs and butter, and has an almost custard-like texture. Preparing a raspberry curd will be a bit more time-consuming than simply using store-bought jam, but you might be able to find a raspberry curd on your grocery store shelves as well. Or check out this option on Amazon from Welsh Lady Preserves.

Happy baking!