Lemon Poppy Seed cakes are one of my weaknesses! Anything with lemon is always a sure thing, bursting with flavor that you can almost taste even before you take your first bite! Just the smell of fresh lemon wakes up the tastebuds and senses, and tastes like summer sunshine itself!

But you don’t have to limit yourself to making lemon desserts to just the summertime. The sweet, tart citrus flavor is a wonderful way to complete a spicy dinner, such as spicy hot Mexican dishes, hearty thick southwestern stews, or compliment a roast chicken dinner, too!  

This cake starts with a basic cake mix, but if you have a special from-scratch yellow cake that you prefer, go ahead and try this recipe with that if you prefer. But the cake mix gets a nice doctoring, so it works just fine for this. 

The amount of poppy seeds is up to you, but I’ve found that adding just a fourth of a cup is perfect for my hubby and I. Too many seeds, and I’d be afraid it would start to take on quite a “gritty” texture.  

What makes this cake extra special though, is a simple glaze made of fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar that is added after baking by drizzling over the cake after poking with skewers, so that all that wonderful glaze seeps into the cake making it super moist and adding an incredible amount of lemon flavor! You and your guests won’t even notice that the cake started from a box! 😉  

To finish this cake, you can do several different things. When I made this one, I used a quickie idea from off of the back of a can of frosting that I wanted to use up, warmed it in the microwave, mixed it with a bit of lemon juice, and that worked out really well! Super easy and it did just fine for what I needed it for! But you can also make a second, thicker batch of the lemon glaze and drizzle that over the top, or frost it with your own favorite homemade lemon frosting, frost with Cool Whip, or simply dust the top with powdered sugar.

So if you aren’t a baker and need an easy cake that’s no-fail, or in need of a simple, but very flavorful cake to feed a small crowd in a pinch, this one is sure to please! It’s also nice for the holidays coming up, especially for Thanksgiving, as it goes really well with a turkey dinner and is a wonderful alternative for those guests that don’t happen to care for pumpkin pie. With all of the other dishes being made for the holidays, sometimes the last thing we need is yet another tedious, complicated dessert to tackle. 😉

Hope you enjoy this recipe and make it soon whether for company or just for the fam! It’s an easy but delicious cake that comes together in a snap! Have a fantastic day all, and start making lists for that Thanksgiving dinner, it’s coming up quick! 😉 ~Kelly

Yield: 12 servings

Triple Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

For Cake:

• 1 (18 1/4 oz.) box yellow cake mix (with or without the pudding)
• 1 (3 oz.) box Jell-o instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• zest of one lemon, finely zested and chopped

For Glaze:

• the juice of 2 lemons, *reserve 1 tsp. for frosting
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

For Frosting:

• 1 can lemon frosting, warmed
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°degrees F.

Grease and lightly flour a bundt cake pan.

In mixer bowl, beat together cake ingredients for 4 minutes. Pour batter into prepared bundt cake pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick tests clean.

While cake is baking, mix lemon juice with powdered sugar for the glaze. It should have a thin consistency to be able to seep into the cake.

When cake is done and still hot, poke holes all over it (still in the bundt pan) with long skewers and pour the glaze over it making sure it seeps down into all of the holes. *Some glaze may remain on top, but get it into all of the holes evenly as much as you can.

Allow cake to cool, then carefully remove from the pan.

Cool completely.

For frosting, place frosting from can into medium-sized bowl, heat in microwave on medium-low heat until warmed and pourable. Quickly stir in 1 tsp. lemon juice, and drizzle over cooled cake.