Poppyseeds and Paranoia

There is a certain delicious validation in baking something lovely. You know, that small twinge of "win!" after a swoony first bite that makes you want to fist-pump the air. Yet when your audience bites into whatever culinary offering you have presented, there is always (for me at least) that tiiiny moment before they say anything where you are thinking the worst things, "why am I serving this? there's too much/not enough sugar/salt/butter. they're going to hate it and then politely tell me otherwise while trying to subtly slip that bite back into their napkin..."

I brought this cake with me to Workplace today, and had it out for our morning meeting. One person besides myself went for it initially. And then nothing. They all productively barrelled through the agenda and the majority of my cake went uneaten. WHAT DID I DO WRONG? It was so pretty, so inviting... see?



Don't you just want a little slice of that with your coffee?

So I left the meeting with my cake, ate another pity piece of it myself, and then set it on the lunchtable with a post-it encouraging the group to assist in its disappearance. And you know- it didn't last very long then, and by lunch there was a slim heel of the loaf left on a plate dotted with powdered sugar and crumbs. I stopped obsessing over my failure/success when my boss came charging down the cubicle hallway to claim the last piece.

All that to say, this cake is all sorts of lovely. It was simple to make, and delicious in its flavors. She originally made it in a 10" tube pan, but as I didn't have one and couldn't bum one off my best friend, I elected to make two smaller cakes in standard loaf pans. These cakes will not rise much, and end up squat, dense cakes lousy with butter (you do the math- two sticks of butter, split between two loaf pans). There is juuust enough lemon zest to give a slight citrus flavor, but in my opinion, the crackliness of the poppyseeds is the best part of this cake.

One last note: In the comments on smittenkitchen's post, someone recommended soaking the poppy seeds in warm milk for 2 hours before adding them to the cake. It apparently makes all the difference in bringing out the nuttiness and the crunch when you bite in. I elected to go for it- I had time, I had milk. I did not, however, think this through all the way, and at the end of my soaking time, had to haphazardly strain my seeds through a coffee filter. It was not at all ideal, and we lost some seeds along the way. Because I'd never made this cake before, I'm not sure if it made a difference, but the cake itself was so bloody good that I'd probably do it exactly the same next time.