Poppy Seed Cake

Today’s post was planned to be about our new garden.  Unfortunately we ended up planting well into the evening so it was too dark to take pictures.  So more on the garden tomorrow.  Luckily, I have a stash of my favorite recipes that I have been waiting to share with you.  So I figured I would start out with my favorite dessert, Poppy Seed Cake.

Now, this isn’t just any Poppy Seed Cake recipe.  This recipe is my mom’s Poppy Seed Cake recipe, which by the way, she is pretty famous for.  People always look forward to my mom’s Poppy Seed Cake.  And I think you will too.

My mom’s Poppyseed Cake is a childhood staple.  We didn’t eat a lot of sweets growing up, so whenever my mom would bake it was a big treat.  My favorite part was getting to lick the batter off of the mixer attachment when she was done.  In fact, it still is.

When I became an adult and started to get more interested in cooking and baking, I wanted to learn how to make my mom’s Poppy Seed Cake.  It is a great cake to take to potlucks, dinner parties or holiday gatherings.  I always get people asking me for the recipe after they take the first bite.

The great thing about family recipes is that they are not really recipes at all.  My mom has been making this cake for so many years, that she does it all by heart.  The tough part about that is it makes it hard to share the recipe with others.  So the ingredients list is a little non-conventional, but it gets the job done.

My mom also always makes her cake from scratch.  I, on the other hand, like to get a little help from my ol’ pal Dunkin Hines.  Not only does the cake still taste great, but it saves me loads of time, which is very helpful nowadays.

Ingredients

1 package Dunkin Hines Butter Golden Cake Mix

1 package Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix (3.4 oz)

4 large eggs

1 small container sour cream (8 oz)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup cream sherry

3/4 of a 2.6 oz bottle of poppy seeds

Powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine cake mix and pudding mix together.  Then add eggs, sour cream, oil and cream sherry.  Mix until smooth. Gently fold in poppy seeds.

Transfer batter to a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes.  Flip cake onto a plate and let cool another 20 minutes before dusting with powdered sugar.

Someone once described this cake to me as “magical”.  And I would have to agree.  There is nothing like it.  It has a unique flavor all its own.  I hope you give it a try and become a fan too.  You will not be disappointed.