Ukrainian Poppy Seed Cake

Celebrating orthodox Christmas is always different from the "normal" Christmas. Nothing points on marshmallows and gingerbread. The traditional Ukrainian Christmas species are poppy seeds, lemon, walnuts and honey. Those are everywhere, like ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon mixtures you know. 

This recipe I took from the Internet, didn't have time calling my mom for the original one. But it is very similar and easy to modify, if some dairy products are not available in your country. I was surprised how hard it is to find poppy seeds in Sweden, in big bags like in Ukraine. Not cheap either. 

Light taste, sour and sweet, keeps its shape perfectly. I am sure, your guests will be pleased having this gorgeous cake with a cup of black tea.

I myself was doing this cake with a gluten-free flour. It has turned out in a funny pattern as you can see on pictures. This may happen because the gluten-free flour is extremely heavy, so all the poppy seeds I had inside accumulated in the middle of the pastry and on top, even though they were dispersed perfectly before. No worries, it won't happen with a normal flour.

Ingredients:

cake

• 1/2 cup poppy seeds (~90 g)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

filling

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest ( half lemon)
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 egg yolks, beaten

Procedure:

1. Pour boiling water over poppy seeds, stir a little, drain, place on a piece of cloth to dry over night.
2. Pre-heat the oven for 180 C and butter the traybake.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl beat eggs with sugar until the mixture is thick. Add sour cream, vanilla extract. Slowly add the dry mixture, following with poppy seeds. 
5. Pour the batter into traybake and bake for 30-40 minutes. Check with a toothpick the readiness: if the inserted toothpick is clean, when you take it out of the cake - it is done.
6. Cool completely using a grid tray.
7. For the lemon filling, in a sauce pan (thick bottom) mix sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, water, orange juice and butter. Cook stirring constantly until thickens.
8. Place egg yolks in a bowl, add half of the hot mixture, whisk. 
9. Then place the mixture with eggs back in the sauce pan, cook and stir for more 5 minutes, or until thickens. 
10. Cut the cake in two parts, place 2/3 of the lemon filling inside. Close the cake.
11. Pour the left filling on top of the cake, decorate with walnuts and poppy seeds.

Estimated preparation time: 30 min

Estimated cooking time: 60 min

Note: When cooking lemon filling be careful and stir constantly, the mixture keeps liquid for a while and later gets thickened in seconds.