Poppy seed and cream cheese

This is a Rachel Allen recipe which I slightly adapted to satisfy a cream cheese craving I woke up with this morning. Am I the only one who walks around with blinkers on until I get what it is I crave?

One thing to note is with this recipe is when it asks you to create a shallow well in the centre of the cake tin before putting it into the oven; listen to those words! The well I created was a little too shallow which meant it peaked slightly.

Luckily of course the flavour isn't dented by my mistake and it was really, really delicious. The cake itself is  quite rich and moist. The original recipe called for a vanilla buttercream icing but I found the replacement of cream cheese icing complemented the cake very well. That said, a liberal coat of icing is probably ideal if you don't want to overwhelm tasters. Unless that taster is me, in which case, more is definitely more!

100g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp baking powder
75g poppy seeds


Preheat oven to 170c/gas mark 3. Butter and line 20cm/8in cake tin.


Cream butter and sugar together before slowly adding in the eggs until fully incorporated. Sift the flour and baking powder and add them to your mixture. Finally, add the poppy seeds and stir until combined.


Spoon mixture into the cake tin and make a shallow well in the centre of the tin. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until cooked through.