Recipe - Dinner Party Poppy Seed Cake

1 cup Milk
One half cup Poppy seeds plus
Extra for garnish
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Almond extract
2 One half cup Allpurpose flour
Sift before measuring
1 tablespoon Baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 cup Unsalted butter; softened
1 One half cup Sugar
4 lg Eggs; room temperature
2 cup Premade lemon curd; * see no
1 cup Heavy cream
Lemon zest strips for garnis

* (available in supermarkets in jars or cans)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 round 8 inch cake pans. Line
bottoms with parchment paper. Butter parchment and flour overall. Shake out
excess. Set aside. In small saucepan over high heat, mix together milk,
poppy seeds and lemon zest. Heat to scalding. Let cool to room temperature.
Add vanilla and almond extracts. Sift together flour, baking powder and
salt. Set aside.
With electric mixer, cream butter on low speed until fluffy, about 2
minutes. Gradually add sugar. Beat on medium speed until very light and
fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on
medium speed until smooth. Blend in flour mixture and milk mixture
alternately. Beat on low speed until well blended. Divide batter evenly
between pans. Bake 2530 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center
comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack. Peel off
parchment paper. Cool completely.
To assemble cake: Place one layer on serving plate. Spread 1 cup
chilled lemon curd over top leaving a 1inch Border. Place second cake
layer on top. Press gently. Chill 30 minutes. Whip cream until soft peaks
form. Fold remaining cup of lemon curd into whipped cream. (Keep mixture
cold over a bowl of ice.) Quickly ice top and sides of cake with thick
layer of cream mixture. Chill 1520 minutes. Ice cake again to cover
completely. Chill 30 minutes. Sprinkle sides of cake with extra poppy
seeds. Decorate top outer edge of cake with long strips of lemon zest.
Chill. THE DESSERT SHOW SHOW# DS3225

Posted to MMRecipes Digest V4 #206 by Ignacio Perez V.
iperez@uniandes.edu.co on Auguday,, st 07, 1997