You'll love making this soft, gorgeously tender gluten free lemon and poppyseed cake all throughout spring or anytime the mood strikes! Bright, fresh lemon juice brings sweet-tart flavor to offset crunchy poppyseeds in this gluten free bundt cake that's lovely with a few strawberries or a pile of whipped cream.
Lemon and poppyseed cake is such a classic combination with good reason - the slightly nutty poppyseeds are the perfect complement to tart lemon juice. You'll use both lemon zest and lemon juice in this beautifully simple gluten free lemon poppyseed cake that is moist and tender with a plushy crumb. A touch of sugar, oat flour, milk, and eggs rounds out the ingredients list. Add a dollop of homemade lemon curd or honey lemon curd to add even more lemon flavor to each slide. Let's get to it!
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Lots to Love
There's so much to love about this deceptively simple cake. Whole grain oat flour forms the base of the batter, and plenty of crunchy poppyseeds are swirled in for texture and flavor.
- Easily gluten free: Just one gluten free flour, oat flour, is all you need to make this cake, meaning that you won't have to fuss with any complicated flour blends.
- Simple ingredients: Don't you love recipes that use simple ingredients to create something special? This lemon poppyseed cake is definitely one of those recipes!
- Keeps well: Unlike some gluten free bakes, this lemon and poppyseed cake keeps so well without drying out! I've given you some storage options lower down in this post.
What You Need
Curious about what you'll need for this gluten free lemon poppyseed cake? I've included some ingredient notes below. Check the recipe card for the full amounts!
- Oat flour - Naturally gluten free oat flour is the only flour needed for this cake. Pick up a bag or make your own oat flour.
- Baking powder
- Salt - I always use fine sea salt in my recipes
- Poppy seeds - You can add more or less to taste if you like
- Vegetable oil - Or use melted coconut oil
- Lemon - You will use both the lemon's juice and zest in this cake
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs - Always use large eggs
- Milk - I chose whole milk for this cake to add a bit more richness and fat, which helps the cake to last longer
- Vanilla - Pure vanilla extract gives the best flavor
How to Make Gluten Free Lemon and Poppyseed Cake
I love the simplicity of this recipe! It truly won't take long to put together and yields such a delicious result you'll want to make it over and over. Here's a glance at how to make this cake - the detailed instructions are in the recipe card lower down.
- Prep: Grease a 10-cup Bundt pan or a 9" x 5" loaf pan and dust it lightly with oat flour.
- Whisk dry: Whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, and salt, then whisk in the poppy seeds.
- Make the wet mix: Beat or whisk the oil and sugar together.
- Add eggs: Beat or whisk in the eggs.
- Combine: Mix in the dry ingredients.
- Add the remaining ingredients: Mix in the milk, juice, vanilla, and zest.
- Bake: Pour the batter in the pan and preheat the oven. Then bake the cake for 40-45 minutes.
- Cool: Place the pan on a rack in to cool for 10 minutes.
- Remove from pan: Then turn the cake out onto the rack to cool completely.
A Few Tips and Variation Ideas
Want to make this the best gluten free lemon and poppyseed cake ever? I've got you covered with some tips plus a few variation suggestions to try:
- Rest the batter: All gluten free batter benefits from a rest so that the flour or flours can hydrate. I've built in the perfect amount of hydration time by having the batter rest in the pan while the oven preheats.
- Try other citrus: Instead of lemon, add lime zest or juice to this cake!
- Bring ingredients to room temperature: If possible bring the milk and eggs to room temperature for a bit before adding them to the batter. This will help them to incorporate into the batter, making for a smoother texture.
- Add more or less poppyseeds: You can up the amount of poppyseeds in this cake if you like a lot of crunch, or use less if that's your preferece.
- Oat flour subsitute: Try 2 cups of your favorite gluten free 1:1 all-purpose flour, or 2 cups of sorghum flour for the oat flour.
- Make it dairy-free: Swap a plant-based milk for the whole milk.
- Make it refined sugar-free: Subsitute honey or maple syrup for the sugar in this recipe.
Serving Suggestions
Snack on plain slices, add a glaze, or try:
- Powdered sugar - The simplest topping for this lemon poppyseed cake is a drift of powdered sugar sifted over its top.
- Whipped cream - This cake needs just a little homemade whipped cream as the perfect accompaniment!
- Ice cream - A scoop of vanilla or strawberry ice cream would be lovely!
- Fresh fruit - Blueberries or sliced strawberries would be a perfect finish to this lemon and poppyseed cake.
- Lemon glaze - Make a simple lemon glaze of ¼ cup fresh lemon juice whisked with ¼ cup sifted powdered sugar and drizzle it over the top of the cake.
How to Store Lemon Poppyseed Cake
You have several options for how to store gluten free lemon and poppyseed cake to make it last as long as possible! Here's how to do it:
- Counter - Store your lemon poppyseed cake wrapped in plastic or foil on the counter for up to 3 days for easy nibbling.
- Fridge - The cake keeps well in the refrigerator - cover or wrap it in foil or plastic and store it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freezer - Wrap the cake or slices of cake in plastic wrap, then foil, and place them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost the cake completely in the fridge before serving it.
More Easy Lemon Recipes
Recipe
Gluten Free Lemon and Poppyseed Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour , 240 grams
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup poppy seeds
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil, or melted coconut oil
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Grease a 10-cup Bundt pan or a 9" x 5" loaf pan. Dust it lightly with oat flour.
- Whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the poppy seeds.
- In a separate bowl, beat the oil and sugar together for about a minute, using an electric mixer. Add the eggs and beat at high speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light.
- On low speed, mix in the dry ingredients, then the milk, juice, vanilla, and zest. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes, or until it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before inverting it onto the rack to cool completely.
CE Linder says
Rave reviews from guests for the gluten free lemon & poppyseed cake! Used sifted 1:1 all purpose gf flour, otherwise pretty much as written. Topped it off with a lemon glaze once the cake was cool (1/4c fresh lemon juice ie 1 lemon's worth, & 1/3c powdered sugar) which added extra lemon flavor. Appreciated the tips recommendations re: room temp ingredients & letting the batter "rest" in the bundt pan while the oven preheated. Very happy with this recipe! Thanks!