This Poppy Seed Cake was my favourite cake growing up. Sure, in my first decade I had a soft spot for the Triple Chocolate Brownie Pie that my Mum learnt in America (where else?), and in my teens I rather enjoyed Grandma’s Apple Almond Cake, but at the end of the day I always pined for the poppy seeds.
(Wait, do you know what I’ve just remembered? I actually liked my Grandma’s stewed fruit dessert more than her almond cake. The plump and luscious prunes and apricots, in particular, made my heart flutter. Gosh, I really was an, erm, unique child.)
I even asked for this Poppy Seed Cake to be my birthday cake one year. People, it’s not even a proper icing-able celebration-looking cake. It’s a brown loaf with black specks throughout. A delicious brown loaf with black specks throughout, mind you.
It really doesn’t seem surprising, now I think about it, that the girl who preferred stewed prunes and gluten-and-dairy-free poppy seed loaves to triple-layer buttercream-frosted cakes grew up to swoon over raw brownies with avocado icing and porridge made from coconut flour and polenta.
But you know what? That girl, who is also this girl, who will now stop talking in third person, was on to a good thing with this Poppy Seed Cake. It is utterly, utterly delicious. Sweet and fragrant with a burnished outer edge and a soft crumb, this cake beautifully showcases the enticing slightly-smoky-nutty flavour of poppy seeds.
If it weren’t for the fact that I’m hoping my parents will take me to a fancy restaurant this weekend for my birthday, I’d totally ask for this again as my birthday cake.
Gluten-free and Dairy-free Poppy Seed Cake
From The Australian Women’s Weekly Cakes and Slices
- 1/3 cup poppy seeds
- 3/4 cup soy milk
- 185g Nuttelex (or butter/preferred dairy-free butter)
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups gluten-free self raising flour
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and line a loaf tin.
- Combine poppy seeds and soy milk in a small jugs and leave to soak for one hour.
- In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the poppy seed mixture, Nuttelex, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs on low speed until just combined. Add the flour and, still on low speed so as to avoid a flour explosion, beat until combined.
- Increase speed to medium-high and beat for three minutes until the mixture has lightened in colour. Tip into prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave in tin for five minutes, then remove from tin to cool.
- This cake is particularly delicious when cut into thick slabs and spread with a little more Nuttelex (or butter, if that’s your fancy). Cake-sandwich!
Note: You can, of course, replace all of the dairy-free and gluten-free options here with their traditional counterparts.
I would SO add lemon to that yummy looking cake!
Lemon and poppy seed is a marvellous combination
I’ve always liked just letting the poppy seeds shine in this one though!
I figured as much, but I think citrus with poppy seed is so ingrained in me that I automatically think of lemon or orange with them. hehehe
Speak not of the devil fruit on this blog! Speak not!
:O
Teehee!
I wish I could be there to celebrate with you on your birthday. Unfortunately, I’ll be in NYC wishing you were with me.
xo
Oh dear love, how I wish for both of those things too! I think that, in lieu of our togetherness, you must pick something delicious on Saturday to eat in my honour. Perhaps, somehow, across the world, I’ll be able to tell at that very moment and will be suffused with delight.
P.S. Two words that should never co-exist in the same sentence: “unfortunately” and “NYC”.
Sounds exactly like the sort of cake I would have had as a child as well … except mum probably would have drizzled a thin lemon glaze over the top (while the cake was fresh out of the oven so that it seeped in, not so that it iced the top).
What a clever mother you have! As a family, we never went for icings/glazes/frostings, but I do like the idea of lemon permeating through this
Maybe you could let stewed prunes permeate through it. That sounds kind of good to me right now…
Stewed prune icing. Hmm. Where there’s a will, there’s a way?
This cake looks amazing – moist, plump and delicious, how could one possibly say no
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh how I love a poppyseed cake! This one is definitely going on my must bake list.
It’s so ridiculously easy too, so I definitely recommend making it! Just make sure you follow my instructions rather than the original instructions, which said to put everything, even the flour, in at once in the electric mixer. Flour go BOOM CLOUD!
That’s a wonderful looking cake. I love poppy seed cake. It’s amazing how this is dairy-free and gluten-free yet it looks ‘normal’! What a great cake to make for someone with intolerances (or even those that don’t!) xx
Teehee, the funny thing is that I’ve always grown up with dairy-free and gluten-free being the “normal”! Definitely delicious to anyone and everyone, though
Oh, we’d better be clear here that I am more wheat-free than gluten-free, which is why I occasionally use/d rye flour. Gluten-free people could not use my rye flour/pure cornflour blend.
Ah, thank you Mum! Well spotted (and clarified)
Coconut flour porridge? Do tell more! You haven’t blogged about such a thing yet, have you?
This cake looks fantabulous.
Well spotted, my dear! It’s just something I’ve been experimenting with lately; trying to decide on the best proportions at present. Incredibly simple, in truth. Are you allowed to have polenta at present?
You are fantabulous.
I always find myself asking for the simplest cake on my birthdays as well! My favourite’s a light pandan chiffon cake!
hehe HAVE FUN THIS WEEKEND! and here’s my early wishes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Oh oh oh oh oh! I adore, heart, love and worship both pandan and chiffon cake, but have never had pandan chiffon cake. In fact, I’ve only had chiffon cake once, when I gallivanted around Sydney (and blogged
) with Helen (Grab Your Fork). I want that cake now 
And thank you!!
Dude, I love prunes too. AND prunes and apricots all stewed together is totally my idea of heaven.
And pears! Pears so goooooooood!
Oh, and cinnamon sticks and star anise, of course.
Poppy seeds are the key ingredient , I love that.
I’ve always been a stewed fruit type of gal but now I’m going on a poppy seed hunt!xx
Oh and Buon Compleanno!
Italian birthday greetings! I’m just the luckiest
P.S. I’m totally now brainstorming adding poppy seeds to stewed fruit.
And of course the Australian Women’s Weekly version is the one with normal flour, milk and butter! I’m thrilled you still like this cake…
I’m thrilled you made it for me as a kid and thereby enabled the long-time lovin’!
Hehe you were such a cute child!
Imagine loving stewed fruit over cake!
Makes perfect sense to me
Oooh yes, I love a good poppy seed cake too. Goes down perfectly with a freshly made cup of tea. Or coffee. Or iced coffee. Wine, for that matter….
Wine and poppy seed cake? Count me in! (Oh, whatever happened to teetotaller Hannah…)
When a cake is that good, it doesn’t need icing anyway. Sometimes fancy is overrated!
Aww. I want to send this recipe to my parents, because my dad loves poppy seed cake!
But what is Nuttelex?!?!?! And there’s *a lot* of Nuttelex in this cake, so it seems to be a key ingredient! 
It’s just a dairy-free butter substitute, so just sub butter or whatever non-hydrogenated margarine your parents like to use
That bread is so perfect looking! Well done
Dear Hannah,
I know I would totally eat this cake because it is light, fluffy and not too sweet.
I love poppyseed cake – not as much as you or other friends of mine but I love seeds in anything so how could this not be excellent. I must hunt out a poppyseed cake recipe I was given years ago which was really really dense.
I’d love to see it! Mum used to (and still sometimes does) make this with her own flour blend of rye and corn flour, and I love how nutty and more dense that one is
I would SO eat that as a birthday cake – yum! Have an amazing birthday weekend!
Thank you Alisa! Right now, all I’m really planning to give myself is the present of permission to stay in bed and read with a cuppa in the morning
Awesome, sounds perfect.
I have a deep love for any food that is basically a bunch of tiny things. Love fish roe for this reason, and peas, and sesame candy. I love that tiny crackling popping sound you can hear in your head when you eat stuff like that, and poppy seeds are THE best for this sensation.
Oooh! I am so completely with you on this, with the one small exception of popping candy. I only love that crackling sensation when it’s under my own control, and not when things are moving in my mouth of their own accord.
What a pretty pretty pretty loaf. I must break away from my baking dry spell and make something already! There are poppy seeds aging in the cupboard…
I want to know more about this trip chocolate brownie pie! It must defy your normal distaste of chocolate desserts, hence, it must be amazing:)
Ah, but here’s the rub: I’m not really interested in the Triple Chocolate Brownie Pie anymore
I’ll talk to my mum about hunting down the recipe for you, though! ‘Cause our mums are both the shiz.
what a gorgeous, simple recipe. I love cake memories
yes, I dare saw you were a little unique for feeling so lovingly for prunes and apricots as a child hehe. bless.
Heidi xo
Yep, I was totally the little girl sitting in my room for hours on end, rereading Girl of the Limberlost with a little snack plate of prunes by my side
xo
I couldnt read past the triple chocolate brownie pie part….*drools*
Honestly, we were a very unique little girl Hannah, i think that is such a wonderful thing
Thanks for sharing yo favourite childhood cake. It’s funny how despite there being a plethora of other amazing cakes, you always go back to the one that reminds you of your childhood. Plus this one would make you feel less guilty about eating!
Nostalgia and happiness are magical like that
Guilt about dessert?! Never! 
Prunes are AWESOME! That is all.
They totally are. And, in high school, I ate them with my morning All Bran. Doing crosswords. And on Saturday, I shall be turning 73.
Feel like making a birthday cacke of that? :p
You ain’t in my city!
*sadface*
But you could email this post to your mama
Indeed!
Yay poppy seed cake. Love poppy seed cakes. And yes, you are unique. :p
Unique like a beautiful and delicate flower that blossoms but once in the icy tundra!
I used to have a soft spot for poppy seed muffins so I am definitely intrigued by this. I remember being scared to eat poppy seeds for awhile because of the whole “you’ll test positive for opiates if you eat them” thing. I used to be so ridiculous (wait, still am). Anyway, this looks delicious and I would totally request something like this for my birthday cake (right after red velvet).
Teehee, that’s like the whole “Cherry Ripes will get you drunk!” moral panic of the 90s here in Australia
I’ve never had red velvet cake. My life is incomplete.
I grew up in a really small town in south Georgia (in the US) and my old-lady neighbour made the BEST poppyseed cakes! I was in awe of her cakes. When we moved we took a copy of her recipe with us. Then, when I was at uni, my mother passed that recipe on to my then-boyfriend-now-husband. He would regularly follow the recipe from my little old neighbour and make me poppyseed cakes which he would mail to me in New York. Poppyseed cake = Happy memories for me!
Oh!! I love this story! Your poppyseed cake story and memories absolutely trounce mine
I need to find a man who’ll bake this for me…
Awww such lovely childhood cake memories
. Definitely a cake make with love 
. I love poppy seeds too so hope to give this a try after exams! My grandma past on a few meat dish recipes to my mother before she passed away but no cakes sadly.
Oh, this would certainly work as a post-exam celebration cake! (Good luck, by the by
) In truth, we ladies probably shouldn’t live on cake and cake alone, so your Grandma was clearly supporting you to live a more balanced lifestyle 
OMG OMG OMG my new colleague is going to love you
because i have been trying to hard to find her gluten and dairy free easy cake recipes ~ and this is perfect woo hoo! Thank you 
can’t wait to try it for her!
Hurrah!! Teehee, this recipe is just kinda a normal cake recipe with gluten/dairy subs, but it definitely works and is super super easy, so I hope she likes it! Do let me know what she thinks if you make it
Mmm what a delicious looking creation. I was just a café that serves a gluten-free loaf that looks very similar to yours! Now, why ever didn’t I try it?
Also, hurray for prunes (although not sure I’d love stewed ones). My coworker used to make the BEST brownies with puréed prunes.
Because you knew, deep down, in your subconscious, that it would be better to make mine. Whole loaf > slice of loaf.
Dude. Stewed prunes sounds so much more enticing than pureed prunes. (And no, I can’t figure out how to add the accent, you clever woman.)
L00ks and sounds yummy. I hope you get the fancy birthday dinner wishes.
I love poppy seed cakes!
gasp! i grew up eating lemon poppy seed cake with homemade lemon frosting. it was delicious!!! ahhh so glad you made a #glutenfree version. this is SO on my to-do list. i’m going to add a touch of lemon zest to give it that lemony flavor that i miss so much!
Teehee, you really are on a lemon poppyseed kick! And kapow! Two options for you!
I was going to ask, bit then the note at the end of the recipe answered all of my questions. At any rate, the cake looks fantabulous, and reminds me that as much as I like them I don’t actually have any poppy seeds in my pantry, which I hope to rectify very soon, and then make this cake – with dairy and gluten, of course.
I am also reminded that I never much liked chocolate as a child SNC never underground why vanilla got such a bad rap. And also of a time in a bakery where my mom would take us after school sometimes, when I asked for the poppyseed muffin, and was corrected by he sales guy, who informed me that since this had icing (cream cheese, yum) it was a cupcake, not a muffin. I’ve never made that mistake again.
But of course, dairy and gluten! I’m quite a fan of the gluten myself, donchaknow.
I’ve spent the past three minutes staring at “SNC”. Is it… “so never could”? That seems to make sense in the context of the sentence. Also, you had such a glamorous childhood! Cream cheese poppyseed cupcakes! I mostly just ate buttered bagels after school…
SNC = and
underground = understood
This is why I hate typing on the ipad.
I kinda liked thinking that you had your own secret language.
Hannah, you talked me into another recipe. I really am enjoying your site and recipes. I made this one for my GF/DF folks. I admit I never used a mixer and used a coconut spread for the fat which was soft enough to allow some arm exercise but the batter was amazingly fluffy and soft. If it tastes as good as it smells–it should be another winner. Thanks for another great DF/GF one for me to try.
hubba hubba….drool…..I loooooooooooooooove poppy seeds!! As soon as I saw the cute little specks of poppy seeds on this beautiful bread I knew I had to click to see the post. Great recipe, and it’s so simple too!
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