My Version of Birthday Cake

There’s been a lot of birthday and party talk lately since both Sara’s and my girls have birthdays this month. I’m still in denial that my baby is going to be turning one! It’s such a precious time watching them grow in that first year but it’s also been so sweet to watch my girls interact more. By interacting I mainly mean screaming at the top of their lungs and then laughing about it. Oh girls.

Anyway along with not doing big birthday parties growing up in my family, we also didn’t have the usual birthday cakes either. My mom quickly learned that none of us really loved a regular birthday cake with an inch of frosting so it seemed pointless spending the time to make one and then have tons of leftovers that no one wanted. So instead we started a tradition where we just asked for our favorite dessert and in my family there a MANY! One of the big hits for birthdays is a Lemon Poppy Seed cake which I’m sharing with you today. The other is a Chocolate Eclair cake we’ll get to another time. Both are so so good and what is that word I seem to always be using? Oh yes, easy!
This Lemon Poppy Seed cake is great because it’s one of those recipes where you just dump everything in a bowl, mix and bake while the result is a moist and delicious cake. I also need to give a big shout out to my husband who finished this cake and took the pictures as I stuck the cake in the oven right before I was headed out to watch the General Women’s Meeting last weekend. It was a beautiful meeting with such a sweet and important message of lifting each other up as women through serving and befriending one another. If you missed it and are wanting some great inspiration you can watch it HERE.
Now let’s get to the recipe.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
1 Yellow cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup poppy seeds
Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together. It’s kind of a thick batter so I used my electric beaters.

Spray a bunbt cake pan with cooking spray and then coat it lightly with flour to insure the cake doesn’t stick to the pan.

Pour the cake batter into the floured bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until cooked through. Once the cake is done let is cool for 5 minutes before removing it from the pan. In the mean time, mix together lemon juice and powdered sugar to make a pour-able glaze. (Tip: Start out with just a little bit of lemon juice, maybe 2 Tbsp while making the glaze.) Lastly drizzle the glaze over the cake using a spoon.

I’ll just pretend that I didn’t eat half of this cake by myself before I decided to get a grip and froze the rest of it. It’s still taking me some effort not to go get it out of the freezer!
Anyone else have some special birthday treats besides the usual birthday cake?

4 thoughts on “My Version of Birthday Cake

  • Commented 10 years ago

    Lydia, I use my bundt pan for some many things and I feel like bundt cakes are SO moist! I say buy it asap 🙂

  • Commented 10 years ago

    What a wonderful cake!!
    I can almost smell the aroma 🙂

  • Commented 10 years ago

    yummy. i’ve always wanted to get a bunt cake ring pan, but those photos are really inspiring me to do it.

  • Commented 10 years ago

    This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it!

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