Grandma’s Easy Poppy Seed Cake

/ Jodi

poppy seed cake

As a child, my Grandma made me a poppy seed cake every year for my birthday.   Sound odd?  Well – my birthday is on New Year’s Eve, and who isn’t sugared out by then after all the Christmas cookies and holiday treats?

So this poppy seed cake was always just right – not too sweet – no heavy, sugary icing – just a fun old-fashioned bread-like cake that speaks love to me.

poppy seed cake slice

Marty used to make it for me sometimes through the years; but the older we get, the more I just don’t want anything sweet by my birthday. (Red wine, however, is ALWAYS welcome!) 🙂

So I have had a hankering for poppy seed cake lately, and when I passed a package of poppy seeds in the grocery store yesterday, I just threw them in the cart and came home and baked it!

poppy seed cake 2

Don’t be surprised if it reminds you more of a sweet bread – more like banana bread or zucchini bread. It is yummy for breakfast with coffee or just as a treat.  (And of course it goes well with red wine.  What doesn’t?)

Here’s our recipe:

Grandma's Easy Poppy Seed Cake

  • Servings: One Yummy Cake
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INGREDIENTS:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 cup poppy seeds
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour 10 inch tube or bundt pan.
In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.
Make a well in the center and add eggs, vanilla, oil, and milk.  Mix well.
Fold in poppy seeds.
Pour into prepared pan, and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn onto rack to cool.

When cool, sprinkle generously with sifted powdered sugar.

ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

24 thoughts on “Grandma’s Easy Poppy Seed Cake”

  2. Yum! This sure looks delicious! I have never had poppy seed cake but I have had poppy seed muffins and I loved them. I imagine this tastes the same. Thanks for the recipe! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! It snowed all morning yesterday here and it’s suppose to rain today. I’m sure ready for spring.

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  7. Jodi, what wonderful memories the poppy cake brings. My mother-in-law used poppies all the time. Her cake, keeflies (? spelling), and many dishes were fabulous. Baba was orphaned in Slovakia at a very young age. She was in a Jewish home in Brataslava for many years. They were good to her and paid for her wedding to Dzedo. A Catholic wedding.
    Consequently her meals were quite a mixture of both Religions and Celebrations. Christmas Eve was a gourmet delight. A little bit of Kosher, a little bit of Slovac and some Canadian thrown in.
    Thank you for the recipe. My eldest daughter will bake it ;o). She also does a mean perogy with prunes!!!

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  12. I been trying different versions of this recipe. Tryng to capture my moms lost version. Can find one where you have to separate the eggs and add the poppy seeds to the eggs and beat. She also sifted the flour 3x’s. In short this recipe taste really good. I will make it again while still searching for my moms version.

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