Dairy and Gluten Free
Lemon Poppy Seed Dessert Cake
We owned a Cafe for years and this was our most popular dessert or cake depending on how we made it.
It is gluten and dairy-free and can be made in an instant pot.
It is rich, moist, really delicious, and served with coconut dairy-free yogurt on the side it is just divine.
Why Make Lemon Poppy Seed in a Pressure Cooker?
We were experimenting and one of the things we have found is that cake recipes need to be changed slightly for cooking in a pressure cooker – they come out more dense and moist. This was one of our favorite cakes and we wanted to see if we could make it in the instant pot.
The Lemon flavor is presented strongly in this dessert because of how we prepare the lemons
This dessert can be easily frozen.
Key Ingredients and Comments for Preparation
Lemons
Lemon seeds, if you can locate a local variety of lemon without too many seeds or pips as they are sometimes called. It will make the lemon preparation a little easier. Just not so many to take out.
How to Intensify the Flavor
If you make the mix and all the ingredients and then refrigerate overnight the flavor is intensified.
Dessert Cake
We call this a dessert cake because you get the true flavor of the lemons – so adding a side of gluten-free yogurt makes this a delicious dessert that everyone likes. You only need small portions so this cake lasts well.
Lemon Poppy Seed Dessert Instant Pot
Ingredients
- Lemons – boiled/pressure cooked and prepared
- 8 oz Ground almonds 230g
- 8.8 oz Sugar 250 g
- 7 Egg 10.9 oz 310g
- 0.52 oz Baking Powder. 15g
Instructions
- Pressure cook 7-8 lemons for 10 mins on high pressure with 3 cups of water
- Allow the lemons to cool and deseed
- Blitz the lemons with a stick blender until a smooth consistency
- Add the eggs and the sugar and mix on high speed for 5 minutes until the mix turns white and has a ribbon consistency when dribbling back into the bulk mix. That is you can see it from a line on top of the wet mix for a few seconds before it disappears.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix on high for 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to make sure all is mixed and remix if necessary
- Prepare and line the cake tin with baking paper
- Pour in the mix no more than 75 percent full
- Cover the top of the dessert cake with tin foil
- Lower into the instant pot and cook for 90 mins on high pressure on the trivet and approximately 2 cups of water
- Use Quick pressure release and take care the steam is dangerous
- Take out and check the cake cooked by putting a skewer in the middle and check that it comes out dry
- Let the cake cool and then move to a plate for decorating as you like
Notes
Nutrition
Lemon Preparation
Prepare the lemons by cooking on high pressure for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water – allow natural pressure release.
Let them cool before de-seeding
Boil The Lemons 
Cut a round parchment paper circle for the base of the tin
Prepare the Cake Tin
This makes it so much easier for the dessert to come out. Line the bottom and sides of the cake tin with baking paper.
Deseed the Lemons
Over a sieve and bowl deseed the lemons by hand.
After that, you then blitz the lemons with a stick blender until they are in a paste form.
See the video.
Deseed the lemons 
Add the wet ingredients for lemon cake
Mix the Eggs and Sugar
Mix the eggs and sugar on high speed till the color changes to white.
Watch our 2-minute video and you will see the correct consistency.
Stop Mixing The Eggs
When the mix turns white and it just drizzles off the mixer paddle you can stop mixing – it takes approximately 5 minutes on high speed.
Put mix in cake tin for lemon dessert 
Mix till white
Combine all Ingredients and Mix
The next step is to combine all the ingredients and mix at high speed for a further one to two minutes.
Scrape down the side of the mixing bowl with a spatula or similar to ensure nothing is stuck to the sides – remix if necessary.
Then add to the cake tin – to approximately 75% full.
Final Steps
Cover the top of the dessert cake with tin foil.
Lower into the instant pot and cook for 90 mins on high pressure on the trivet and approximately 2 cups of water
Take out and check the cake cooked by putting a skewer in the middle and check that it comes out dry.
Here is a picture of the cake that has been cooked for 90 minutes on high pressure with quick pressure release at the end. (keep hands away from the steam)
Cooked lemon cake 
Lemon poppy seed cake
Dress the Lemon Poppyseed Dessert
We have topped the cake with icing sugar and candied lemons.
(We will post a lesson on how to prepare candied toppings soon)
See our really nice Instant pot carrot cake recipe.
