Submitted by Sylvia Flores

About the cook: I come from a line of Chef-like women who all friends and family flock to. I am the house where people "conveniently" pop-over with a bottle of wine at right about dinner time, or video call to show how to make anything. I cook with a lot of spice and don't generally follow recipes but make my own!

About the dish: This warm-weather favorite uses nothing but edible flowers, berries, and leaves to adorn it for easily the most simple and dramatic cake you can bring to your next garden party.

National Origin: California

Serves: 12

Estimated Time: 1 to 2 Hours

Ingredients:

You need:
10-15 minutes of prep time
One 10" bundt cake pan
Medium mixing bowl (for wet ingredients)
Large mixing bowl (for dry ingredients)
A whisk or stirring device!
A rubber spatula
A wire cooling rack
A cake plate!
An oven 🙂

Ingredients:
Butter or cooking spray for the bundt pan
Enough Meyer lemons to produce about 1/4 cup of juice, or roughly 4-6 - Meyer lemons - in a pinch you can just use lemons of bottled lemon juice!
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of plain full-fat yogurt (just do it! You'll be so happy!)
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons of poppy seeds
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
About a teaspoon salt

For your garnish!
Strawberries halved
Edible flowers
Additional thin-sliced Meyer lemons if you have them, and their leaves!

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat your oven to the always baking temp of 350 degrees and butter your bundt pan
2. In your medium mixing bowl, squeeze your lemons to get 1/4 cup of juice (and make sure you keep out the seeds!)
3. Add your olive oil, plain yogurt, with the lemon juice and whisk together until smooth and emulsified
4. Now add your sugar, eggs, and poppyseeds to your lemon/yogurt combination and whisk until well combined
5. In your large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
6. Add your medium bowl of wet ingredients to your large bowl of dry ingredients and mix together until incorporated
7. Pour into your prepared bundt pan and place it into your 350-degree pre-heated oven!
8. Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick or knife comes out clean
9. Let the cake cool in the pan for approximately 15 minutes on your wire rack
10. Now, take your wire rack and put it on top of your exposed bundt pan and flip it so that your beautiful Meyer lemon poppyseed cake is sitting display side up and let cool completely, about another 20 minutes
11. Carefully transfer your cake to your cake plate

Now you can decorate! I like to half my strawberries with stems on and place them in the middle of the bundt with edible flowers. I have the food fortune of having a Meyer lemon tree, so I was able to pluck leaves off to make some additional flourishes around the cake plate. It really doesn’t matter how you decorate it – just make sure it looks as if a cake were a garden party.

This cake is so flavorful that it requires no icing. But there are no rules once it’s on your cake plate – because it’s your garden party! 🙂

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