My mother and her best friend Debbie sent me this recipe several months ago declaring it was the best cake they have had in a long time. I believed them but hadn’t had the right time to make it until this weekend when my dear friends Masha and Aaron invited me over for dinner. Remembering that Masha loves sour cream so much she can eat it by the spoonful, I thought this cake frosted in a mixture of whipped cream and sour cream was perfect. I was unsure exactly what “clabber frosting ” really was. It turns out clabber “is a food produced by allowing unpasteurized milk to turn sour at a specific humidity and temperature” according to Wikipedia. I’m pretty sure that is what sour cream is – but I’m not positive. Either way, this mixture is an interesting and less sweet frosting – which is surprisingly more refreshing than the typical butter cream. You can eat a much bigger piece of cake because it is less sweet and filling … although I’m not sure that is a good thing.

My mom and Debbie were right, this cake is a keeper.

Debbie’s Favorite Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Ingredients cake:
3 C cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C unsalted butter
2 C granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 C buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP lemon zest
1 bottle of poppyseeds

Ingredients filling:
6 TBSP unsalted butter
1 1/2 C confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest

Ingredients clabber frosting:
1 1/2 C sour cream
1 1/2 C heavy cream
6 TBSP granulated sugar

Cake – Preheat oven 325 degrees. Butter/flour two 9-inch cake pans and line with
parchment. In 1 bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. In other bowl, cream
butter, sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour mixture in 1/3’s alternating with
buttermilk. Fold in vanilla, lemon zest, and poppyseeds. Put it in two cake pans. Drop
pans to get air bubbles out. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Take out and let cool. Take off
parchment.

Filling – Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Add sugar, salt, lemon juice
and zest and whisk until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Remove
from heat and let totally cool.

Frosting – Combine cream, sour cream, and six TBSP sugar and whip to fluffy.

To put cake together – After completely cool, put down first layer, smear all lemon filling.
Put second layer and frost.

That’s it! Piece of cake!