Sticky Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

My mother and her boyfriend Wolfgang came over yesterday. They brought two boxes full of plants and herbs for my balcony. My mum really has a talent when it comes to gardening and decorating and she turned my balcony into a green and cosy spot again. I had prepared a cake which we enjoyed with a cup of coffee out on my balcony after we were done with our spring-cleaning. The interesting thing about this cake is the addition of ground rolled oats which sounds somewhat strange at first but totally works in the end. Flavour-wise it's like a typical lemon cake but a tad more... hm, let's say fuller or "rustic" which, I think, is due to the oats. The texture of this cake is wonderfully moist and sticky. A perfect cake to go with your afternoon tea or coffee.

Recipe
(from the lovely Technicolor Kitchen. Patricia's got it from the fabulous "Short and Sweet" by Dan Lepard... just can't go wrong with a Dan Lepard recipe!)

224g sugar

127g butter, softened

100ml canola oil

finely grated zest of 3 lemons

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

60ml hot water

250g all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

75g rolled oats, finely ground in a food processor

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Syrup:

150g sugar

100ml lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 20cm square cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar with the butter, oil and lemon zest until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Whisk the hot water into the egg mixture until smooth, then fold in sifted ingredients, the oats and the poppy seeds. Pour into the prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes, or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. With my oven, it took 35 minutes only, so you might want to keep an eye on your cake after half an hour or so...

As soon as the cake is out of the oven, make the syrup: heat the sugar with the lemon juice until dissolved, poke a skewer deep into the cake dozens of times, then spoon all the syrup over the top. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack.