"if that's a pound cake, this is a tonne cake"

I made a cake for my Mum's birthday this weekend, using this Lemon Poppy-Seed Layer Cake recipe from a Traditional Home magazine (as per her request).  I thought the flavor combination of lemon, coconut, and poppy-seed would make for a nice light dessert to suit the improving weather.

Unfortunately the post title pretty much sums up my emotions towards the final product.  I was a bit disappointed with this recipe!  It was sooooooo dense, and it only got worse the longer I kept it in the fridge. I've come to the conclusion that this is because of the buttermilk, so in future I would omit it completely (perhaps substituting for 2% milk or whipping cream).

I slaved over this cake for houurrs (it definitely looked nice when I was done!).  If you follow the recipe link you might notice that there is no recipe for the icing.  I therefore had to go on a mad hunt to find one and landed on this Canadian Living recipe, which involved egg whites and had no icing sugar (!?).  I've never seen icing made like this before, but as I'd already given up my entire day on this cake I thought I'd try it.  In the end I found it tasted very much like regular icing (and maybe ever so slightly healthier? ...a girl can dream).  It was possibly my favorite part of the cake!

I would love to try this cake again at some point and see if I could make a lighter version.  After all the idea of coconut and lemon does sound wonderful!

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