Lemon-Poppy Buttermilk cake

I had leftover buttermilk after making a rich chocolate cake on Monday and went on a recipe hunt on allrecipes.com of course, and came across a buttermilk cake recipe. I modified it slightly, because what I really was in the mood for was a lemon poppyseed cake and just needed a solid cake base that uses buttermilk. This cake is fairly dense, but lighter than a pound cake. With the addition of fresh lemon juice, the cake tastes even lighter. I also like this recipe because it's not too sweet in the end. I opted to not make a glaze for it, but I think a nice tart lemony glaze will be the perfect finish. It also is a good basic yellow cake if you take out the lemon parts and poppy seeds.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted

3 cups white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

6 eggs

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of one large lemon

juice of one large lemon (maybe 4-5 tablespoons?)

1.5 tablespoons of poppy seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and use the residual butter on the paper it came in to grease a bundt pan (this will probably make 2 loaves or maybe 30 muffins).

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar, and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Add in the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, salt, baking soda.

4. Mix in the flour, alternating with the buttermilk

5. Finally, stir in the poppyseeds

6. Bake in preheated oven. This cake takes a while to bake. I never time anything I bake (as many things have been ruined by actually timing it). It will be done when a fork inserted to the top comes out clean.