German Poppy Seed Streusel Cake

Time for a new cake recipe again! This time we tried something entirely new, using poppy seeds to make this German poppy seed streusel cake.

We didn’t want to go for the prepared poppy seed filling you can buy in stores so we made it ourselves. Of course you can find the steps below as well.

The result turned out very beautiful as you can see and this cake is a beautiful addition to our recipe collection as well as every Sunday coffee table. Classic and never out of fashion.

In Germany, it is called Mohnkuchen: it is a combination of poppy seeds (Mohn) and cake (Kuchen).

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

In about 8 hours you will be able to enjoy your very own German poppy seed streusel cake.

Total ingredients

You will have a german poppy seed cake with streusel on top of about 1.735 g.

Difficulty

As we are going to cook the poppy seed filling by ourselves instead of using a finished store bought one and we have various different steps in this recipe, this one is placed in the advanced difficulty.

Baking tools

You will need a 26 cm springform pan, hand mixer, 2 bowls and a pot. Also if you want you can check out our list of baking tools we are constantly using.

Steps

1. Mix – Dough

• Melt the butter and put aside to cool down a bit
• Rinse the lemon under hot water and dry it off
• Grate the zest and mix it with the sugar using dough hooks
• Separate the egg, add the egg yolk to the mixture and put the egg white aside for later use
• Afterwards add the melted butter, all-purpose flour and salt and mix until fully incorporated

2. Coat Springform Pan

• Grease a 26 cm springform pan with butter on bottom and all sides
• Take the dough and divide in half
• Put one half aside and use the first one for coating the springform pan
• Press the dough into the bottom of the baking pan tightly
• Tip: A measuring cup can come in handy for pressing the dough down

3. Cook filling

• Stir 150 g milk with both instant vanilla pudding mix packages with a whisk to a smooth consistency
• Pour the rest of the milk (600 g) in a pot, add the sugar and bring it to the boil
• After it starts boiling, remove the pot from the heat
• Add the milk vanilla mix and poppy seeds to the pot
• Place the pot back on the stove and let it simmer for about 1 minute while constantly stirring
• Afterwards remove the pot from the heat again and allow the vanilla pudding poppy seed mixture to soak for 5 minutes

4. Beat Egg White

• Take the previously separated egg white and beat it until stiff peaks form
• Carefully fold in the egg white into the filling
• Pour the whole filling into the baking pan on top of the dough

5. Crumble Streusel

• Create streusel by taking the other half of the previously made dough into your hand and crumble it over the poppy seed filling in the baking pan

6. Bake

• Preheat oven to 170°C (338°F) for ~20 minutes with the circulating heat function
• Put the baking pan in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 55 to 60 minutes
• After baking take your finished German poppy seed streusel cake out immediately

7. Cool

• Place the cake on the counter and let it cool for about 3 to 4 hours
• Afterwards put it in the fridge and let it chill for another 3 to 4 hours so the filling is completely set
• Tip: Store the cake in the fridge until you finished it

8. Powder

• Take your German poppy seed streusel cake out of the fridge and remove the outer ring of the springform pan
• Sift the powdered sugar on top of the cake as you please

Conclusion

Taste

This German poppy seed streusel cake is a perfect match of different textures. The cake base is firm and a bit crunchy while the poppy seeds filling is soft, moist and a little jelly-like. The top of the cake, the streusel, are very crunchy again.

The level of sweetness is lovely balanced throughout the cake. It is not too much and not too little and brought to perfection thanks to the powdered sugar on top.

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