Lemon & Poppyseed Cake

I love this recepie as it's so simple and very tasty. There are a number of ways to present it, alone, warm with ice-cream, butter cream or icing topped or spiked with alcohol.

1. 1

   1) Pre-heat the oven to 180/350/gas 4. Grease and line a loose bottomed 8" round tin.
   2) Beat the room temperature butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.
   3) Gently fold in the ground almonds, flour, poppy seeds, lemon zest and juice until combined.
   4) Spoon into the tin, levelling the surface and bake for approx 40 minutes or until golden. You can check with a tooth pick if need be.
   5) Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then, if your spiking with lemon drizzle do this while still warm in the tin, otherwise you can turn out and cool completely to use alone or with lemon icing etc.
   
   Lemon Syrup:
   1) Heat lemon and sugar in a pan until sugar is dissolved
   2) While the cake is still warm and in the tin, spike lots of holes with a cocktail stick over the surface and pour the cooled liquid over the cake slowly, covering the whole surface.
   
   Lemon Icing:
   1) Using a large bowl and a fork slowly mix the sifted icing sugar with the lemon zest and juice until the right consistency and use to top the cake when completely cooled.