Poppyseed Cake Showdown or "How Butter can do you in"

I count myself lucky that I don't have any allergies, don't have to "count carbs" or "watch my salt". And even though I will try anything once, there are a handful of foods I won't be trying twice. For whatever reason they just don't agree with me. 

During my internship, the hospital where I worked had an Au Bon Pain, and my partner and I would often split a pastry after a long day. It was so interesting to me how both of us would have GI symptoms with the same certain pastries. I have noticed that processed foods, saturated fats and hydrogenated oils in particular, are more likely to cause problems. Just one more reason to eat healthy, fresh foods! 

Unfortunately, these lemon poppy seed bars are in the second category of "never again", however delicious they might be. My friend actually used the wrong recipe when she went grocery shopping, and I thought we could go ahead and make it since we had the ingredients. But now that I sit down and compare the "Lemon poppy seed bars" to the "Banana poppy seed cake" we were planning to make, I see what did me in - the butter. The lemon cake has an entire cup of butter, 8 times as much butter as the banana cake. That's an extra 103 g of saturated fat per recipe because of butter. So although these lemon poppy seed bars are pretty darn tasty, I won't be making them again any time soon.

Lemon Poppy Seed Squares 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

1 2.2 oz bottle of poppy seeds (approx 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup whole milk

juice and zest of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup lemon juice) 

1/2 tsp lemon extract

seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Mix the above ingredients together and set aside 1 cup of flour.

1 cup almond flour 

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 

1/8 tsp salt

Mix the above dry ingredients together and set aside. 

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix just until completely blended. Pour the batter into a greased 9x13 cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and then put a thick layer of lemon glaze over the entire cake.

Lemon Glaze

2 cups confectioner's sugar

juice of 1 1/2 to 2 lemons

Mix the sugar and lemon together until you get a spreadable glaze. Add more lemon or more sugar to get the right consistency. 

Recipe from: http://theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.com/2012/09/lemon-poppy-seed-squares.html

Allergens: Milk, eggs, wheat, gluten, nuts

Nutrition (1/12 pan): 431 calories, 24 g fat, 11 g sat fat, 89 mg cholesterol, 198 mg sodium, 86 mg potassium, 50 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 38 g sugar, 7 g protein, 13% vitamin A, 5% vitamin C, 7% iron, 13% calcium, 10% phosphorous, 24% manganese