If you’re looking for a light treat that looks great on the table –but doesn’t take too much time to make– this is it. All this cake needs is a little powdered sugar on top to bring some rustic glamour to your brunch, tea or coffee.

The base is formed by a classic sponge cake [or, in Dutch, biscuit cake], which is very light & fluffy and doesn’t contain fats like butter or oil. The most important factor in the preparation is handling the egg whites and yolks separately, so you can beat in as much air as possible. As long as you keep the yolks out of the whites, you’re golden!

Ingredients:

5 large eggs, separated

150 g granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar / 3 drops vanilla extract

125 g plain flour

pinch of salt

grated lemon zest – to taste, but at least from 1 lemon

poppy seeds – to taste (and tasting the batter is fortunately not too unpleasant)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy (and tripled in volume), and add the vanilla & lemon zest
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to a fluffy foam.
4. Gently spoon together the mixtures, add the flour and salt (through a sieve) and also gently spoon the flour into the mixture. Make sure it is mixed thoroughly, but try to work the batter as little as possible to keep in the air bubbles.
5. Poor the mixture in the (buttered) bundt cake pan.
6. Bake for about 25 minutes.
7. When finished, the cake should feel elastic and a toothpick should come out clean.