Polish "Baba" - Easter Cake

I think I may have the best family in the world. OK, so my parents used to forget to pick me up from school, argue constantly and have some consistency issues, but they sure are making up for it now that we are all grown up. On Sunday, they drove up from Eastbourne in order to help me sort me garden out, knowing that I would be incapable of doing this myself or even considering doing it at all. Mum brought this beautiful "Baba", which is a typical cake for Easter. We're going away on holiday this year, but I guess she couldn't quite forgo making it

Even though this is one cake that must be on every table in Poland at Easter time, it's an extra special version, because even though you can have many delicious flavours of "Baba", this one has three distinct sides to it. It's sweet but not sickly, both lemony and chocolaty, with poppy seeds providing an interesting texture and nuttiness. Each mouthful is different, therefore this is the perfect cake for people who want to both have their cake and eat it

Ingredients

300g plain flour

250g butter

8 Tblsp Olive oil

5 eggs

250g icing sugar

1 tsp light vinegar

2 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup poppy seeds

2 tsp vanilla essence

Juice of 2 lemons

Mix the softened butter with the egg yolks and icing sugar. Once this is smooth, start adding the flour (which has been previously mixed with the baking powder), followed by the vinegar, oil and vanilla essence, mixing all the time. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add them too. Now, split this mixture into three - into one add the cocoa, into the other two the poppy seeds and juice of 1 lemon respectively. Take the "Baba" mould and butter it. First pour in the lemon mixture, then the chocolate, and finally the poppy mixture. Bake for 40min at 180 degrees C. Make the icing by mixing some icing sugar with the juice of 1 lemon and ice whilst the cake is still warm. Cool and enjoy with family and friends