Lemon Poppyseed Chiffon Cake

The last time I was at the store picking up cake supplies I tossed poppy seed pie filling and lemon extract into my cart.  I figured I could cook up a tasting cake using them.
When cake time came I checked out some recipes online to see what I could come up with and read about chiffon cakes. The combination of batter and foam makes for a spongy and airy cake.  I figured with the dense poppy seed filling this  would be a better direction to go. Because the cake was very dependent on the mixture of fats I decided I was better off following a recipe so I depended on Taste of Home's Lemon Poppy Seed Chiffon Cake with a Lemon Butter Frosting.

I really like whipping egg whites; I love the texture that it makes and the peaks that it forms. this is what my batter looked like after folding in the meringue.

I'm not great at frosting and hope that my technique improves with practice, but here is my amateur job:

I served the cake to my mom and my kids for breakfast and then again in the afternoon for friends.  Everyone liked the cake, even my favorite chocolate lovers.  I would have used about half of the poppy seed filling that it called for... the poppy seeds were just a bit too much.  I would also beef up the amount of lemon flavor in the cake.  But really, the recipe as is was very good, the foam gave the cake a texture closer to an angel food cake, which made for a lighter taste.  Most lemon poppy seed cakes or muffins that I've had were very dense but this was not the case.