While I’m on about cooking. I did wind up making that poppy seed cake (see the photo). It wasn’t the same as the one I was trying to replicate and not close enough to even just omit the sour cream topping, but it was quite tasty. Sadness, the search must passively continue.
(I am on the look out for a recipe for a poppy seed cake that is really dense poppy seeds with almost a pie crust on the top it is semi-sweet, quite moist but not airy. A cafe I sometimes frequent makes it, I should probably just ask for the recipe, but I kind of doubt they’ll go ahead and give it to me.)