Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake – a teatime treat!

Lemon and poppy seed cake is such a classic and one of my favourite bakes. It’s a cake that’s pretty easy to make and with a lovely drizzle icing, it always looks so homely and delicious. With a celebration in mind I decided to turn a cheery bag of juicy oranges into something a little bit special. It’s a little twist on the original, topped with candied oranges and bursting with sweet citrus flavours – my Orange Poppy Seed Cake is a teatime showstopper!

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day

This Orange Poppy Seed Cake is made with Orange Zest Spice Drops which add a lovely freshly squeezed flavour to all kinds of cakes, bakes and savory dishes. I’d used the spice drops when I made a batch of delicious candied orange slices to decorate the cake with (you can find the recipe here) and also in the Orange Poppy Seed Cake itself.

Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients:
225g soft butter or margarine
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
4 eggs
4 tablespoons of milk
25g poppy seeds
12 drops of orange zest spice drops

For the drizzle icing:
225 g icing sugar
12 drops of orange zest spice drops
Tepid water, added gradually

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180° and grease a deep 20cm cake tin. I usually put a circle of greaseproof baking paper at the bottom to help stop the cake from sticking.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Scrape into your cake tin, smooth the top and pop it in your pre-heated oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Poke it with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked through.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then turn it out put it onto your cake stand or serving dish.

Mix up your icing, drop your orange zest spice drops into the icing sugar and add the water gradually, mixing as you go until you have a drizzle icing of the right consistency – which is loose but not runny. Spread it over the top of the cake allowing some to dribble down the sides of the cake.

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices

Take your candied oranges and slice them in half, fan them around the top of the cake, gently pressing them into the drizzle icing so they stick in position. Now admire your pretty cake and serve with a lovely cup of tea!

If you enjoyed this, you might also like my awesome Turkish Delight Cake.

 

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day