orange & poppyseed cake with orange vanilla cream cheese frosting

By á-17891

This cake is refreshing & delightful. I decided to gather the best aspects from a few recipes to make a dense cake perfect for an afternoon tea. I love the texture of the cake - it originally was meant to have a syrup poured over it. The cake isn't light & fluffy at all, but full & wholesome. I also adore that the seeds "pop" in your mouth as you bite into it adding a fantastic textural element.

Ingredients

• cake
• 1/4 cup black poppy seeds
• 3/4 cup full cream milk
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 orange rind, zested with a microplane
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• icing
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups of soft icing sugar, sifted
• (taste for sweetness)
• 1 tbs orange rind

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 320 degrees. prepare a 8 in round, lined cake tin. Put the poppy seeds & milk into a jug, stir, then set aside on your workbench to start on the other ingredients. Place the butter, orange rind, vanilla paste & sugar into a bowl, then beat with an electric mixer/beaters until light, creamy & pale in colour. Add eggs, one by one, mixing between each one. Add sifted flour & baking powder, milk poppy seed mixture, orange juice, & mix until ingredients are just combined. Pour into prepared cake tin & bake for 50-60 mins, or until cake tested with a skewer.

While the cake is cooling, prepare your cream cheese icing. Beat the cream cheese, butter & vanilla paste until smooth with electric mixer/beaters. Add icing sugar ½ cup at a time so you don’t end up with one big ‘poof’ of sugar in your kitchen. Finally, add orange rind. Combine.