Retro-cool and a touch of nostalgia
There’s something about seed cakes that seem infinitely old-fashioned and comforting to me, especially one cake combination that has stood the test of time and continues to appear in it’s cool kitschy cute way in many a cookbook - that being the orange and poppy seed cake.
This recipe comes from a tiny little recipe book that has been in the family possibly almost as long as I’ve been in Australia, my mother having purchased it in the grocery store when I was just a wee tyke. Never having had an oven before, she was entirely new to the world of baking, and the only recipe she ever tried was for the classic cream sponge, in an attempt to replicate the fresh fruit & cream sponge cakes that are popular in Korea as birthday cakes. This was also the very first book that I baked from, I still remember being all of about 9 or 10 years old and having made my very first cake all by myself from this book, so it has a great deal of sentimental value to me.
The cake itself…well, it’s certainly not the most amazing cake in the world, but I think therein lies its charm - it’s simple and homely and has a bit of an old-fashioned appeal to its appearance. Not particularly moist (though not dry), it’s quite dense in texture but manages a light and fluffy crumb and its delicate orange flavour makes it smell and taste terrific, especially when paired with a mug of earl gray tea.
Sorry for the lack of words and postage but I’m still struggling on the creativity front, and apologies to those of you hanging out for more Asian/Korean recipes - I’ve got a few in the works, and I promise that the japchae recipe will be the next I do! Be warned, it’ll be a wordy one 
Orange Poppy Seed Cake
(adapted from Family Circle Classic Essentials - Cakes)
Ingredients
1/2 cup poppy seeds
2/3 orange juice
185g unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tsp finely grated orange zest (or 2 tsp pure orange extract)
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Buttercream
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
Zest of 1 orange
150g unsalted butter
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper and set aside.
2. Pour orange juice over poppy seeds in a small bowl. Using electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy, then gradually incorporate eggs till well combined. Beat in the rind.
3. Sift the flours together, then use a metal spoon to fold in the flour into the creamed butter alternately with the orange juice & poppy seed mixture till just combined, then spoon into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or till a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To make the buttercream - combine the orange juice and sugar in a small pan and stir over medium heat (without boiling) till the sugar has dissolved. Add the rind and bring to a simmer and leave for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and use tongs to remove the zest and place it on a wire rack to dry. Cream the butter, then slowly add the cooled syrup while beating till the mixture is light and fluffy. Spread over the top of the cooled cake and decorate with the boiled zest.
This isn’t the moistest cake in the world, but despite it’s denseness it is quite light and very soft, and perfect with a mug of earl gray tea 
Technorati Tags: baking, recipes, cake, orange, poppyseed, dessert
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Comments
Lore I love the background story. Sadly I’m not a poppy seeds fan :(, but your pictures look so cute!
michelle @ thursday night smackdown yum - i love lemon and poppyseed, and this sounds just as good. i’m getting very into non-supersweet cakes that lend themselves to tea. and these pics are gorgeous (i found you via tastespotting)!
Mandy wow, you baked at 9-10 years old? As much as I love the visual effect of a poppy seed cake, I haven’t actually baked one before. Have to add this to my "to-bake-list"! Your orange poppy seed cake looks gorgeous!
chiffonade Poppy cakes seem to scream for citrus! I remember a cousin making a lemon poppyseed cake I enjoyed very much. Yours look delish! I also got an early start on baking - earliest scratch baking I can remember was at around 13-14. Full meals came later - at about 18. Haven’t stopped yet!
brilynn Poppy seeds have been floating around my head lately, insisting that I make something with them, this cake looks perfect!
kat Hey kind of random here.. but you know for the macarons recipe, how many sandwiched macarons does it make? thanks in advance!
Deborah Dowd Ellie, this cakes looks so sophisticated and delicious! You are on a baking binge. Hope your mom is doing better.
Katie Its been ages since I’ve had a seed cake. Thanks for reminding me how yummy they can be. Yours looks delicous.
noble pig Okay that has sooo many poppyseeds…it’s for me! Oh, poppyseed cake is one of my all time favs and brings back great childhood memories of poppyseed bread. Thanks for the nostalgia.
Johanna How bizarre - I swear this is the recipe book I was swithering over in a second hand bookstore yesterday! The cake looks like one of the good honest cakes in the book too - I am sure it would go very nicely with a cuppa!
RE your writing block - I suggest you attempt to post with a very short pithy intro - challenge yourself to do it in one sentence perhaps - it might be liberating to feel that you don’t have to write a lot if you don’t want to - your recipes are so good that I am sure they would still be worth reading without a lot of intro (don’t get me wrong, I love your intros but sounds like you need a break) and then you can write more if and when you want to. (admittedly I always write too much and even when I try to keep it succinct I write more than I intend)
kate I made this Saturday and it was delicious. However, someone had eaten the last orange ("what, I didn’t know it was the LAST orange, I just ate an orange!"). So I used lemon and lime zest and skipped the frosting. I also cooked it for 40 minutes and it looked done and I had to go somewhere. But later I realized the center was uncooked. We just cut that part out. So, I am looking forward to doing it again with the icing, orange zest and more cooking time. Yum.
Ellie Linda - Actually, one of the cookbooks gifted to me over Xmas has a recipe with a syrup instead of icing and I’m planning on giving that one a try
Peabody - If you have proper little china teacups, even better!
Virulain - I should think so, caster sugar is just finely ground white sugar
Lore - Sorry to hear about the lack of poppyseed love, but glad you at least like the photos!
JEP - Poppyseeds and citrus are a great combo
Amy - I hope he enjoys it
Michelle - Thanks for stopping by This is definitely one of those not supersweet cakes, but the danger there is that you may be tempted to have more than one slice!
Mandy - By myself, yes I still remember doing it, and making a meringue icing that the family hated (they scraped it off the cake and just devoured the cake on its own, heh!)
Chiffonade - And hopefully you’ll keep going for a long time on
Brilynn - Well I hope you can give it a try
Kat - Errr, sandwiched can be hard - it depends on how large you pipe them and whether all trays are successful as well as whether every cookie can find a matching pair in regards to size :/
Deborah - Thanks for the wishes, she’s all better now
Katie - Thanks hon
Ann - Thank you!
Noble Pig - My pleasure
Johanna - Good tip! I shall have to try that for the next few posts and see whether I get my writing mojo back
Kate - LOL! Well, I’m glad that the cake mostly worked out Hopefully next time you try it, someone won’t have eaten the last few oranges, hehehe!
Oh yum! Orange poppyseed is one of my all time faves. I usually drench it in syrup instead of icing it which makes it lovely and moist.