Orange Poppyseed Tea Cake

Some days, you just want to bake a cake. But you have to wait till a weekend. And you have to pick a cake that your husband wants, otherwise it won't get eaten, and you'll have a whole cake sitting on your counter that you are not allowed to finish all by yourself. Sometimes you plan on using oranges for a cake, and end up using half oranges and half lemons, due to the selective memory loss of that fore-mentioned husband. You may even send him to knock on doors, looking for spare oranges. There probably won't be any. So the cake will be more of a "mixed citrus" than orange, but it doesn't really matter. That cake will probably be pulled out of the oven a few minutes too early, if you happen to be napping off a strange 24-hour virus and that husband is in charge of judging when the cake is done. You might even have issues making frosting, namely a fear of too much powdered sugar, that leaves you with less-than-gorgeous frosting, but don't worry, it still tastes good!

Orange Poppyseed Tea Cake (adapted from Megann's Kitchen)
Printable Recipe

14 Tb (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup caster/ultrafine sugar
zest from 1 orange
2 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

¼ cup poppy seeds
¾ cup buttermilk plus 2 Tb cream (or full-fat buttermilk, if you can find it!)
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup orange juice
3 eggs, room temperature

Icing:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tb unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1½ - 2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 8-9 inch round cake pan. Combine buttermilk and poppyseeds in a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Set aside. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together, set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and zest until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing till fluffy and scraping down between each. Add vanilla and mix till combined. Add dry ingredients, buttermilk mixture, orange juice, and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 50-60 mins, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in pan on a wire rack.

While the cake is cooling, beat the cream cheese, butter, zest, and vanilla together until smooth. Add powdered sugar ½ cup at a time, mixing slowly at first, continuing until you reach the desired thickness. Frost cake when cooled. 

Yep, me and my frosting paranoia. I never get it thick enough!

This cake has a lovely, homey texture, somewhere between a basic fluffy cake and a pound cake. That's why I called it a "tea" cake, because that's the texture I always imagine! Correct me if I'm wrong :)

Lots of orangey bits all through, crunchy poppy seeds, and just sweet enough. It may not knock your socks off, but it was definitely yummy, and worth sharing!