Orange, Poppy Seed and White Chocolate Cake for a Significant Birthday

Time to visit the land of the Hampshire Hogs. It was my mother in law’s 80th Birthday and a cake was called for. She has quite a sweet tooth and is not a fan of dark chocolate so when I saw a recipe for orange poppy seed cupcakes in the Australian book High Tea; recipes with a sense of occasion, I decided to adapt this into cake form with the addition of white chocolate, both in the cake batter and the buttercream.

When it came to decorating, I wanted something simple with the numbers 8 and 0 standing out boldly. CT cut some templates for me out of greaseproof paper with the idea of laying them over the cake and scattering bling over the rest. A good idea, but sadly, this didn’t have quite the desired effect and the figures were a little hard to decipher. One wag likened it to a face with a moustache – it wasn’t meant to be an advertisement for Pr**gles, you know, but I was hoping that just like the tubular snacks, once this was started, we’d be unable to stop.

This is how I made:

Orange, Poppy Seed and White Chocolate Cake

• Measured 150ml sour milk into a jug and added 40g poppy seeds. Stirred and left for a while.
• Melted 40g vanillary white chocolate in a bowl over hot water, then left to cool a little.
• Creamed 150g unsalted butter with 170g caster sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the grated zest of an organic orange.
• Beat in the white chocolate.
• Beat in 2 duck eggs, one by one.
• Sifted in 190g self-raising flour and stirred this in as gently as possible.
• Gently stirred in the milk and poppy seeds until just incorporated.
• Divided the batter between two 20 cm silicone moulds and baked at 180°C for 25 minutes when the cakes were well risen and a cake tester came out clean.

• Melted 60g white chocolate in a bowl over hot water, then left to cool a little.
• Creamed 250g unsalted butter together with 300g icing sugar and the grated zest of an organic orange.
• Beat in 1 tbsp orange liqueur.
• Beat in the white chocolate.
• Sandwiched the cakes together with a good thick layer, then spread the rest over the top and sides.

We enjoyed our trip to Hampshire and the cake withstood the journey undamaged, despite some very rough weather. The recipient was delighted with her birthday treat, enjoying its sweetness, flavour and the interesting texture derived from the poppy seeds. We must have enjoyed it too, as there wasn’t a crumb left by the time we made our departure. Oh and by the way, she spotted the 80 immediately – phew!

O is for Orange in this month’s AlphaBakes, so a virtual slice of this orange, poppy seed and white chocolate cake is being sent over to Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker c/o CT’s mum.