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.
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.
Kate@whatkatebaked
11th November 2013 at 8:44 pmWhat a delightful cake for a very special birthday- I love all the bling!
Foodycat
11th November 2013 at 9:38 pmI love how the 80 looks. Very subtle!
Janine
11th November 2013 at 9:54 pmThe cake looks fantastic! Decorating it like that was a great idea.
Baking Addict
12th November 2013 at 12:21 amWhat a gorgeous cake. I think the decoration is fantastic and the flavours sound amazing. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.
Jo
12th November 2013 at 1:14 amI really like the decorations and spotted the 80 immediately in your photos. I don’t think I’ve ever paired white chocolate with orange before but love lemon and white chocolate so I can imagine it will be equally as tasty.
Johanna GGG
12th November 2013 at 5:22 amI confess I didn’t spot the 80 until I read the text but I did immediately love the sound of the flavours (and isn’t that the important bit) – sounds like a great celebration cake
belleau kitchen
12th November 2013 at 11:27 amoh I so want to see inside… it looks so beautiful and such lovely icing… It reminds me of those colour-blind tests they used to show you as a kid!… beautiful!
Susan
12th November 2013 at 8:24 pmAwwww she must have been made up with it as its so nice 🙂
Alida
12th November 2013 at 8:31 pmYour mother in law is lucky! This is a fab cake and an interesting combination of flavours. I really like white chocolate. Bookmarking. Thank you Choclette.
Sara @ Babucho
13th November 2013 at 9:38 pmThe cake looks great, love the sound as well, orange, poppy seed and white chocolate just sounds great together.
Charlene F
14th November 2013 at 10:05 pmYour cake looks stunning x
Caroline
18th November 2013 at 8:58 amWe’ve had two entries using orange and poppy seeds for Alphabakes this month – a combination of ingredients I’d never have thought of, but it must be good! This cake looks lovely, thanks for entering Alphabakes.
JaynesDen
19th November 2013 at 1:35 pmA stunning cake. It must have tasted amazing, drool !
prwilson
27th December 2013 at 1:00 amLooks lovely.