Levana's Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Submitted by Mirj2338

"In my never-ending search for orange zest recipes, I came across this one in Levana Kirschenbaum's new book, Levana's Table. It's the most heavenly version of orange poppy seed cake I've seen so far. My only change to the recipe was to move it from the food processor to the stand mixer."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 19mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 14

ingredients

• Cake

• 709.77 ml flour
• 14.79 ml baking powder
• 0.25 ml salt
• 29.58 ml grated orange zest
• 5 eggs
• 354.88 ml sugar
• 236.59 ml vegetable oil
• 14.79 ml vanilla extract
• 177.44 ml orange juice
• 177.44 ml poppy seed

• Syrup

• 59.14 ml orange juice
• 59.14 ml sugar
• 44.37 ml margarine

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. To make the cake: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and orange zest.
3. Set aside.
4. In an electric mixer, combine the eggs and sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Add the oil and vanilla and beat until just combined.
6. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the 3/4 cup orange juice.
7. Mix slightly after each addition, just to incorporate.
8. Add the poppy seeds and mix to incorporate the seeds into the batter.
9. Pour the batter into a greased 10-inch springform pan.
10. Bake for 1 hour, or until the point of a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
11. To make the syrup: While the cake is baking, place the syrup ingredients into a small saucepan and heat until thickened, about 3-4 minutes.
12. When the cake is done, immediately unmold it from the springform pan.
13. Prick it all over with a skewer and brush the syrup all over the top and sides of the cake while it is still hot.
14. The cake will absorb all the syrup.
15. Let the cake cool completely before serving.

Reviews

[Richard-NYC]

Mirj, kisses to Levana for such a great recipe! The orange flavor coupled with the poppy seeds gave this cake its great flavor. On a personal note: Mirj, everytime I "zest" I think of you!

 

[Diane W.]

Absolutely lovely cake -- moist and wonderful -- rave reviews.

 

[yclai]

The directions are easy to follow.The cake is very moist and has great crunch from all the poppy seeds. You should not leave out the syrup - makes the cake moist, tasty and gives it a nice shiny glaze. However even with the syrup, I found the orange flavor too mild so I might double the amount of zest next time and reduce the poppy seeds to 1/2 cup. Thank you for a great recipe.

 

[MoonCookie]

This cake was worth the effort. It is moist, and flavorful. The presentation is wonderful on any table..golden and glazed with a fragrant, fruity aroma. Julie Russo recommends zesting fruit over the bowl in which the batter will be mixed, so that the oil of the fruit will be captured in the batter. This tip really adds flavor, and fragrance.

 

[Sally in Sydney]

Just made this yesterday. An absolute hit! It made an enormous cake but it's nearly all gone! I tried it out on the family as I have to make a birthday cake for someone at work next week. I added a bit extra orange rind and it had a fabulous tangy flavour. The glaze is delicious. I should have put a plate under the cake when glazing it as I lost half the glaze on the bench but it was still moist and yummy. I might make a cream cheese frosting for the birthday cake for appearances sake, but it doesn't really need it for flavour. Definitely keeping this recipe!