Nagi's Perfect Orange Poppy Seed Loaf Cake - With Cream Cheese Icing/Frosting

Nagi has done it again.  This is a really easy-to-make, and delicious cake, from her latest cookbook Recipe Tin Eats: Tonight.  Well, we won't talk about the plagiarism scandal again, but the saga continues.  And Nagi (Maehashi) won the Illustrated Book of the Year Award for this book last week, so things seem to be going in her favour.

I love poppy seeds, well all sorts of seeds in fact, so this was a winner for me.  I always thought it was hilarious when they started irradiating (is that the word?) poppy seeds, because apparently the baddies were making drugs out of them.  Really? :=)  Hilarious.  Who knew you could?  

And did you know that here in Tasmania, they grow 50% of the world's opium poppies?  I remember driving past the poppy fields in Tassie one time; the fences were very low, so you could easily hop over them.  I wonder if electric currents would shoot out at you, or crazy guard dogs, if you tried it?  Don't worry; I didn't try it. 

let me at it!

Serves 8-10:

ingredients:

300g./10.6 oz plain flour

2.5 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt (Nagi says cooking salt, but I stick to sea salt flakes)

2 Tbs poppy seeds

2.5 Tbs orange zest (3-4 large oranges)

250 mL/8.5 oz fresh orange juice

185 mL/6.3 oz neutral vegetable oil  (I used grapeseed)

3 large eggs, taken out of the fridge to warm up before using

200g./7 oz caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract/paste

For the cream cheese icing:

100g./3.5 oz soft cream cheese (from the tub, not the block)

190g./6.7 oz soft icing mixture (not icing sugar), sifted, if you can be bothered

1/4 tsp vanilla extract/paste  (but I added more)

2 tsp orange zest (+ extra to decorate, if you fancy)

a handful of flaked almonds (optional) to decorate

orange!

vanilla!

Method:

Turn on your oven to 180C/360F to heat up

Grease your loaf tin (24cm x 13.8 x 7cm) with oil or butter, and line with baking paper   see Notes

Grab a large mixing bowl, and add the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds, and give it a good whisk!  

Now grab a medium mixing bowl, wherein you will place the orange zest, juice, oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla, and whisk this thoroughly

Pour/scrape this wet mixture into your floury mixture, and whisk till lump-less (Nagi says no longer than 10 seconds!!, but I might have been reckless with my 15 second whisking)

Then you pour/spoon your batter into the prepared loaf tin

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or till the skewer comes out clean

Now let it sit in the tin for 10 minutes to relax, then it goes onto a wire rack to achieve zen - and breathe ...

When cool, you want to spread out that icing over the top of the cake

Which is just all the ingredients into a bowl, grab your wooden spoon (you know how I love a wooden spoon, my friends) and ...

Stir together, and slap the mix over the top of the cake (oddly, Nagi gives the full title of the cake here)

Throw on the added orange zest and flaked almonds if using, and serve a slice with a cuppa!

you guessed it :=)

Notes:

This is a regular 9 inch loaf tin, for you Imperial measurements fellas!  Is it rude of me to say how ironic it is that the U.S. still uses imperial i.e. old-fashioned British measurements?

ingredients gathered

whisk your wets

give it a good whisking - watch out for those lumps :)

pour into your prepared loaf tin

beautifully baked

stir up the icing

throw on some almond flakes if you wish

serve with a cuppa

yep poppy seeds