ORANGE & POPPY SEED CAKE

This recipe came about after a visit to Sheffield Park in East Sussex with my grandma. It is so beautiful & peaceful there & we had such a lovely morning.

After walking round the gardens we went into the Tea room & they had an orange & poppy seed cake on the counter which looked pretty delicious. I vaguely remembered I had a recipe for Orange & Poppy seed cake in my recipe book, so when I got home I dug it out to have a look.
Confession: I'm useless at following other people's recipes. I always mess around with them so much they end up completely different to what they were supposed to be, so I've given up trying!
Hence my recipe book is full of pictures with no actual details on how to make - in this case - an Orange & poppy seed cake. So I found this picture with no recipe & this is what I came up with.

150g doves farm gluten free self raising flour (or the mix from this book with with an extra teaspoon of baking powder)
100g caster sugar
50g poppy seeds
grated zest of one organic orange
juice of 1/2 organic orange (or one whole tangerine or clementine)
2 tablespoons thick natural yogurt, double cream or vegan yogurt
3 eggs
125g sunflower spread (I use Flora)
1 teaspoon of gluten free baking powder (if the mix you're using does not have it added).

BUTTER CREAM ICING
100g unsalted butter
150g icing sugar
juice of 1 orange

(If you want to make this cake dairy free, instead of the butter cream icing just use plain icing sugar mixed with some orange juice, or for a less sugary version, just dust with icing sugar.)

Preheat oven to 180c

to start with if you're making the butter cream icing - take your butter out of the fridge & leave at room temperature so that its soft by the time you are reading to make the icing.

1 Beat the eggs together. Put the flour, sugar, sunflower spread, orange juice, beaten eggs & baking powder, into a mixing bowl or a blender & mix together until you have a smooth batter.

2 Stir in the yogurt/ cream/ soy yogurt, then mix in the poppy seeds & orange zest.

3 Pour into a prepared cake tin - the one I have is about 7 inches. (To prepare the tin you can either lightly grease with butter or oil or line it with baking paper.)

4  Bake for about 40 mins until the top of the cake is firm & golden brown.
(this timing is just a guide as I find different ovens vary - and also the size & shape tin you use. ie the thinner the cake the quicker it'll cook - )
If you're not sure if it's done a skewer poked into the centre of the cake should come out clean (no uncooked cake mix on it).
5 When the cake is cooked, Turn it out onto a wire cooling rack & leave to cool.

When the top of the cake is cool to the touch, beat together the unsalted butter, icing sugar & orange juice until you have a nice smooth consistency.
Spread the butter cream over the cake. I decorated it with some grated orange zest from an organic orange.