Continuing with the orange theme, this bundt cake caught my eye. I already have a great lemon poppy seed bread (cake, really) and the thought of something similar featuring orange appeals to me.

Orange Poppy Seed Cake
From Gourmet's Best Desserts

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup poppy seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 tablespoon grated orange rind
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
  

Directions:

• Butter and flour your bundt pan.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Beat in the sour cream, poppy seeds, orange juice, orange rind, and vanilla.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to the egg mixture and combine well.
• Pour the batter into your pan.
• Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted halfway comes out clean.
• Cool 5 minutes then invert onto a rack to cool completely.
• Dust the cake with sifted confectioner's sugar and garnish it with additional poppy seeds.

About this recipe: with one mixer and one bowl you can put together this batter in a matter of 15 minutes, 10 if you're quick. Creaming the butter and sugar needs no description. 1 tablespoon of orange rind is about the rind you'll get off 1 large orange. I juiced my orange for the 1/4 cup fresh orange juice and happily got slightly more than that out of my very nice and sweet fruit. The mixture looks a little curdled since you add a lot of wet ingredients before adding the flour mixture in the last step. Once added, it becomes a decidedly cohesive batter generously peppered with black poppy seeds.

I find it interesting that you add both orange rind and vanilla. I'll be interested to see if the vanilla is discernible above the orange and how it adds to the overall flavor. I opted for my mini-flour bundt pan which has 6 1-cup wells. This batch made a perfect amount to fill the 6 without any left over. The other thing I realized while mulling over my pan selection is that I don't own a full sized bundt pan of any kind! I will have to fill this gap as soon as possible.

The result: this cake has a really nice texture. I love the snappiness of the poppy seeds--with 1/3 of a cup they're everywhere. The orange flavor is very nice and dominates but the vanilla shows up in the background. If I were to make this again, I think I would try it without the vanilla. I think it competes with the freshness of the orange and gives it a store bought flavor that I don't care for. The recipe for lemon poppyseed cake is a family favorite, all star, and it only uses the rind for flavoring so I'm certain this cake could be improved to be a 4 star recipe.