Soft and tender Orange Poppy Seed Cake topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting. This easy cake comes together in minutes and is perfect for your next celebration!
More one layer cake magic 🌟
You’re going to fall in love with this citrus wonder. A super easy Orange and Poppy Seed Cake that takes only minutes to throw together.
Topping with a thick and creamy orange cream cheese frosting. Perfection!
I’m currently on a poppy seed bender! First, came my Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf Cake and now this orange-flavoured wonder.
I don’t often bake with oranges and now I’m seriously questioning why. They add so much flavour to this gorgeous cake – it’s jumped to the top of my favourites.
It’s the perfect cake to whip out for guests. It looks like a masterpiece but honestly, it’s not hard to make. And just look at that cake to frosting ratio 😍
HOW TO MAKE ORANGE AND POPPY SEED CAKE
- This cake is incredibly easy to make. You only need a bowl and spoon – no electric mixer.
- Start by measuring out your dry ingredients, in this case, plain flour, baking powder and caster sugar. If you don’t have caster sugar, you can use granulated sugar instead.
- Then add your poppy seeds and fresh orange zest.
- Next, we add together our orange juice, eggs, oil and vanilla. I recommend using a neutral oil for this recipe. I usually use vegetable oil, but I’ve also used a light olive oil or you could use grape seed oil.
- I recommend using fresh orange juice and zest as suggested in the recipe for maximum flavour.
- The final ingredients are milk and Greek yogurt. The addition of Greek yogurt ensures your cake has a soft, light and tender crumb. You can also use sour cream instead of Greek yogurt.
- Mix until just combined and then pour into a round baking tin lined with baking or parchment paper.
- Try not to over bake this cake. Every oven is different, so start checking the loaf from about 35 minutes onwards. Insert a knife or skewer into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, you know the cake is ready.
TIPS FOR MAKING ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- You will need a hand mixer or stand mixer to make this frosting. Make sure you use a full fat block of cream cheese – not a light version or the spreadable kind.
- For seriously creamy frosting, make sure both your butter and your cream cheese are at room temperature.
- Once you beat together the butter and cream cheese, you need to add 3 cups of icing sugar.
- Instead of adding milk or cream, we add a tablespoon or two of fresh orange juice – just to make that orange flavour over-the-top.
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Orange and Poppy Seed Cake
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8-10
- Category: Cake
- Cuisine: Australian
Description
Easy one layer Orange and Poppy Seed Cake made from scratch.
Ingredients
Orange and poppy seed cake
- 210 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) plain flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 200 grams (1 cup) caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- Zest of one orange
- 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) Greek yogurt*
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
Orange cream cheese frosting
- 115 grams (1/2 cup or 1 stick) butter, softened
- 250 grams (1 and 1/4 cup) full fat cream cheese, room temperature, roughly chopped
- 375 grams (3 cups) icing or powdered sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- Orange zest to decorate, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Grease and line an 8 or 9 inch round cake tin with baking or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, sugar, poppy seeds and orange zest. Stir briefly to combine.
- In a separate bowl, add orange juice, oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk briefly just to break up the egg yolks.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, along with the yogurt and milk, and gently mix until combined – but be careful not to over mix. Spoon batter into prepared tin.
- Bake cake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the cream cheese frosting, add butter and cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and continue to beat until smooth.
- Add orange juice and mix until frosting is creamy. Taste and add extra orange juice if needed. Generously frost the top of the cake. Scatter over fresh orange zest.
Notes
*You can use sour cream instead of Greek yogurt. This ingredient ensures a soft and tender cake.
Keywords: Orange Poppyseed Cake, Orange Cake
Yum this looks so good – would this recipe work for a double layered cake? Obviously I would need to double batter and also frosting 🙂 but would it hold the weight being softer?
xx
Hi Natalie, I haven’t tried myself but I would say so.
I made this and it’s yum , cake was perfect although the icing…. well it’s about as opposite as you can get to the photo – still tastes great but any idea what went so wrong I used correct ingredients !
★★★★★
Hi Jennie, so glad you enjoyed the cake! What was wrong with your icing? I have heard that it can be hard to find regular cream cheese in the UK (rather than the spreadable kind).
I never realised that cream cheese in the USA is so different so that explains a lot and why my red velvet cream cheese frosting never looks like the pics ! Oh well I have enough icing to make another cake ! I’ll have to seek out an alternative version with uk ingredients next time – thanks for replying and I’ve learnt something new !
Jennie
Hi Jennie, yes I’ve gotten a few comments about it. Here in Australia and the USA, cream cheese is sold in a block and is much more firm in consistency than spreadable cream cheese. I’m sure you can find something similar in the UK, maybe it’s under a different name?
I used chia seeds instead of poppy seeds… I didn’t change anything else 🙁
Hmm well if it didn’t rise, it might be that your baking powder is expired.
Hi there, I tried this recipe and my cake didn’t rise very well, it became very dense…
On the second attempt I used cake flour, it was a little better but it isn’t fluffy either..
May I know what might be wrong?
Thank you
Hi Petrina, I’m sorry to hear that. The cake should be lovely and soft thanks to the oil and the yogurt. Did you change anything in the recipe?
Hi, this looks amazing! Just wondering what changes you’d recommend to make this into cupcakes instead?
Hi Charlotte, you could definitely make this cake into cupcakes. The only change would be the cooking time!
So easy to make and super delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it Sophie!
Wow this turned out great! I even cut back the sugar by half and put chia instead of poppy seeds (I didn’t have any) and it was still amazing 🙂 Thank you Jess!
★★★★★
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it Elena!
Hi can I add more orange juice?
Hi Sharini, you could add a little more but I’d stick to the recipe if you can! It has plenty of orange flavour.
This looks absolutely delicious
Thank you!