Learn how to make the best orange poppy seed cake with this easy recipe. This glazed orange cake is made with sour cream, loaded with poppy seeds, and brushed with orange syrup for a fun twist on the classic lemon-poppy seed flavour combination.
The combination of citrus and poppy seeds is a classic for a reason. In cookie form, these lemon poppy seed cookies are thick and chewy cream cheese sugar cookies flavoured with lots of lemon zest and poppy seeds.
This orange loaf cake is one of my favourite cakes to make in the dead of winter because it is simple and bright, and an all-around lovely orange tea cake to serve in the afternoon! I find this recipe is a little more manageable for a weekday bake than this orange cranberry bundt cake, for example, which is much larger.
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Ingredients to Make a Glazed Orange Cake
The beauty of loaf cake recipes like this one is that you probably have everything you need to make this right now. Here's a rundown of the ingredients:
- sugar—you will need granulated sugar for the cake batter and the orange syrup. Do not use brown sugar because it would add a molasses flavour that may overpower the delicate orange flavour of the cake. Stick to granulated or caster sugar for this cake!
- butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the batter, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise your cake may be too salty
- large eggs—don't use smaller eggs because your cake may be too dry, but don't use extra large eggs because they could affect the texture of the cake. Sometimes eggs can toughen a cake!
- vanilla extract is a great complement to orange flavour, but you could also try orange extract or even orange oil to bring even more flavour to the cake
- flour—I tested this with cake flour, which is lower in protein and higher in starch. Cake flour gives the cake a delicate, finer, more even crumb.
- leavening agents—baking powder and baking soda are needed in this recipe. The baking soda is a base (alkaline) and balances out the acidity of the sour cream in the batter, while baking powder helps the cake rise up. Read up on baking soda vs baking powder if you are unsure the difference
- salt is really important to balance out the sweetness. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the cake will be a touch saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case.
- sour cream (full-fat) helps tenderize the cake and also the fat contributes to preventing the cake from going stale so quickly
- fresh orange (both the zest and the juice) is the secret to bringing the real orange taste to this cake recipe. While the zest is added to the cake batter to bring orange flavour to the crumb, we use orange juice in a simple syrup that you brush onto the hot cake to help infuse the crust with a burst of flavour.
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions and Variations
With its simple list of ingredients, you can still make a few careful variations and substitutions on this recipe:
- yogurt—you can replace the sour cream with yogurt, preferably Greek yogurt with a higher fat content to ensure the cake is moist and not dry
- orange flavour—there are four main ways of infusing baked goods with orange flavour. I used a lot of orange zest and juice in this recipe. You can also enhance the orange flavour with orange oil or orange extract, but I haven't tested either of these so proceed with caution!
- other citrus—you can make this same recipe using two lemons or a ruby red grapefruit to create a lemon poppy seed loaf cake or a pink grapefruit cake
- flour—I tested the recipe with both bleached all-purpose flour and cake flour. I preferred cake flour but both work in this recipe.
See this lemon version of this recipe!
Instructions
I prefer to use a stand mixer to make the batter for this orange cake, but an electric hand mixer will also work fine. Here's how to make it:
Step 1—Before juicing the orange, make sure to zest it first (image 1). I like to use a microplane for this. You will need the zest and juice of 1 orange (60 mL or ¼ cup of juice). Reserve the juice to make the syrup later. Meanwhile, cream the butter, sugar, and orange zest together in a mixer bowl (image 2) before adding the eggs one at a time and the vanilla (image 3).
Step 2—Sift the dry ingredients together (image 4) before whisking in the poppy seeds (image 5). Then add the mixed dry ingredients to the mixer bowl (image 6), alternating with the sour cream (image 7), beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
Step 3—Transfer the poppy seed cake batter to the prepared loaf cake pan (image 8) and bake until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean and the edges of the cake pull away from the sides of the pan (image 9).
Step 4—While the loaf cake is baking, make the orange syrup so it has time to cool down. Combine the orange juice and granulated sugar in a small saucepan (image 10) and bring it up to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. The sugar should be dissolved and the glaze clear and a little syrupy (image 11).
Step 5—Use a pastry brush to brush the surface of the hot loaf cake with cold syrup (image 12).
Storage
You can store this orange cake in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You may also freeze it, wrapped tightly, for up to 6 months. Unwrap it and defrost it on the counter overnight before serving at room temperature.
Loaf Cake Baking Tip
Many bakers and baking enthusiasts covet a loaf cake that has a perfect crack down the centre of the loaf. They see this as a sign of a good cake! You can achieve this at home in a few ways:
- Pipe a thin line of softened butter on the surface of the loaf cake, straight down the middle. The butter will slowly melt in the oven, weighing down the middle line of the loaf, forcing the crack to appear in that area.
- Cut down the centre of the cake batter in the loaf cake pan using a greased mini offset spatula or a bench scraper (image 13) before baking the cake (image 14). As you can see from image 15, the crack forms along where the cut was made.
Other Citrus Recipes
Looking for other recipes to bake with citrus? Try these:
If you tried this recipe for orange poppy seed cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Orange Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
Lemon loaf cake
- 190 grams cake flour
- 50 grams poppy seeds
- 5 mL baking powder
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 1.25 mL baking soda
- 173 grams unsalted butter
- 250 grams granulated sugar
- 30 mL finely grated orange zest equivalent to the zest of 1 Navel orange
- 2 large egg(s)
- 5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 180 mL sour cream (14% fat)
Orange syrup
- 60 mL fresh lemon juice equivalent to juice of 1 orange
- 30 grams granulated sugar
Instructions
Orange poppy seed loaf cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Brush with softened butter and flour an 8½x4½ inch (21.5x 11.5 cm) loaf pan OR a 9x5 inch (23x12.5 cm) loaf pan or a fluted 6-cup (1.5 L) loaf pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. If the flour seems lumpy, you can sift the dry ingredients through a metal sieve to get out all the lumps before whisking it with the poppy seeds!
- In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, and orange zest for at least 5 minutes until light and fluffy and well mixed. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often to ensure the mixture is evenly whipped.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, mixing in between each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat the mixture until very fluffy and light.
- Add the sifted flour mixture, alternating with the sour cream, while stirring it in on low. You may want to finish mixing with a spatula to make sure the ingredients are all combined and to make sure there isn't any butter and sugar stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
- Transfer the orange loaf cake batter to the prepared loaf pan. Bake the cake on the middle rack until baked through. You'll know it's done because it will have cracked a little in the middle, it will pull away from the edges of the pan, a cake tester will come out clean, and the internal temperature will register around 100 °C (212 °F). It takes about 60 to 65 minutes to bake this cake in my experience.
Orange syrup
- While the cake is baking, make the syrup ahead of time so that it cools down.
- In a small saucepan, combine the orange juice and the 30 grams (2½ tbsp) of granulated sugar. Heat it until all the sugar is dissolved and it comes to a boil, then remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool at room temperature.
- Using a pastry brush, immediately brush the cooled syrup on the hot cake. Use all the syrup. If you want you can poke a few holes on the surface to encourage the syrup to soak in further.
- Let the cake cool completely before icing and slicing (at least 2 to 3 hours).
Notes
- I used 1 Navel orange for this recipe: I used the zest of in the cake batter and the juice was used to make the syrup. You may need more or less oranges, depending on the season and how big they are.
- Variations:
- yogurt—you can replace the sour cream with yogurt, preferably Greek yogurt with a higher fat content to ensure the cake is moist and not dry
- orange flavour—there are four main ways of infusing baked goods with orange flavour. I used a lot of orange zest and juice in this recipe. You can also enhance the orange flavour with orange oil or orange extract, but I haven't tested either of these so proceed with caution!
- other citrus—you can make this same recipe using two lemons or a ruby red grapefruit to create a lemon poppy seed loaf cake or a pink grapefruit cake
- flour—I tested the recipe with both bleached all-purpose flour and cake flour. I preferred cake flour but both work in this recipe.
- You can serve this orange loaf as is, or with spoonfuls of homemade lemon curd, scoops of lemon ice cream, or even sweetened whipped cream.
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