Luscious Poppy Seed Cake

Poppy seed cake or seed cake as my English friends would say, can be utterly luscious or a tad bitter if you don’t know how to prepare the poppy seeds. This is a simple matter but a step you cannot skip.

It is a fitting time of year for this recipe, since the holiday of Purim is upon us when Haman the evil sought to destroy the Jews and with G-d’s help, he was vanquished. Now in Yiddish, the word for poppy seeds is “muhn” and the proper pronunciation of Haman is “Hah-muhn”. Since Jewish people are into many different types of symbolism and plays on words, this became a popular filling for hamantaschen and as such, putting them into a cake is perfect for Purim or anytime.

After trying many versions, the one I liked far and away the best is the recipe of Keren Agam on the Sugat page on Mako. * No fears, I changed it a bit but truth, I stuck mostly to the recipe (not my wont) since I liked the way it was prepared.

I find the taste of properly made seed cake lovely with a hint of orange peel, especially nice. It’s an easy cake to make and it uses oil not marg.

So start with the poppy seeds, which do NOT have to be ground but DO have to be soaked in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Then, preheat your oven to 350 F.

The above combo is 1/2 cup boiling (hot is not good enough) water and 1/2 a cup poppy seeds. Do this first so it’ll have time to cool.

Next, whip together with whisk beaters the eggs and sugar till light in color and fluffy.

This is important to the fluffiness of the cake, really!

Add the oil and vanilla while the mixture continues to whip, slowly. It will thicken the batter.

See it’s thickened up? Then, add the orange juice and orange peel and combine.

I just added all the dry ingredients right on top of this mixture like so:

And briefly whip till nearly mixed and add the final ingredient, the cooled poppy seed with the water it soaked in (you will see it swelled somewhat). I add it last so it will not be hot anymore.

Beat briefly till all the ingredients have been incorporated.

Take a bundt pan (prettiest of all but if need be a tube pan will do) and spray with oil/flour spray like Baker’s Joy or spray with oil and shake flour lightly on top to prevent the cake from sticking. Even if your pan is non-stick it’ll stick so do make the effort to do so, nothing worse than a torn cake.

After taking a spatula and scraping the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure all your ingredients are incorporated, pour into the prepared pan.

Place in preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or till medium browned and toothpick comes out clean.

Don’t worry that the cake pulls away from the edges, that’s fine and it should a bit. Let cool completely before attempting to release from the pan. Then, using a utensil, gently pry the cake away from the sides and putting either a platter or the wire rack against the cake, flip out and observe your beautiful cake.

I find it goes beautifully with Lady Grey tea which picks up the citrus notes but really, it goes with any drink at all.

Luscious Poppy Seed Cake

1/2 cup unground poppy seeds
1/2 cup boiling (not just hot) water
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar (brown will not do, don’t substitute it)
1 cup mild vegetable oil like canola
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
grated orange rind from a small orange without the bitter white pith (don’t skip this, it is an important part of the taste of your cake)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour (or white spelt flour)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Prepare your bundt or tube pan by spraying with Baker’s Joy or oil spray and shaking lightly flour to coat. Set aside.

Take the poppy seeds and in a cup or small bowl, pour the boiling (not hot! boiling!) water over the seeds and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer with whisk beaters, whip the eggs and sugar till the color turns light and the mixture rises in volume in the bowl. (see pic above). Slowly add the oil, vanilla, orange juice and orange peel and whip well.

Shake the flour, baking powder and soda all around the top of the batter and as you whip to incorporate it, slowly add the cooled poppy seed and water mixture. Beat just till fully mixed, scraping sides and bottom of bowl to make sure it’s fully combined.

Pour into your prepared pan and place in preheated oven. Bake 40-45 minutes (peek after 35 to make sure it’s not overbrowning) and check with wooden toothpick that should come out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack. Cake will pull away from edges slightly. When cool, gently pry edges away with a blunt utensil to loosen cake and placing platter or wire rack on top of cake pan, invert to serve.

* https://mobile.mako.co.il/food-cooking_magazine/all-week-recipes-cakes-for-the-weekend/Recipe-fc046ae50d81a51006.htm