Sweet Orange Cakes.

One of the books I purchased recently has gotten no love...not quite enough time to bake out of it and Dorie's unfortunately. But the other night I spent some quality time with the Sweet Melissa Baking book on the couch along with multi-tasking to catch up with episodes of Lost.

The episodes left us..well as confused as originally, not a surprise there. But the book left me thinking..wow...I want to make some of these things. Like..RIGHT NOW.

I managed to hold out 24 hours and made something the next night for dessert to share with our neighbors and good friends.

The recipe that intrigued me while Lost'ing was the Whole Orange Poppyseed Cake. I love lemon poppyseed anything, but orange? And when I read that she uses the whole orange in the recipe, I had to try it.





I found yummy looking Tangelos at Whole Foods, halved the recipe and made 4 mini bundt's which was the perfect amount. The only other deviations to the recipe were that I also added some triple sec for a little kick..and used less sugar.



These came out SO amazingly good. I served with fresh raspberries alongside the cakes, which gave the perfect little tart kick to the sweet orange and lime drizzled cakes. These were a HUGE hit with the diners and so easy to make look pretty.



Whole Orange PoppySeed Cake
From The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Cake:
1 whole orange, washed well
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Glaze:
I did not use the one listed for the recipe, I used this:
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup confectioners sugar

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350, butter/oil a bundt pan or mini pans.

Cutoff the green stem from the orange. Slice into 6-8 pieces. Food process the entire orange with 1/4c sugar until no large orange bits remain and everything is pureed.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and 1/2c sugar until smooth. Stir in the orange puree. Whisk in melted butter.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, poppy seeds. Sprinkle over orange mixture bowl and gently fold until combined.

Pour batter into pan/pans. Bake for 40-50 minutes for a bundt or loaf, or 20-25 for minis. The cake is done when a tester comes out clean. Remove to cool, and unmold the cake onto a cooling rack after 5-10 minutes cooling.



For the glaze: just whisk together juice and sugar until smooth, drizzle over cooled cakes. For a more 'white' visible glaze, use more confectioners sugar. Serve with berries or whipped cream.