Mother's Day Orange & Poppy Seed Blossom Cake

Ingredients:
For the cake:
200g organic unsalted butter
200g organic golden caster sugar
3 organic free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
250g sifted organic plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
2 unwaxed oranges, zest and juice
50g poppy seeds

For the syrup:
1 unwaxed orange, zest and juice
25g organic golden caster sugar

For the filling:
90g organic unsalted butter
180g icing sugar
100ml orange curd

To decorate:
250g fondant icing
Sugar flowers
Ribbon

Heat your oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease and line 2 6” cake tins.  Start by toasting your poppy seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat.  Keep moving the seeds around to make sure that they don’t catch and burn. Continue until the seeds are lovely and toasty (the aroma is wonderful).  Decant onto a piece of greaseproof paper and set aside to cool.

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy (even with an electric mixer, this should take you at least 10mins to get to really light and fluffy!). Beat in the eggs, half an egg at a time, and beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla bean paste, orange zest and poppy seeds – mix well. Turn down the mixer speed to low and slowly add about half the orange juice, then about half the flour, then slowly the remaining juice and finally the last of the flour and baking powder.  Divide evenly between the two cake tins and bake for 40-45mins.

Meanwhile make the orange syrup.  Combine the juice, zest and sugar in a small pan and bring to boil.  Simmer until the juice reduces to a light syrup. Strain into a jug and keep warm.

When cakes are ready, remove from oven.  Keeping the cakes in their tins, pierce the cakes with a skewer and pour over the strained, warm syrup.  Cool completely in the tins, and then turn out.

To assemble, make up the buttercream by mixing the softened butter with the icing sugar with an electric beater, beating until soft and light.  Level the tops of each cake with a serrated knife.  Reserving 2 tablespoons, spread one half of the cake with the orange curd and the other with 2/3rd of the buttercream.  Sandwich together.  Slacken the remaining buttercream with the 2 tablespoons of orange curd and use to crumb coat the cake.  Set aside to firm up in a cool place.  Then cover with fondant icing and decorate with sugar flowers and ribbon.  I made my sugar flowers using Blossom Sugar Art Molds, I used Hydrangea, Cherry Blossom and Blossom, and dusted the blossoms with edible glitter.

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