Blueberry, Orange and Poppyseed Cake

I am a fan of the recipes by Jordan Rondel, a talented New Zealand baker with a shop called The Caker.  On Stuff.com recently, Jordan published a recipe for a Blackcurrant, Orange and Poppyseed Cake.  I am yet to see blackcurrants in the shops here, but I thought blueberries would make  a worthy substitute in this delicious sounding cake.

The cake comprsies two layers, dotted with poppyseeds and fruit, then sandwiched together and frosted with cream cheese frosting flavoured with marmalade.  Jordan just used straight cream cheese to cover her cakes, but I prefer cream cheese frosting.  

The resulting cake is pretty, moist and flavourful - an absolute winner for me.

The recipe (with a few tweaks by me) is as follows:

150g butter
150g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
150g plain flour
50g almond meal
20g poppy seeds
2 tsp baking powder
¼ cup sour cream
Zest and juice of an orange
150g fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat your oven to 180C, and grease and line 2 x 22cm round cake tins.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that each egg is beaten in well before adding the next. Add in the flour, almonds, poppy seeds and baking powder and mix on low speed until just combined. Add the sour cream and orange zest and juice, and again beat until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the 2 prepared cake tins and press the blueberries on top of each cake, dividing them evenly.

Bake the cakes in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through, rotating the cakes front to back at half time.

Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To sandwich them cakes together and ice them, I doubled this cream cheese frosting recipe and added a tablespoon of marmalade to the frosting to give it an orange flavour, like Jordan's cream cheese.

Slice and enjoy!