Blood orange and poppy seed cake with marzipan

Blood orange cake with poppy seeds and marzipan is not only a fruity seasonal winter cake, but also very quick and easy to prepare. The uncomplicated sponge cake with a light citrus note also stays fresh for a long time and is still wonderfully juicy even after several days.

You really don’t need a reason to bake a cake. The desire for the scent that flows from the oven through the whole apartment and for the first piece of nibble still warm from the kitchen counter are reason enough. Nevertheless, we rarely reach for the mixer to sweeten the weekend with a home-baked cake. It’s a good thing that there are occasions that force us to bake. Okay, “force” is of course an exaggeration, after all this delicious one was allowed Blood orange and poppy seed cake with marzipan greet a colleague who has returned from parental leave. A great opportunity to bring cake to the office again, because due to the pandemic and working from home, these were few and far between.

So this quick sponge cake with blood orange celebrated its premiere. Despite the grated marzipan in the batter, the cake is not too sweet, the light but not too dominant citrus note goes perfectly with it and reminds us that blood oranges are one of our favorite winter fruits. But they also look good in and on pastries – like ours Blood orange tart with orange caramel. And because the blood orange and poppy seed cake was so well received, we immediately baked it again for ourselves. Since the dough is quite compact and stays juicy for a long time, it still sweetened our afternoon after five days.

If you have some blood oranges left, you can use them along with creamy burrata, mint and pine nuts in a blood orange carpaccio transform, with Fennel, avocado and pomegranate as a salad serve or squeeze out the juice and make one Blood orange gin cocktail with sage to blend.

Blood orange and poppy seed cake with marzipan (recipe for 1 loaf tin 30 x 11 cm)

Ingredients

• 150 g butter (room temperature) + a little more for greasing
• 3 organic blood oranges + optional 7 blood orange slices for garnish
• 250 grams of sugar
• 3 Owner
• 1,5 TL Vanilleextrakt
• 300 grams of flour
• 2,5 TL Backpulver
• 1 pinch of salt
• 200 g natural yoghurt (1.5% fat)
• 3 EL Mohnsamen
• 140 g Marzipan
• 100 g powdered sugar

preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (circulating air) and grease a loaf tin (30 x 11 cm) with a little butter. Finely grate the zest of the blood oranges.
2. In a large bowl, using the whisk on a stand mixer, cream the softened butter with the sugar, about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs thoroughly, one at a time, then add the blood orange peel and vanilla extract.
3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a second bowl. Then stir into the butter mixture in two batches, alternating with the yoghurt. Squeeze 2 blood oranges and add the juice of 1 blood orange to the bowl, set the rest aside. Beat well together with the poppy seeds. Then use a coarse grater to grate the marzipan directly into the bowl and fold in.
4. Pour the batter into the tin, smooth it out and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50-55 minutes until no batter sticks when tested with a skewer. Cover with parchment paper after 30 minutes to prevent the top of the cake from getting too dark.
5. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
6. For the icing, in a small bowl, mix the icing sugar with 3-4 tbsp of the blood orange juice until smooth and spread evenly over the cake, allowing the frosting to run down the sides. Optionally decorate with the blood orange slices and let the glaze dry. The cake will keep well wrapped for about 5 days.