Poppy Seed Cake with Blueberry Glaze

 

Two days ago my sister was out in Seattle having dinner with a friend.  Simple enough, right?  

She was approached my a friendly faced woman and asked “Are you Joy the Baker’s sister?”  My  sister burst into confused laughter.  They carried on a short, smile filled conversation and went on with their meals… my sister still slightly confounded.  

Lauren is Joy the Baker’s sister… that’s not the confusing part.  The confusing part is that you all might recognize my sister in the world.   Awesome.  Odd.  Strange.  And awesome again.  

Have I told you how awesome you are?  How glad I am that you’re here?  How glad I am that you would say hi to my sister if you saw her in Seattle?  Well…. you are awesome.  I’m so stoked that you’re here and thanks for being nice to my sister.  For.  Reals.  Cause if you weren’t nice to her… we’d have to fight.  That would be weird.  

In other news… I can’t find my tweezers and I made you a cake.  Let’s discuss. 

 

 

I’m a sucker for an easy bundt cake… especially when it happens to be covered in blue glaze.  This cake is all sorts of straight forward.  It comes together in two bowls and bakes up in 45 minutes.  I love the teeny tiny crunch of poppy seeds.  To make this more of a breakfast cake, you might add fresh blueberries into the poppy seed batter.  To make this more of a simple and fancy cake, leave the blueberries only for the glaze.  It’s pretty and tasty either way.  

 

Poppy Seed Cake with Blueberry Glaze

     inspired by Jun and Arlene

     makes one 10-inch bundt cake

     Print this Recipe!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 large egg

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Blueberry Glaze

1/4 cup frozen blueberries, thawed but not drained

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons buttermilk (or regular milk is fine too) 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Place a rack in the center of the oven.  Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan and set aside.  

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  In another medium bowl, whisk together canola oil, buttermilk, egg, vinegar, and vanilla extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once.  Whisk together until just combined and no lumps remain.  Stir in the poppy seeds.  Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cook in the pan for 20 minutes.  Carefully run a butter knife along the edges of the cake to assure that it is well loosed before inverting the cake onto a wire rack to cool.

 

 

To make the blueberry glaze:

Mash the thawed blueberries in a medium sized bowl releasing lots of dark blue juice.  Remove most of the blueberry skins from the juice and discard.  Add the vanilla extract, buttermilk and lemon.  Add the powdered sugar and whisk to combine.  If the mixture is too thick, add more milk to reach the desired consistency.  If the mixture is too thin, add just a bit more powdered sugar.

Drizzle the glaze over the completely cooled bundt cake and allow to set for 20 minutes before serving.