Orange and Poppy Seed Cakes (8)
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. You will need a 12-hole bun or muffin tin, each hole lined with baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.
  2. To make the cakes, put the butter into the bowl of a food mixer, add the sugar and cream together until soft and fluffy. Grate in the orange and lemon zest.
  3. In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour and baking powder then stir in the ground almonds. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat lightly. Slowly add the egg to the butter and sugar. If it curdles slightly, add a spoonful of the flour and almond mixture.
  4. Continue adding the flour mix until thoroughly creamed then mix in the poppy seeds.
  5. Transfer the mixture to the lined cases. Put in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes until a skewer, inserted into one of the little cakes, comes out without any raw cake mixture attached.
  6. While the cakes are baking, make the syrup. Cut the crystallised citrus peel into matchstick-sized pieces. Finely grate the remaining lemon. Squeeze the lemon and the orange into a small saucepan, add the caster sugar and the bay leaves and bring to the boil. Add the strips of candied peel.
  7. Remove the cakes from the oven. Still in their cases, pierce them all over with a metal skewer or fine knitting needle. Spoon the reserved orange syrup and peel over the surface, letting the syrup trickle though the holes. Leave the cakes to cool and remove from their cases.