High Altitude Orange Poppy Seed Loaf Cake
An easy, high altitude recipe for a simple and moist orange poppy seed loaf cake, drizzled with sweet orange icing.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Standard-Sized Loaf Pan (9x5 inches)
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- fresh zest of 1 navel orange
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp cake flour, fluffed, spooned, leveled and sifted
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ½ tbsp orange juice (you can juice the same navel orange that you used for the zest)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a standard sized loaf pan with a sheet of non-stick baking paper or parchment paper, so that the paper hangs over two sides. The paper serves as a "sling", making it easy to lift the cake out of the pan. Lightly spray with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, zest the orange over the sugar, then use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until moist and fragrant.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds and whisk everything together until evenly distributed.
- Add the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla, and whisk for about 15 seconds, until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the pan. Bake the cake on the center oven rack for about 37-40 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife comes out clean. The top of the cake should be domed, golden brown and cracked down the middle.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, then gently lift the cake out (using the paper) and set on a cooling rack. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely for several hours before drizzling with icing.
Icing
- When the cake is cool, set it on a serving plate.
- In a bowl, whisk together all of the icing ingredients until smooth. It will be thick, but drizzly, and should be thicker than you think it should be, or it will just run off the cake.
- Spoon the icing over the cake, letting it cover the top and drip over the sides. The icing will set in about 15-20 minutes.
- Note: If you like less icing, or want it thinner and less opaque, make half the icing recipe and increase the milk slightly.
Notes
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The icing will get a little sticky when the cake is stored.
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