Honey poppy seed cakes with orange icing

Knowing how much I adore Donna Hay, my lovely friend Valentina sent me the links to Donna’s appearance in “Master Chef”; after watching the videos my love and admiration for her work are even bigger – she’s so adorable! I liked the videos so much I thought I should share them with you – parts 1, 2 and 3.

Speaking of Donna, these honey cakes come from Off The Shelf – but the poppy seeds and the orange icing are my twists on her recipe.

Honey poppy seed cakes with orange icing
from Off The Shelf

Cakes:
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (184g) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (146g) caster sugar
3 tablespoons honey
2 eggs
1 ½ cups + 1 ½ tablespoons (225g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Icing:
1 ½ cups (210g) icing sugar, sifted
zest of 1 orange
1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; butter twelve ½ cup (120ml) capacity muffin pans.
Place butter, sugar and honey in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Fold through the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds.
Spoon the mixture into prepared pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pans on a wire rack then carefully unmold.
Make the icing: place the icing sugar in a medium bowl and mix in the zest. Gradually add the juice, mixing, until desired consistency. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cakes.

Makes 12 – I halved the recipe above, used ½ cup capacity mini loaf pans and got 5 cakes