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
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.











149 Comments Add A Comment
Wow, the blueberry glaze looks soooo incredible!
Love the colour of the glaze, dreamy. Can I use butter (or something else) instead of canola oil?
Thanks
Ooh, that glaze would be dy-no-MITE! over a lemon cake! I’ll try it this weekend and see how it turns out…
In other news, how cute is it that someone recognized your sister?! I’m so bad at recognizing famous people (I served Clint Eastwood once during my waitressing/college days and didn’t realize it until I saw the manager have a conniption fit in the kitchen). I’m glad that it made you two happy! :)
Magnificent colour! Great idea.
The blueberry glaze looks so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
I love the photo with the blueberry glaze dripping off of the cake to the counter! It looks amazing!
That glaze looks absolutely sinful!
it’s so fun and girly! love it!
Ahhh that glaze is the most gorgeous color! I want two slices of this: one to eat and one as artwork.
I gave up sweets for Lent, should I break my vow?!
How awesome that your sister was recognized! That’s so cool!
I just printed out this recipe…it looks delicious!
This cake looks so uplifting and not to mention delicious. Who did you share it with? Not that you have to share it but just curious because I can imagine anyone would like to nibble on that. :)
This cake just makes me happy!
What an incredible looking cake! That glaze really looks delicious!
That’s pretty awesome about your sister.
But my main attention was on the cake. I’m not even a huge fan of blueberry and I am dying to try this. My husband will die of happiness. He loves blueberries. I’m going to have to stock up on this and some other blueberry recipes for summer.
deliciously awesome! my frozen blueberries have just found a use for them…
Hmmm looks lush!!
I just would love to have this for my breakfast, lunch and dinner tonight. It’s the happiest cake ever.
<3
Mmmm, that cake looks super. I’d say hi to you or your sister if I saw you out & about, but it would take me a minute to move past silent excitement!
My god. Its like food porn.
Love this! The flavor combinations and blueberry glaze to top it off. I am printing this one. Thanks Joy!
This cake is absolutely stunning! So pretty!!
Most knowledgeable Joy, can you tell me please what the role of poppy seeds in baked goods is? I love anything lemon flavored, but as far as I can tell, poppy seeds just get stuck in people’s teeth. This is likely just my unrefined palate though. Please enlighten me. :)
Excellent post, as usual.
Awesome cake ~ I was going to make a bundt today…thanks!
GORGEOUS Joy!
Simple and gorgeous!
Bundt cakes are awesome, love them!
i need to buy a bundt cake pan STAT… you have out done yourself again!
I adore poppy seeds. Winner, winner!
Heaven. Happiness. Yumminess.
I love that someone recognized your sister!!! This is just the BEST.
I’m going to make this cake this weekend. But I think I’m going to try a Strawberry glaze or maybe strawberries and whipped cream? It’s just that the strawberries are starting to come in season here and I’d love to include them in a dinner party this weekend.
Should I stick with the blueberry instead?
strawberry glaze would be AMAZING!!
Tweezers?
Cake looks awesome – bet it smells heavenly too – I will have to make it for my son (OK the rest of the family too) – he’s home for spring break ;-)
A baking mom is an awesome mom.
That blueberry glaze looks great!!! Beautiful!! :)
aaargh, that photo of the icing dripping under the cake is killing me, too pretty for words joy!
I love that someone recognized your sister!!! I probably would have too! Oh, the blog world…
That cake looks delicious! I love a good bundt cake!
I hate those days when you can’t find the tweezers. I always feel as if everyone is staring at me because I now have caterpillar-brows.
If I ever saw your sister (or you) I would just end up staring at you for an unreasonably long time, trying to figure out where I know you from, until I made us both uncomfortable. It’s my thing.
This sounds a bit soppy really but you speak so beautifully about your sister…it’s really touching :)
The cake looks fantastic…love the bright purple glaze. I’m definitely going to give this one a try as we don’t really seem to have bundt cake in England so I’ve never had the tasting pleasure.
I’m new to the whole blog culture and I lurve your site Joy…you’ve totally taken my ‘post reply to blog’ virginity!! What can I say…I’m smitten with your baked delights :)
i’m glad you’re here!
how pretty!
What a simple, beautiful cake. I bet this would be absolutely lovely for a brunch. A brunch a may be having in April, actually. I need to put this on the menu immediately!
Joy, can I tell you something weird? Last week I had a dream that I was at my local mall and came across a cooking class. Taught by you. I was so, so, so excited about meeting you in my dream, but somehow I forgot all about this dream until hearing about your sister’s story. So… any chance you could make it to Salt Lake City to make my dream a reality? :D Oh, and this cake looks delicious! I love blueberries and poppy seeds.
It looks so good, but I would love to add the blueberry to the mix as well. How much should I add and do any of the other amounts change?
great question chris. i would say, just throw a cup of fresh or frozen blueberries into the batter and call it a day. the cake will be lovely!
This looks AMAZING…i’m sooo making this! Your sister is FAMOUS! wooo hooo!
Oh my, that looks yummy! That would be a great luncheon or shower cake!
That cake looks so beautiful, and soooo delicious, I need to try it!
Wow! That color is AWESOME! Glad that you are baking again. Does that mean you’re getting settled?
And that is some sort of measure of celebrity, to have your sister recognized in public. Very exciting.
I am SO making this!! How important are the eggs in the cake batter? I have a son who is deathly allergic to eggs, so I always substitute with a baking powder-oil-water combination, but not sure if that would work in this recipe?
As always, Joy, thanks for sharing your amazing baking skillz with the rest of the world…
Also, interestingly enough, I recently had a yoga instructor who I swear could have been your twin… I even introduced myself to her after class just to be certain it wasn’t you, taking up a new job in Arizona! :~)
too funny! i have a yoga twin in Arizona!?
i think this cake should work with your egg substitution. give it a go!
I like that your recipe does not have way too many eggs. I made poppy seed cake about two weeks ago and its amazing. I am going to try it again soon with the blueberry glaze. Check mine out!
http://fetaarepa.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/caramelized-almonds-twisted-poppy-seed-cake/
I am SO going to make this for the Friday morning Bible Study!!! The ladies will love it. It’s all Springy and all (like the season Spring). Thanks. Hope you have a great day!
this is crazy! i was looking for a recipe for my under utilized bundt pan – that i bought by the way just to make the mocha coffee coffee cake. yay!
You didn’t mention if this was made in your new kitchen, if so, congrats at having a functional kitchen again! And it looks delicious by the way, art through bundt!
Most beautiful photos!