Two days ago my sister was out in Seattle having dinner with a friend. ย Simple enough, right?
She was approached my a friendly faced woman and asked “Are you Joy the Baker’s sister?” ย My ย sister burst into confused laughter. ย 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. ย The confusing part is that you all might recognize my sister in the world. ย Awesome. ย Odd. ย Strange. ย And awesome again.
Have I told you how awesome you are? ย How glad I am that you’re here? ย How glad I am that you would say hi to my sister if you saw her in Seattle? ย Well…. you are awesome. ย I’m so stoked that you’re here and thanks for being nice to my sister. ย For. ย Reals. ย Cause if you weren’t nice to her… we’d have to fight. ย That would be weird.
In other news… I can’t find my tweezers and I made you a cake. ย Let’s discuss.
I’m a sucker for an easy bundt cake… especially when it happens to be covered in blue glaze. ย This cake is all sorts of straight forward. ย It comes together in two bowls and bakes up in 45 minutes. ย I love the teeny tiny crunch of poppy seeds. ย To make this more of a breakfast cake, you might add fresh blueberries into the poppy seed batter. ย To make this more of a simple and fancy cake, leave the blueberries only for the glaze. ย 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. ย Place a rack in the center of the oven. ย Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. ย In another medium bowl, whisk together canola oil, buttermilk, egg, vinegar, and vanilla extract. ย Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once. ย Whisk together until just combined and no lumps remain. ย Stir in the poppy seeds. ย 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. ย 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 ofย dark blue juice. ย Remove most of the blueberry skins from the juice and discard. ย Add the vanilla extract, buttermilk and lemon. ย Add the powdered sugar and whisk to combine. ย If the mixture is too thick, add more milk to reach the desired consistency. ย 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.
154 Responses
This was good, and VERY pretty! Next time I try making this, I might add blueberries directly into the batter along with either lemon juice or a bit of almond extract for more flavor variety.
In the recipe where it says allow the cake to cook in the pan for 20 minutes, I assume you mean cool in the pan. Because I’m baking this right now & that’s what I’m doing!
you’re on the right track!
Hi Joy! I just found your website and love it. I made lemon buttermilk cookies today and used your blueberry glaze on top. They turned out yummy and look pretty, too (www.bakedandbrewed.com). I can’t wait to experiment with more of your recipes.
Melanie
DEAREST, BELOVED, JOY!
you’re making me fat.
(but extremely happy)
all because of this cake.
:)
Hey Joy, Not sure if you’ll get this since this is an older post, but thought I’d try! I was going to make this cake to take to an event this weekend. Can I make the glaze ahead of time and just put on cake once we’re there? Or will the consistency be off if it sits in a bowl for too long? THANKS!!!
hi melissa. the glaze should be fine to be made ahead and then put on the cake. just give it a good stir to loosen it up, and add just a few drops to a teaspoon of water if you need to loosen it more. happy baking!!
thanks joy! you rock :)
I made this the other night after dinner. It was gone within half an hour. And every one said they loved it. Oh yes, this one is going in the book. Thanks!
Hi, Joy. Could you please answer my question I asked at the beginning of April? You suggested to another reader that they could substitute strawberries for the blueberries when making the glaze. My question was: If you use strawberries do you still need to use the lemon juice? Thank You.
Hi Joy,
I was wondering if there was any difference between using frozen blueberries or fresh ones. I can’t seem to find frozen ones anywhere, unless of course, you meant buy them freeze them and then thaw them?
I follow your website compulsively, and as an active baker, I just have to say it’s wonderful.
Thanks,
Mridula
frozen blueberries produce more blue juice which gives you the color you want for the glaze. what if you froze your fresh blueberries overnight and then used them for the recipe… you only need a handful!
I squeeled. In a rather scary way. Quite loud.
Poppy seeds. And blueberries. It’s like a dream come true, and I’ve never thought of combining them.
Oh, wait. I’ve probably already combined them in and on pancakes.