This recipe was adapted from my famous Vanilla Cake Recipe.
I named it Orange Poppy Seed Lazy Loaf because in this version, all of the ingredients go into the food processor and you are finished!
I am so done with washing tons of dishes and lengthy mix methods lately that I thought to try this way and see how it came out!
Well let me tell you it is superb!
It literally took 5 minutes to measure out and whiz up all the ingredients and then the bake time was around 40 minutes.
This cake is seriously light, fluffy and loaded up with orange!
The whole orange goes right into the processor with the other ingredients; and the result is tiny chunks of orange throughout this moist finely textured pound cake batter.
Drizzle with fresh orange glaze and have yourself the easiest, tastiest cake ever!
**By the way these make excellent muffins if you prefer! Just fill the liners slightly more than half full and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Approximately 20-25 minutes
Some of you may know that for the last 3 years I have been working on developing a vegan egg replacement that my friend Deborah pioneered.
I am thrilled to announce it has finally gine to market and Amazon has it for sale!
Amazon has placed a minimum 3 bag for shipping though, so if that is too much for you, we can ship one bag instead, direct from Freely Vegan.Com
If you or anyone you know is into Vegan Baking, (but even more than that- VEGAN + GLUTEN FREE baking), THIS is a MUST have product!
Deborah has done amazing things with gluten free/vegan baking and I helped to develop this product to work in vegan baking with wheat!
This is by far my favorite egg replacement to use (of course I am a bit biased LOL)
Spread the word please and consider purchasing to help a small business venture!! THANKS!
You may see that I am using The Plant Based Egg by Freely Vegan as the egg replacer in almost all of my desserts now. If you do not want to buy it or cannot get it, you can sub in another proprietary blend egg replacer of your choice results may vary. I have tested this recipe with the plant based egg and love the results! But you can sub in another proprietary blend egg replacer of your choice (equal to 1 egg) if you cannot get the Plant Based Egg, however results may vary since not all egg replacers are created equally!.
- Plant Milk ¾ cup (177ml)
- 1 Small Navel Orange or 2 small clementines= total weight of orange with skin on is 5oz (that's approximately 2 small clementines or 1 small navel) total volume measure of pureed orange(s) with the skin on is a scant ½ cup
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Cake Flour 1¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons (225g)
- Egg Replacer * I am using The Plant Based Egg 1½ teaspoons *see note above
- Granulated Sugar 14 Tablespoons (195g)
- Baking Powder 3 teaspoons
- Salt ¾ teaspoon
- Vegan Butter or Vegetable Oil 9 Tablespoons (126g)
- Poppy Seeds 2 teaspoons *optional
- For the Sugar Glaze:
- Confectioner's Sugar 1 cup
- Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice 1 Tablespoon
- Zest of 1 orange
- Poppy Seeds for garnish optional
- Candied Orange for Garnish Optional
- First pull of the hard stem of the orange is there are any and check the oranges for seeds by slicing them in half and remove seeds if there are any. The skins stay on the orange, so leave that intact.
- Place all of the ingredients except for the poppy seeds into a food processor and processor until smooth batter (about 1 minute)
- The orange goes in whole, skin and all! The skin is where the oil essence is and that gives the cake a beautiful orange flavor and fragrance unmatched by just the juice or any extract. Just be sure to cut them open first to see if there are any seeds, in which case remove the seeds first.
- Fold in poppy seeds and pour batter into a greased loaf pan
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for approximately 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan until you are able to touch it with your hands without burning them, then flip the loaf out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Combine the confectioners sugar with the orange juice and zest and whisk smooth, pour over the loaf cake.
Refrigerate wrapped well for up to 1 week
And just when you thought I was done with my candied oranges from last season they make another fabulous appearance!
I did it just for garnish so of course they are not a necessary addition to this recipe but if you wanted to make them CLICK HERE
Hi Gretchen, I just came from Patreon after getting the email about this recipe and can’t wait to try it. Just a few Qs for you, 1) Would you mind telling us the weight of the orange pulp or whole orange needed for the recipe? I have never seen a small-sized Navel orange where I live and I don’t know where to get clementines either, worried there will be too much or too little liquid if I don’t match yours by weight.. 2) There is no instruction to peel the oranges, do we put them in whole with the peel? and if so, should we boil the orange first so the peel isn’t bitter? 3) for egg replacer, I have only Ener-G or flax egg, how do we sub this in for the Plant Based Egg? just as these different egg replacers require different amount of water added to them. sorry for all the Qs I’m a bit of a perfectionist lol. love your recipes xx
Hi Emma, all great questions! Thanks (I will update the post) but to answer 1) Yes I will weigh it (but I don’t have any oranges left, so next time I go shopping- I will weigh it)
The clementines are about the size of a golf ball, so I used 2 as that was about equal to the size of a small navel orange.
2) no peeling, just check to make sure there are no pits, in which case you would remove them, but otherwise WHOLE into the food processor with the skin (the skin is where all the oil is and that is where the amazing fragrance and flavor comes from for the orange. NO to BOILING as that will take out all that luscious oil
3) I recommend the Plant Based Egg as it is the best and I use it for 99% of all my baking recipes now. If you don’t want to buy it, you can try another egg replacer- but the EnerG has leavening in it and is mainly potato starch, so I am not sure how it will work as I don’t use that one very often anymore now that the PBE has gone to market.
If you DO try the EnerG reconstitute it with the water as listed on the package for 1 egg, but take out that amount of liquid (the plant milk) from my recipe.
Thanks for your reply Gretchen 🙂 have taken note of all of this and please do shoot me a comment reply whenever you have the chance to weigh your oranges, I’ll keep an eye out. Also if I can’t get the plant based egg, what is the next best substitute you would recommend? can’t wait to make this xxx
Will do! going to today to grab a few to weigh!
I would say another egg replacer that is a dry blend- proprietary blend like Bob’s Red Mill would be similar
Hi Emma! Updated reply: 1 small navel orange or 2 clementines = total weight of the orange with skin on is 5oz (that’s approximately 2 small clementines or 1 small navel) total volume measure of a pureed orange with the skin on is a scant 1/2 cup
Thanks Gretchen! I was talking with my family today all about this and can’t wait to make it for them. I do have another question, how much almond extract would you recommend I add to give this an orange and almond flavour? And how about using a portion almond meal (almond flour)? I love the combination of orange and almond and was thinking of adding just the extract or flour as well if you think possible – then some flaked almonds on top!
Yumm! Love almond extract, I find it very strong though so I would say just about 1/2 – 3/4 tsp?
I am not sure about the almond flour though, as this is already a very moist cake, almond flour is alot of fat and that = more moisture (not a bad thing normally, but here will be too much – in my guess, without some tweaking) I would recommend to try the recipe as is it here first, so you can see what you are working with, then make some educated adjustments from there.
(For example, if you DO use the almond flour, I would probably have to cut back on a small amount of fat and perhaps some of the liquid to ensure you don’t have a very “raw” looking cake after baking, these are just my first guesses)
This is brilliant… BV (before vegan) I had a similar recipe that used a whole orange, but also used 5 eggs so didn’t know how to veganise it. Thought I’d never have that cake again, and then you publish this beauty. Thank you!!!
It’s a very forgiving recipe too – somehow I missed adding in the plant milk (too excited about that whole orange) and it still turned out terrific.
A tip for those not using the Plant Based Egg: mix 1 tbs of black chia seeds, with 3 tbs of water, but don’t fold it in until you fold in the poppy seeds. Just looks like more poppy seeds (I love poppy seeds, so I actually upped the 2 tsps to 3 tbs 😊).
Great recipe! Thanks again
So I recently tried this recipe and it was quite good, although the inside of the cake was a little bland, which is why I think I’ll use oranges next time as they’re more flavourful than clementines, and maybe a touch more sugar. Also, the texture was a tad too dense and almost gummy, which I thought might be due to the fact that the flour is blended in the food processor. Is it possible to over process the gluten? I blended it only as much as required in order to properly blend the clementines. Perhaps it would be best to blend the fruit separately, then fold in the dry ingredients.