A super festive, delicious and easy cake that’s perfect for any Christmas dinner! Poppy seed meringue cake with a layer of fruity orange curd.

As I said before, my family LOVES poppy seed desserts and you guys seem to like these recipes a lot too. So here is another one.

Around Christmas time recipes with poppy seed is even more popular in Hungary. So it’s always a good opportunity to experiment with new combinations. This one is my new favorite.

The base and the poppy seed filling are the good old ones. They turn out perfect every time so I always use them for example in my poppy seed meringue bars and my strawberry mousse poppy seed cake.

This time I wanted to add a touch of Christmas in the form of orange curd. It turned out fantastic!! The thick poppy seed filling really requires something fruity/ citrusy and orange curd is just the way to go!

The best thing is that it’s such a quick recipe. Basically it takes 30 minutes to put together. The only thing that could go wrong if you left it under the broiler and the meringue gets a bit toooooo dark. khmm… As you can see I did make this mistake! But some powdered sugar can correct/hide every mistakes!!

This dessert is going to be the new member of our christmas dinner table this year! Make sure you test it before Christmas at least twice, just to make sure it tastes good ;) !

Orange Poppy Seed Meringue Cake

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Prep Time: 20 min. Baking Time: 30 min. Total Time: 1 hour Portions: 6-8 slices

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Ingredients:

Base:

• 150g all purpose flour

• 100g butter

• 40g confectioner sugar

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 tablespoon sour cream (or natural/greek yogurt)

• ¼ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar or vanilla extract

Poppy seed filling:

• 200g poppy seed (grounded)

• 125g caster sugar

• 1,5 dl or ½ and 1/8 cups milk

• ¼ teaspoon rum extract

• the zest of an orange

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Orange Curd:

• the zest and the juice of one large orange

• 100g granulated sugar

• 3 egg yolks

• 30g butter

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites

• 250g confectioner sugar

Directions:

Base:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C. Line a 7 inch or 18 cm round cake tin with removable bottom with parchment paper.

2. In a microwave safe bowl melt the butter and let it cool for a minute.

3. Then add the egg yolk, both the sugars and the sour cream. Mix them well together.

4. In a medium bowl mix the flour and baking powder together. Then stir in the wet ingredients with a fork until you get a bit crumbly base. Push the base into the baking pan evenly with a spatula.

5. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes and bake until it’s only half baked and still pale.

Filling:

1. While your base is in the oven. Put all of your filling ingredients into a medium sauce pan and heat it on a medium-low heat just until all the sugar is disolved. Stir it while you cook it.

2. After 10 minutes take your base out of the oven and evenly spread the filling on the top.

3. Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes. The let it cool down.

Orange Curd:

1. Put the orange juice, zest, sugar in a metal or glass bowl. Start cooking it on a bain-marine. ( Fill a pot with water and start boiling it. Then put the metal or glass bowl on top of the pot. Be careful and make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water and the bowl is big enough. When you stir the curd use a kitchen cloth to hold the bowl because it can be hot.)

2. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Mix in the cold butter.

3. When all the butter is melted take it off from the stove and add the egg yolks while you stir it with a whisk or a spoon. (Make sure you stir so the yolks don't cook. Nobody wants crumbled eggs in their curd ;)

4. Put it back to the stove and stir continuously until it’s cooked and thickened.

5. Let it cool down a bit, then spread it on top of the poppy seed filling.

Meringue:

1. In a clean bowl of a standing mixure add the egg whites. (Make sure your bowl is really clean and not greasy at all and you don’t have any yolk in your whites.) Start on a low speed and beat your whites. Then turn it on a medium-high speed and whip them until they are fluffy and they form soft peeks.

2. Then start adding your sugar one tablespoon at a time. It’s good when it's really shinny and holds the shape of it.

3. Spread the meringue on top of the orange curd. Then turn on your oven to 400F or 200C and bake it for another 8 minutes or until the meringue is lightly coloured and crunchy on the top.

4. Let it cool down completely before serving.

Click on the photo to read the last post!

If you try the recipe use the #12daysofxmasbybakinggym hashtag and tag me, so I can see your creations!

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