Blood Orange Poppy Seed Loaf

Heavenly moist and so flavourful! Ok, I made a lot of substitutions, but the idea stayed the same and it turned out amazing. The main one is I didn’t have icing sugar, so I used strawberry cream cheese instead for the topper and it worked so well. If I will bake it again, I would do it this way again. Also subbed coconut oil for vegan butter, that worked well too. And did not have the blood orange, so used grapefruit juice instead. I don’t know how it was supposed to taste, but even with all the substitutions it turned out really good!

PUL Team - Feb. 9, 2025, 3:01 p.m.

Ooo love these ideas, Alisa, so glad that the loaf turned out 🙌

We really loved it!

Flavors were amazing!! But, our batter was super runny so I added a bit of flour (didn't have a pic of the batter to go off of 😅) and it ended up a bit too dense.

The icing also seemed way too runny so I added more powdered sugar but after adding so much I didn't want to make it sweeter than it already was and when I poured it over the (fully cooled) loaf, it all ran right off :(.

May try this again another time if PUL has any advice!

PUL Team - Dec. 13, 2024, 3:32 a.m.

Hey Reid, thanks for your feedback! Are you using the cup measures or by weight? Adding a bit more flour was a good idea - you are aiming for a batter that look smooth. It should run off your mixing utensil in a continuous stream that folds back onto itself, creating ribbons on the surface of the batter that slowly dissolve back into itself. Glaze icing can be very tricky. If you try it again, we would suggest starting with half the amount of juice. Add tiny amounts to the frosting until you reach a thickly fluid frosting. Hope it works better next time 😊

I made the cake and it was tasty! But it was too dense. What could I have done wrong?

PUL Team - Oct. 12, 2024, 2:54 a.m.

Hello Salome! We're glad you enjoyed the flavour! The cake might have turned out dense if the batter was overmixed or if there was too much liquid compared to the dry ingredients. Be sure to mix just until just combined in step three, and double-check your measurements for accuracy 🤗

Salome V Ingen - Oct. 12, 2024, 9:51 a.m.

Thank you for the tips! Will check on it when I make it again! :)

Made this for several summer birthdays this year and it always was a hit. I recommend getting some freeze dried strawberries or raspberries and writing the name of the person with it on the cake (given it’s a short name. „Mom“ works ;))

PUL Team - Sept. 2, 2024, 3:21 a.m.

Ooo what a cute idea! Thanks, Lina 🤗

I loved it. My first time baking with egg and milk substitutes, definitely doing it again. Loved the lemony flavor!!

Made this gorgeous cake this morning ( yes I did at 7am )
House smells incredible
I used 2 oranges in replace of blood oranges( will see if I can find some )- turned out amazing
Can’t wait to try a slice at my friends with our cup of teas ( true British 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 here 😂🫖)

PUL Team - April 5, 2024, 3:52 p.m.

Never too early to bake a cake, Frances 😜 we hope you love it with tea!

This cake looks and tastes delicious and it has gone down such a treat! I previously made this with oranges and it was lovely,
but I do prefer the blood oranges in this recipe, and the poppy seeds add a gorgeous texture to the overall cake. Thank you for yet another brilliant recipe!

PUL Team - March 27, 2024, 12:12 a.m.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to share your experience with the cake, Rajni!

It's a fluffy and tasty cake. It's sweet but light and the orange flavor is delicious!
I changed the amount of coconut oil for orange juice, that is, I added 1/2 cup of juice and 1/3 of coconut oil. I was afraid the texture wouldn't be as good, but it turned out perfectly and therefore has more orange flavor :)

Grande beijinho para todos! :)

PUL Team - Feb. 9, 2024, 9:21 p.m.

Ooo thanks for the insight, Maria, it's so appreciated! Happy baking 🤗

Unfortunately I didn't have bloody oranges but the normal ones, anyway the cake is amazing 😍 I put less sugar because I don't have a big sweet tooth

Last weekend we had a baking day with a friend where we made only recipes from PUL! Honestly, I think that's all I'm going to do this whole year :) This recipe was 1 of the 3 we had made and it went down fantastically well! The whole kitchen smells wonderful and the taste and texture fantastic!

PUL Team - Sept. 5, 2023, 7:12 a.m.

We're so thrilled to hear, Lise, thank you! Enjoy the loaf 🤗

Really enjoyable bread! I was so sad my icing didn’t come out as that bright beautiful pink. But it was tasted right and was yummy! For me, the blood orange flavour wasn’t strong enough without the icing so I totally recommend!! I had a couple slices before making the icing and the icing really took the loaf up a notch 😍

I loved this loaf it was so yummy!

This knocked it out of the park, my husband and I were blown away by how good this cake is! With frosting it’s a decadent cake. If you skip the glaze it’s a nice sweet bread that holds up well packing as a snack.

PUL Team - March 18, 2023, 3:09 a.m.

Awe so happy to hear, Natalie, thank you!

so good! used a cara cara orange for zest and juice. separated into 12 muffin cups and baked 16-19 min. did not make the glaze because these for a quick low mess school morning breakfast.

was a little worried they would be dry since i used muffin cups instead of loaf pan but they turned out amazing!

PUL Team - Aug. 31, 2022, 7:39 a.m.

Mmm muffins sound lovely! Thanks for taking the time to share, Amber 🤩

This recipe was delicious even though I chose to leave out the sugar glaze! I do wish I had read the first comment below because I used a 1g:1ml ratio of solid refined coconut oil on a scale. It would be helpful to keep the measurements in grams as our scales (in the USA?) don’t have ml.

PUL Team - July 10, 2022, 5:09 p.m.

Hey Vicky, thanks a bunch for taking the time to share your experience with it. We appreciate the insight to help us improve and have added a note to the recipe to help avoid others running into the same thing 🙂

I’m not sure what I did wrong (I keep checking the ingredients and I’m sure I followed it exactly) but mine turned out super oily! To the point where my fingers were greasy and when I toasted them, they sizzled. The taste was good but the texture was a bit gummy and odd, so we had to unfortunately let them go.

PUL Team - March 31, 2022, 10:06 p.m.

Hey Victoria! So sorry to hear about the oiliness in this one. If you kindly remember, did you use coconut oil in this one and how was the oil measured? We suspect the oil may be the culprit. Poppy seeds also contain oil which may be undesirable if they spoil, although it generally isn't enough to promote excess greasiness. We'd love to help get to the bottom of it if possible 😊

Victoria - March 31, 2022, 10:38 p.m.

I used refined coconut oil measured by weight. Also subbed chia seeds instead of poppy.

PUL Team - March 31, 2022, 11:04 p.m.

Gotcha, thanks, Victoria! Were any other ingredients substituted?

Victoria - March 31, 2022, 11:12 p.m.

I did orange juice instead of blood orange but everything else was the same.

PUL Team - April 1, 2022, 5:17 p.m.

Hi Victoria, thanks for the insight! We suspect that the excess oil may have been from weighing it if a conversion of 1:1 or more was used. Half of a cup (120 mL) of melted coconut oil weighs about 108 grams on our end. We melted ours first and then measured, rather than measuring while solid for this recipe. In any case, we've noted this down as an area to improve with recipes moving forward. We hope this helps, for now, Victoria, and a sincere thank you for the patience and contribution to PULs growth ☺️

Love it!!!!
Thank you for all the fantastic recipes (=^0^=)

PUL Team - March 24, 2022, 12:23 a.m.

We're so glad they're being enjoyed, L.Y. Fdez!

Hello, can I replace the coconut oil refined to vegan butter? Looking forward to hearing from you! Thank you for the incredible recipes!

PUL Team - Jan. 26, 2022, 6:34 a.m.

Hey there, Evi, we haven't tested it out but we suspect it should work! It may impart a bit of a buttery taste to the loaf compared to refined coconut oil which is more neutral in flavour. If you like the taste of vegan butter though, that should be fine. Do let us know if you give it a try 🤗

Made this for my family of meat eaters and they loved it. I did have to substitute regular oranges for the blood oranges but it still worked fine. Thanks for all the great recipes it has made including plant based dishes so much easier.

PUL Team - Dec. 2, 2021, 5:15 p.m.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this one, Sarah! It means so much the PUL content is being enjoyed 💚

Hiii!! love your recipes.
Question... Can I also use avocado oil instead of coconut?
thanks :)

PUL Team - Aug. 14, 2021, 6:43 a.m.

Hi Kat, we haven't tested it out so we can't say with certainity. Do let us know if you give it a try :)

my favorite website for healthier desserts! this one definitely did not disappoint!

I loved the loaf but the glazing made it way too sweet! I'd just soften it with some blood-orange juice.

PUL Team - June 6, 2021, 3:22 a.m.

Thank you for sharing, Cris! Lemon juice may also help with the glaze if desired 🤗

Really delicious and so easy to make! Loved it!

The only thing that didn't work with mine was that the biggest loaf pan I had was about 20x13cm. The loaf was golden everywhere evenly, but on the inside the bottom part didn't bake that well towards the center. It wasn't completely raw though but I'm assuming that my loaf pan was just too small and the loaf too thick.
Also, after I took the loaf out of the oven it kinda collapsed. ^^' Is that normal or did I make a mistake there?

Any help?

PUL Team - April 14, 2021, 2:52 a.m.

So glad you enjoyed it, Ipek! The loaf usually doesn’t collapse. Some ideas that can help avoid this are using fresh baking powder, ensuring to mix until just combined but not more (to avoid overmixing), and allowing the loaf to completely cool before pouring the icing on.

It also sounds like indeed there may have been too much batter in the pan. You could try lowering the oven temperature and baking for a bit longer. Alternatively, you could also try splitting the batter into more than one baking dish to help split it up 🙂

sydney hisle - July 15, 2023, 4:08 p.m.

So insightful! Thanks PUL :)

Very tasty and simple to make !