Orange Poppy Seeds Cake.......that goes 'pop' inside your mouth

Well, Chinese New Year is well celebrated, and it's over now.......that left me with about 8 - 10 mandarin oranges in the basket. Well, I was thinking to get rid of it fast before it hits the wastebin. Just nice, I bought a new cookbook the other day at Pelangi Cake House and its titled "Baking Cookbook by Alan Ooi". This book comprises of 21 bread recipes, 16 cakes recipes and 17 cookies recipes.
When I was browsing the book one night after dinner, I saw a recipe that uses canned Mandarin orange and Poppy seeds in the cake. Well, it hits me straight and I made no more hesitation, and once I reached home, I just head straight to the kitchen, dug out my mandarin oranges, and started preparing it for the bake.
As I mentioned earlier, the recipe actually calls for 1 can of mandarin orange (drained and blended), I have a can of mandarin orange in the cupboard, but decided to use the fresh ones instead, so I took down the actual net weight of the can and substituted it for the fresh peeled and blended mandarin oranges.  Another great ingredient is the Poppy Seeds. Poppy seeds are highly nutritious, and less allergenic than many other seeds and nuts. Poppy seeds are a potential source of anti-cancer drugs. This is the first time I uses poppy seeds in my baking and it's rather expensive though - 100gm packet calls for RM9.00.
I made it into 4 small oval cake tins , each of my kids get one small cake to bring to school the next day, and a loaf (8" x 5" x 3") tin for my in-laws for breakfast the next day. So, be creative and you could even use it for cupcakes, I would say.......^-^

ORANGE POPPY SEEDS CAKE
 Ingredients
(A) 230gm Butter (soften) (I used 250gm instead :P)
      320gm caster Sugar ( I used only 230gm , cos I find it too sweet)
(B) 4 Eggs (Grade A)
      2 Eggs yolks (Grade A)
      1/2 tsp Orange essence
(C) 1 can Mandarin Oranges (drained and blended) (I used approximately 3 fresh mandarin oranges)
(D) 360gm Self raising flour

(E) 50gm Poppy Seeds

Method

1. Pour ingredients (A) into a mixer and whisk until thick and creamy (about 2 minutes).
2. Add in ingredients (B) and blend well. Fold in ingredient (C) and (D), mixing in until the mixture is well blended. Finally stir in ingredient (E).
3. Pour batter into cake tin / cupcakes cases and bake in pre-heated oven at 180~C for 30 minutes for the small cake tin and 45 minutes for the loaf tin or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy the cake, it's really moist , dense and very refreshing .....and also, the funny thing is it 'pops' in your mouth when you bite on the poppy seeds. LOL