Citrus poppy seed syrup cake

All of a sudden there was a vacuum after our families visiting us from India left. It was so depressing to enter the house that was once filled with constant noise and cheers of the kids running and haggling over the toys. At times it was so difficult to deal with both of them (my son and his cousin) that the toys were kept outside the apartment until they both agreed to share. This sounds a little weird but now I can imagine the Herculean task of a teacher handling kids with patience. It truly is the noblest job in the world.

Well kids will be kids and are god’s special creation. I asked my son if he misses his cousin and he said he was so sad and he really loved her and misses her in spite of both of them constantly fighting and snatching at the same toy for 15 days. How cute and sweet was his thought. We adults always have bitter memories and reservation if things like this were to happen to us.

I was so busy but it was fun entertaining them with food and my kitchen experiments and they just loved to be my guinea pigs. Although I couldn’t go beyond the normal day to day cooking but couple of times I managed to churn out something different. While everybody was out on a day trip I was happy to be tucked in the kitchen and this is what I made for the dessert. This is one of my favorite desserts and I am forever in love with cakes and cookies flavored with citrus. On a fleeting glimpse from my dear journal I found this enticing cake recipe.

Ingredients
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1 cup plain flour
½ cup castor sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoon black poppy seeds
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh citrus juices ( orange and lemon )
1 teaspoon lemon and orange zest
 1/3 cup milk / sour cream

Ingredients for Syrup
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½ cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
¼ cup lemon juice
1teaspoon orange rind
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in eggs  and  add milk/sour cream to it. Mix it till well incorporated. Shift flour and baking powder. Fold into the above batter and add poppy seeds, juice and zest.

Preheat the oven at 180'C and pour the batter into a greased loaf tin or a muffin pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the skewers comes out clean.

Meanwhile prepare the syrup. Combine sugar and juices in a small sauce pan. Bring it to boil and keep stirring it till the sugar is dissolved, and gets into a syrupy consistency. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes and add the rinds.

Remove the cake and pierce the cake in several place. Drizzle 1/2 of the warm syrup and set it aside. for 5 minutes. Use the rest of the syrup while serving.