Okay so this one wasn’t even planned.
I took a bit of a break from baking and posting — life happens, you know how it is. When I finally got back into the kitchen, I didn’t really have a plan. I just wanted to bake something. My pantry had the usual stuff sitting around, the things I always use for my citrus bakes. Then I spotted a bag of blueberries in the freezer that I’d bought ages ago and honestly forgotten about. Why not throw these in, I thought.
I didn’t want to just repeat something I’d already shared before. I wanted it to feel a little different. So this became a blueberry & orange poppy seed loaf — basically my usual orange base, but with blueberries folded through. And I’m not exaggerating when I say it was too delicious. Dangerously good, honestly. I ended up having two slices “for quality control” and then a third one just because.
Let me tell you how it went, and why I made the choices I did. There’s actually a bit of thinking behind some of them.
Butter, not oil, this time in blueberry & Orange loaf
If you bake with me often, you’ll know a lot of my recent stuff — like the orange lemon poppy seed muffins — is oil-based. Sunflower oil, cold amasi, that whole vibe. It works, it’s soft, it’s reliable. But for this loaf, I went back to butter. Honestly, I think it was the right call.
Oil is kind of a “neutral” ingredient in baking. It does its job — moisture, softness — but it doesn’t really taste like much on its own. Butter actually has flavour. It’s rich, a little nutty once you cream it properly, and it makes the whole loaf taste more “made”, if that makes sense.
This is also where I’ll say it plainly: butter is not margarine. Margarine is processed, made to imitate butter, and no matter how good a margarine is, it’s never going to give you that same honest, real-cream flavour. If you want your bakes to actually taste like something, use real butter. It’s not that deep, but it does matter.
One thing I’ll be honest about though — this loaf tastes its absolute best on the day you bake it. Butter bakes firm up a bit more as they sit, especially once they go into the fridge. That means it loses a little of that soft, fresh-out-the-oven magic after a day or two. It’s still good the next day, don’t get me wrong, just a bit firmer.
So if you’re the type who bakes ahead and wants something that stays soft for days, oil might still be your friend for that. But if you’re baking to eat it warm today? Butter, every time.
Salted or unsalted butter?
I get this question a lot, so let me settle it here. I used salted butter for this one, on purpose.
People think salt in a cake means it’ll taste salty, but that’s not really how it works. Salt makes everything else taste like more of itself. Your orange, your blueberries, your sweetness — it all comes through clearer with a bit of salt in there. Salted butter, plus the small amount of salt already in the recipe, just helps everything taste more like itself.
If unsalted is all you’ve got, that’s completely fine. Just don’t skip the salt in the dry ingredients. Maybe even add a tiny pinch more, since salted butter brands aren’t all the same anyway.
How to zest citrus without ruining your bake
Orange zest is doing a lot of work in this blueberry and orange loaf recipe. Let’s talk about getting it right, because it’s easy to mess up.
My go-to tool is a microplane. It’s that thin little grater with the tiny sharp holes. It only takes off the very top coloured layer of the peel and leaves the bitter white part — the pith — alone. A regular box grater can sort of work if that’s all you have. You’ve got way less control though, and it’s easy to dig in too deep.
A few things I always do:
- Wash and dry the orange first, especially if it’s not organic — there’s often wax or residue on the skin.
- Zest before you juice it. Once you’ve squeezed it, the peel goes floppy and gets way harder to work with.
- Go light. Short strokes, turning the orange as you go, rather than pressing hard in one spot.
- The moment you see white showing through, stop and move to a different bit of peel. That pith is bitter, and it’ll come through in your bake if it ends up in the bowl.
- If you can, zest straight over your mixing bowl. That way you catch the little citrus oils that spray out, and that’s honestly where a lot of the smell and flavour comes from.
Done right, one tablespoon of zest should smell incredible and taste bright, not bitter at all.
Keeping blueberries fresh (without wasting money)
Since blueberries were the new addition here, let me tell you how I actually store mine. I don’t buy them “just when I need them.”
I buy blueberries in bulk whenever they’re on discount. Fresh berries don’t last long in the fridge, so rather than let a good price go to waste, I portion them out and freeze them. I keep a stash of zipper freezer bags just for this. I split the blueberries into loaf-sized amounts and lay each bag flat in the freezer. That way the berries freeze separately instead of turning into one solid block, and I’ve always got some on hand when I want to bake.
That’s literally how I had blueberries ready for this bake. I’d bought them a while back and honestly forgot they were even there until I opened the freezer. Good news — you don’t need to thaw them before using them. I folded mine in straight from frozen. They hold their shape better that way and bleed less colour into the batter. Fresh ones work too, just handle them gently when folding them in. Otherwise they’ll burst and turn your batter purple before it’s even baked.
Why I went lighter on the sugar
You’ll notice the sugar amount here is a bit less than you’d normally expect for a loaf this size. That’s on purpose. When you’ve already got orange juice, orange zest, and blueberries in the mix, you’re adding a decent amount of natural sweetness before the sugar even goes in. Add a “full” amount of sugar on top of all that, and it can end up way too sweet. Honestly, it just drowns out the citrus and berry flavour you’re trying to highlight in the first place.
So my advice, whenever you’re baking with naturally sweet ingredients like this: dial the sugar back a little. It’s a lot easier to add sweetness after the fact, like a light glaze or a dusting of icing sugar. Fixing a loaf that came out too sweet is much harder. Less sugar here just means the orange and blueberry actually get to shine.
All the ingredients you need
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Brown or granulated sugar | 135g (2/3 cup) |
| Orange zest | 1 tbsp |
| Softened salted butter | 160g |
| Amasi (or buttermilk) | 250ml (1 cup) |
| Organic orange juice | 60ml (1/4 cup) |
| Poppy seeds | 15g (1/8 cup) |
| Cake flour | 240g (2 cups) |
| Baking soda | 1 tsp |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp |
| Vanilla Essence | 1 tbsp |
| Fresh or frozen blueberries | 100g (2/3 cup) |
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180°C or 356°F (160°C fan). Grease and line a standard loaf tin.
- Start by rubbing the sugar and orange zest together with your fingers — this releases the citrus oils into the sugar and builds a lot of the flavour. Add the butter and cream everything together by hand until pale and fluffy. Don’t rush this bit, it takes a little effort but it’s worth it.
- Mix in the amasi and orange juice. It might look a bit split or curdled at this point — don’t panic, it comes together once the flour goes in.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir through the poppy seeds.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture in two or three goes, just until you can’t see flour streaks anymore. Overmixing here will make it dense, so go gently.
- Fold in the blueberries last, lightly. Frozen is fine, no need to thaw.
- Pour into your prepared tin and smooth the top over.
- Bake for 50–60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. If it’s browning too fast on top, loosely cover it with foil for the last 15 minutes or so.
- Let it cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then move it to a wire rack to cool properly before slicing. You can cover with a cling wrap to lock moisture.
If blueberries aren’t your thing
Maybe you’d rather skip the berries, or you just want to see where this recipe came from.
Either way, I’ve got two other bakes worth checking out:
- My Lemon Poppy Seed Cake uses both the butter and oil.
- My Orange Poppy Seed Loaf is the citrus-only version, topped with a poppy seed cream cheese frosting.Worth a bake if you want to compare.
One more thing — the shop is open Now!
I’ve officially opened my online treat shop! I can’t cover every location right now, and I wish I could. For now, orders are only available where I’m based — Western Cape, Cape Town, in Belhar. Hopefully that grows over time. If you’re local though, I’d genuinely love for you to order and finally taste what you’ve been watching me bake.
Come tell me how it went
If you end up baking this one, please come find me and tell me about it — I love seeing how yours turns out. Tag me on TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest @wandilebakes. Or just drop a comment below: fresh or frozen blueberries? Did you cut the sugar too? I genuinely want to know.
Happy baking, catch you in the next one.
Blueberry & Orange Poppy Seed Loaf
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease and line a loaf tin.
- Rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingers to release the citrus oils. Add the butter and cream by hand until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in the amasi, orange juice, and vanilla essence.
- Sift together the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Stir through the poppy seeds.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture in two or three goes, until just combined.
- Fold in the blueberries gently, straight from frozen if using.
- Pour into the tin and smooth the top.
- Bake for 50–60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Video
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