Traditional Tea Loaf

A mug of steaming tea with a slice of tea loaf decked with a spread of rich creamy butter is the mainstay of a Sunday afternoon for many people. If it’s miserable and rainy then even better as it adds to the comfortable indulgence of the cake. This tea loaf is certainly a best seller on the market stall and to keep an interest I vary it quite a bit. The cake and the recipe are so versatile that it is easy to adapt the basic recipe.

This recipe is quite fruit dense, which means the cake stays moist and in fact many people report back that they forego the butter as the cake is so good on its own. It will keep for many days in an airtight tin and the added bonus is that if you don’t cover it with butter………there’s no added fat in the recipe!

Ingredients

4 tea bags

300ml boiling water

500g mixed dried fruit

125g light brown sugar – I use unrefined caster sugar

250g self-raising flour

½ teaspoon of ground mixed spice

1 medium beaten egg

Method

Place the tea bags in bowl and pour over 300ml boiling water. Leave to steep for 10-15 minutes, remove the tea bags squeezing them out so you don’t lose any of the flavour.

Add the mixed fruit to the tea and mix it about with a spoon so all the fruit is broken apart and coated in tea. Mixed fruit can often stick together in clumps when you tip it out of the bag and that’s what you don’t want. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it to steep over night, but if you can’t do that and want to get on with your cake leave it for a minimum of two hours. Covering the bowl is particularly important if you are using an aromatic tea – you don’t want all those lovely scents being lost over night.

Preheat the oven to 180C, 160C fan, 350F or gas 4.

Sieve the flour, caster sugar and ground mixed spice over the fruit, then add the beaten egg. 

With a wooden spoon mix the whole lot together. It might take a minute or two to come together but just keep at it. Once everything is mixed transfer to a lined 2lb loaf tin. I always divide mine down into two 1lb loaf tins though as the smaller loaf size is preferred on the market stall.

Level the top and place on the middle shelf of your oven. Bake for approx. one hour. I check my 1lb loaf tins at about 50 minutes. When a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean it’s done. Leave to cool in the tin for 10minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

This cake is always better a couple of days after it has been baked and if you can resist I would always recommend you bake ahead of when you want it. My market stall is on a Friday so I bake the tea loaves on Wednesday.

Note on dried fruit variations

You can vary the fruit. I have one lady who hates mixed peel so her cake is just a mix of currants, sultanas and raisins. I have also used dried blueberries and dried cranberries to give it a different twist. I have yet to use dried figs and apricots but they are on the cards. I am allergic to cherries so they never enter on my radar but you could also use dried cherries in there too. Whatever the dried fruit combo just make sure you have 500g to throw in.

Note on tea variations

This cake is traditionally made with a good strong black tea, but you can so easily vary it. How about rooibos tea bags to give it a slightly smoky flavour? It lends itself very well to Earl Grey tea with its aromatic bergamot flavouring. One of the best selling variations I have done is to use Lady Grey tea so that the whole cake has a subtle faint underpinning taste of orange. I am yet to try green tea in the mix.

You can play for ages coming up with various fruit and tea combinations so try it out and let me know what you think works.

HAPPY BAKING!