Recipe // Fruity Tea Loaf

As today is Mother's Day I decided that rather than buying the usual flowers and chocolates for my mum, I would make her a cake. I chose this recipe as it's deliciously moist, and packed with all my favourite fruits. I used this BBC Good Food recipe, deviating slightly from the recipe by omitting the orange peel (as I'm not a fan), and adding a wider selection of fruits (semi-dried apple chunks, cranberries and dates). I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and my mum has asked me to bake another for her Bring and Buy sale next weekend.

Ingredients

300g mixture sultanas, raisins, dried cranberries, dried dates and sweetened apple
225ml hot tea
juice 1 orange
50g butter
100g light brown sugar
1 egg
225g self-raising flour
4 tbsp demerara sugar

Method (in words)

1. Place the dried fruits in a bowl and pour over the hot tea, orange juice and zest. Cover with cling film, then leave for at least 4 hrs or better still overnight.
2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, then beat in the egg followed by the flour. Carefully stir through the fruit mixture. Spoon the mixture into the tin, then smooth over the surface with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle all over with a thick layer of demerara sugar.
3. Bake for 1 hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out, cut into slices and serve.

Method (in pictures)

Have your ingredients to hand. I chose to use a wider variety of fruits in this cake than the recipe called for. You could also add nuts such as walnuts or pecans to give it a crunch. Preheat your oven the 160 degrees.

Pour the freshly squeezed orange juice and hot tea over the fruits, using a spoon to ensure all the fruit is covered.

Cover with clingfilm and leave to soak overnight. I left mine to soak for about 16 hours to make sure they were very moist.

Cream the butter and sugar. This will take a long time with an electric hand whisk, and you may find the mixture clumps together. If this happens, use a metal spoon to soften the butter a little by hand. Once the sugar and butter are well mixed and softened, whisk in the egg, followed by the flour. You will be left with a heavy dough-like consistency.

Add the fruit mixture to the dough mixture a little at a time. Make sure you add all the liquid from the bowl, as this will cake the cake its moist texture.

 Place in the centre of the oven and cook for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Once it has cooled, carefully lift the loaf out, remove the grease proof paper and place onto a cake rake to allow the bottom to dry out a little.

If stored in a sealed and dry container, it will keep for a week. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea!