Recipe - traditional tea loaf

In the increasingly fancy world of baking,  I'm sometimes guilty of forgetting the basics, the cakes that made me love to bake from a young age.

This is always popular in the cafe, so many people comment on it, so I'm sharing my recipe which was, of course, passed down from my mum.

Tea loaf is the first cake I learned to bake and I've been making them regularly since. Soaking the fruit in tea makes it moist and plumptious. It's open to endless adaptation, freezes well and is even dairy free. Unless you slather it in butter, which I highly recommend.

Dairy free

Not dairy free

I promise you this recipe will not fail, it's that good. Soak the fruit in the evening and the next day you'll have a cake in the oven within 15 minutes.

Ingredients

340g mixed fruit
100g glace cherries (optional)
220g dark brown sugar
240ml cold strong tea

1 egg
260g self-raising flour

Soak the fruit and sugar overnight in a large bowl. Stir well.

The next day, preheat the oven to 150°c and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Stir in the egg and flour, tip into tin, bake for about 90 minutes and bingo, a moist, tasty cake.

Serve cold, with or without butter, with a lovely cup of tea.