Fruit and cake batter is the perfect pair for a delicious sweet treat, especially when teamed with a cup of tea.
While a fruit cake can be enjoyed separately from a hot beverage, Mary Berry’s tea loaf cake combines all three at once.
Sharing the recipe from her book Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets, the baking expert said: “Dried fruit is plumped up by being soaked overnight in Earl Grey tea.
“After that it’s a quick stir-together job and a couple of hours later, voila, the perfect tea loaf.”
The recipe calls for a simple list of just seven ingredients and a 900g loaf tin is also essential.
Tea loaf recipe
This cake is quick to prepare but takes a while to cook so it’s best made when you’ve got some spare time on your hands.
The night before serving the cake, measure the currants and sultanas in a bowl and pour over the hot Earl Grey tea. Stir, cover and leave to soak overnight to allow time for the liquid to fully absorb and plump up the fruity mixture.
The following day, preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/ gas mark 3, then grease the loaf tine with butter.
Line the tin with baking paper, leaving a little overhanging the edges to allow easy lifting when the cake is baked.
Add the flour, sugar and eggs to the bowl of soaked fruit and mix thoroughly. It doesn’t matter if there is some excess liquid, according to Mary.
Next, spoon in the mixture to the prepared tine and level the top. Bake for one hour and 45 minutes, or until the cake is “risen and just firm to the touch”.
Mary recommended checking the cake at about one hour and 15 minutes. When cooked, allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn it out and remove the paper.
Slice into thick slices and spread with butter to serve.
