Light Fruit Tea Loaf – Easy Baking

I recently had a request from a Youtube viewer for Windsor Loaf Cake, which appears to be a cake of Malay or Indian origin. However I was totally unable to find any reference to such a cake. So I decided that I would make a Light Fruit Tea Loaf, in the hope that it is something similar. I think that maybe in the requested loaf cake there might be some spices, which I haven’t used. But if that is the case they can easily be added to the recipe.

A Tea Loaf is usually quite a dense cake filled with lots of dried fruit. However for this version I wanted a lighter cake with just enough fruit to provide some in each bite.

The loaf cake I made is very simple indeed. Gather the ingredients. Mix them all into a nice thick batter. Fill a 2lb loaf pan with the batter. Bake the cake. What could be simpler?

It does take some time to make. But every step is easy.

I used some dried mixed fruit in my loaf cake. But any dried fruits would work very well. I soaked the fruit in 120ml of black tea for about an hour. Then I drained the fruit completely before adding it into the batter. The soaking softened the fruits and allowed them to swell too.

I also used the zest from an orange and a lemon to add a citrus hint in the cake.

My Bake:

My loaf cake baked for 75 minutes. I checked it with a skewer test after 60 minutes and the centre wasn’t cooked. I tested again at 70 and then 75 minutes. By 75 minutes a skewer poked into the centre came out clean.

I allowed the cake to cool in the pan for ten minutes. Then I transferred it to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cake baked very well, with the fruit nicely distributed throughout. Once it had cooled I sliced it and had a taste. It was well baked but still moist. The flavours of citrus were subtle but very good. Then the dried fruit, nice and swollen from the soaking, was just perfect too.

This is a cake that is so easy to eat. It is most enjoyable too, particularly with a cup of tea, or coffee.

As I mentioned, above, some spices could be added if desired to make it something entirely different.

Another type of tea loaf is Barm Brack – Irish Tea Loaf

Light Fruit Tea Loaf – Easy Baking

Recipe by geoffcooCourse: CakesDifficulty: Easy

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

1

hour 

Cooking time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 300g(2 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup)plain flour

• 200g(1 cup) caster sugar

• 240g(2 sticks +1 tbsp) softened unsalted butter

• 8g(2 tsp) baking powder

• 1.5g(1/4 tsp) salt

• 3 large eggs(XL in USA) eggs – out of shell mine weighed 180g -see note below

• 45ml(3 tbsp) milk, you may not need it all

• grated zest of one lemon

• grated zest of one orange
  

• 150g(1 cup) mixed dried fruit(or dried fruit of choice)

• 120ml(1/2 cup) black tea.

Directions

• Soak the dried fruit in the black tea for about an hour, then drain it completely. Discard the tea.
• Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/340F.
• Grease and line a 2lb loaf pan with parchment paper.
• Place the sugar into a large bowl and rub the zests into it for about a minute, to release the oils.
• Add the butter and whisk into the sugar until light and fluffy( I used my hand mixer).
• Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until fully combined. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles.
• Add about 2 tablespoons of the milk and whisk to combine.
• Toss the dried fruit in about a tablespoon of flour.
• Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
• Sift the flour mixture onto the top of the wet mixture.
• Fold the flour into the wet mixture until almost combined.
• Add the fruit and continue folding in until it is distributed throughout the batter.
• Add a little of the remaining milk, if required, to loosen the batter a little but still leaving it quite thick.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out to level it off.
• Bake the loaf cake in the oven for between 60 and 75 minutes. It will rise and will probably spite down the centre. Test with a skewer poked into the centre. If it comes out clean remove the cake from the oven. If the skewer doesn’t come out clean bake the cake for longer, testing every 5 minutes.
  
• Remove the cake from the oven and leave in the pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• My 3 large eggs weighed 180g out of the shell. So if you don’t have large eggs you can use about 3 1/2 medium eggs(large in USA) instead, or weigh out 180g.