Mixed Berry Tea Loaf

I recently had the chance for a delve in Bulk Barn. It’s in Yarmouth so I don’t get there that often, but it’s the only place I can now reliably get self-raising flour (or ‘self-rising’, as it seems to be known as here) and I was all out. I used to be able to buy ‘Brodies Cake and Pastry Flour’, which was self-raising, at one of our local supermarkets but it disappeared at the start of the pandemic and didn’t seem to return-to be honest I was probably the only one buying it. Anyway, I loaded up with the SR flour, some fine sugar, which is a good dupe for caster sugar, and other bits and bobs. I was collecting some sultana raisins (sultanas) and dried cranberries in bags when I came across a dried mixed berry mix that looked useful. It seemed to be a mix of dried cranberries, blueberries and cherries, and was a bit pricy, but I thought I’d give it a go. I just needed a suitable recipe.

I found a tea loaf recipe, i.e., one made with actual tea. It sounded easy and had not too many ingredients, so I thought I’d give it a go. The actual recipe was to make 2 x 1 lb loaves, but that was too much for just the two of us, so I halved the amounts. It’s a UK recipe so no cups, just grams.

112g butter or margarine*

170 g caster sugar**

225g mixed dried fruit***

125 ml/½ cup strong tea

225 g self-raising flour

1 egg****

*I used soft margarine but butter would be better, I think

** North American granulated sugar would be fine

*** Recipe says ‘your preference’. I used a 50-50 mixture of sultana raisins and a premade mix of dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries etc. that I found at Bulk Barn

****recipe says a medium egg, but I used the smallest large egg that I had. If you want to be accurate, use 50g of beaten egg.

Preheat the oven to 275˚F/140˚C/Gas 1. Grease a suitable loaf tin -1 lb or so. Line if you wish. I chose to use a very old metal loaf tin in place of the Pyrex one I usually use (it was a bit too big) and it turned out to be not that non-stick. My new, non-stick, loaf pans are in the post!

Place the butter/margarine, sugar, tea and fruit into a large saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until the butter/margarine and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat.

Place the flour into a bowl and mix in the egg.

Add the sugar/butter/fruit mix to the flour, in batches, mixing well between each addition.

Transfer the batter to the loaf tin, smooth the top and bake, 60 minutes. The cake is done when a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

My cake stuck a bit to the base of the tin. Hopefully my new loaf pans will cure that.

When cool, slice and serve buttered. It’s not overly sweet but it is lovely and fruity, that mixed berry mix gives it a lovely kick. It was also really nice served in the Northern English way with a slice of good tasty cheddar cheese-don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!

It’s a recipe that will stay in my rotation, it really was very easy to put together. I think I’ll stock up again on the mixed berries, next time I’m in the Bulk Barn, too.