Irish Tea Bread

Happy Easter!

This isn't really another Easter post, but how could I resist the daffodil? I suppose this also makes up for the lack of fruit in my Chocolate Simnel cake. Though I'm definitely not saying I regret changing the flavours - it was so yummy.

This Irish Tea Loaf was the very first cake I ever made by myself. I was 7 and I wanted the badge below for my Brownies sash - the cooking/tea one. I was so excited to have made something on my own.  I used to help mum in the kitchen a lot but it's not quite the same.  I have some rather fuzzy memories of handing bits out to parents at my Brownie group. We made some great things in Brownies like a traditional Simnel cake and our own elderflower cordial that we went out into the fields to harvest and then made in a big vat and many other things I've forgotten since.

I don't think I've made it more than once since, but the moment I bit into the first slice I instantly recognised the taste. It's quite distinctive and utterly addictive. I like fruit cake a lot, but I don't normally think of it as addictive. This loaf is.

I halved Delia's recipe to only make one loaf, took out the mixed peel and currants and swapped in more of the other fruit, changed demerara for soft brown and somehow screwed something up. When it came to make the cake, there wasn't nearly enough liquid. I'm fairly sure this is because my raisins/sultanas were pretty dried out and so soaked up more of the tea than expected. I had some cold tea sitting around (I have a bad habit of not finishing cups of tea) so I used some of that. It came out really nicely in the end and as a fruit cake didn't die for being a little chewier.

Also, doesn't this half eaten piece look like a dog's head with an open mouth? That's what mine looked like when they smelt the cake!

Irish Tea Bread

(Adapted from Delia Smith's 'Ultimate Collection: Baking')

385g dried fruit (mix of sultanas, golden sultanas, raisins etc)
100g soft brown sugar
5 fl oz/135 ml hot tea such as Earl Grey
55g pecans
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
225g self raising flour

The evening before you want to make the cake, measure out the dried fruit into a bowl. Make the tea and leave it to brew for slightly longer than normal. Then add the sugar to the  tea and stir till dissolved. Pour over the fruit and leave to soak till the next day.

Preheat the oven to 170C/ 325F.  Toast the pecans on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes before chopping them into small chunks and leaving to cool. Beat the egg and milk together and pour over the fruits. Sift the flour over the top and add the toasted nuts. Give it a good mixing. If it's still dry and a tbsp or two of cold tea or milk. Put the mixture into a lined loaf tin and  bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Take the loaf out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Fruit and Almond Muffins

Happy Easter! Living here in Switzerland over Easter is a feast of chocolate. I'm really not complaining, it's amazing. But it is partly why I haven't been baking in the last week or so, with all the eggs and bunnies crying out to be eaten (well, maybe not exactly, the poor bunnies always look a bit miserable - but who wouldn't when your only prospect was being eaten!). And we still haven't finished eating the birthday cake leftovers - though I discovered today that the ganache freezes brilliantly. I think a trifle may be in order for the rest of the cake bits, and I'm plotting something to do with strawberry puree, the ganache and something creamy...

So in a rather pathetic attempt to get away from a weekend heaving with chocolate, I made some fruity muffins (well, you could also kind of call them cupcakes, but each to their own. I didn't want to make a heavy fruit cake like the traditional simnel cakes we used to make at Brownies, but something lighter. I started this yesterday, but ran out of time before a big closing party of my favourite apres ski bar - all I had done was start to heat the fruit with the zest and orange juice. This wasn't really a problem, as I just let the fruit seep overnight, which I should do but often lack the patience!

I spent most of today translating Beowulf from the original Anglo-Saxon into modern English for my Old English paper at uni, and kept myself going with the prospect of making something lovely with the seeped fruit. Thankfully I managed to finish the translation and make these before going out to play squash. I didn't really have a recipe in mind, so I decided to play about and see what came out. I used some lovely golden sultanas I had and some raisins for the fruit - currents and normal sultanas would be lovely too. I did think about using some dates, or glace cherries, but thought it might be too sweet.

I made a fairly stiff cake mix, laden with spices, as I knew I had the orange juice in the fruit. It looked a bit too stiff so I added some milk. Then I decided there wasn't enough 'stuff' in them, so I toasted some almonds and chucked them in. It happily made 12 muffins, and I sprinkled them with some flaked almonds. The mix still seemed heavy when I was spooning it out, but the baking powder really lifted them up and they were pretty light - though I think I slightly overcooked them. They went very nicely with a cup of tea after a game of squash...

Fruit and Almond Muffins

(Recipe removed on 05/07/12 as I don't trust it to work!)