Irish Tea Cake
This dense cake could almost be mistaken for a fruit cake if it wasn’t for the fact it is not as sweet. This is best served warm. Use your favorite black tea and feel free to substitute any of your favorite dried fruit for this recipe.
- 2 cups of water
- 6 grams (2 rounded teaspons) of your favorite black tea (we used Irish Breakfast)
- 2 cups golden raisins ormixed dried fruit (cut to raisin size)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenhait and grease a 9 inch loaf pan.
Bring the water to a boil and then add the tea and steep for five minutes. Remove the tea leaves and put in the dried fruit. The fruit should soak for at least twenty minutes, you are looking for the fruit to be moist when you chew it so test a few pieces before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.
In a large bowl mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then mix in the two eggs. Next strain the dried fruit from the tea and hold on to the tea. Mix in the fruit and then mix in 1 cup of the tea and start to form the dough. At this point, go a tablespoon at a time to get the dough moist and make sure there are no dry spots. Be careful not to over stir as this bread lifts with the baking powder, you will see bubbles as you mix in the water and you do not want to lose too many of those. You can drink any remaining tea, which will be a given the fruit soaked in it.
Transfer the dough to the prepared loaf pan and put into the oven for 45 minutes. The bread is done when a tooth pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Want to explore more cooking with tea options? We have a full page devoted to some of our favorite tea recipes.