Marmalade tea bread

Along with Omi’s coffee cakes, marmalade tea bread was Beulah’s signature bake. She was a marmalade lover and I always gave her a jar or two from my annual batch.

Otherwise a typical fruit cake, its distinctive, sweet-bitter tang and slightly sticky texture reveals the presence of marmalade. I’d always assumed it was a called a tea bread because it was served with tea, but it turns out the fruit is soaked in strong black tea overnight.

Marmalade tea bread

• 2 black tea bags
• 1lb (450g) mixed dried fruit
• 12 oz (340g) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 6 oz (170g) demerara sugar
• 3 Tb marmalade
• 1 orange, juiced and rind grated
• 1 large egg, beaten

1. Infuse the tea bags in ½ pint of boiling water and leave until cold.
2. In a large bowl, add the mixed fruit and cover with cold tea. Leave overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C, fan assisted).
4. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line the base with baking paper.
5. Sieve together the flour and mixed spice. Stir into the fruit mixture.
6. Stir in the sugar, marmalade, orange juice, orange rind and egg. Combine well – the mixture should be slightly wet.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread evenly.
8. Bake for 1¾ hours, until golden brown on top and springy to touch in the centre.
9. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Note: Freezes very well.

Tags: British food, vegetarian