Mum's Tea Loaf

The snow's gone. It's raining. This calls for comfort baking. Whenever I'm stuck indoors I still like to bake, but I try to hold back a little on the fats and sugars - as I know I won't be out running it off anytime soon! Mum's tea loaf fits the bill perfectly. As the name suggests, it's great with a fresh cuppa, a good book and a comfy sofa... but there's no fat (in the recipe at least - see above!) and only a little sugar. I used earl grey tea for this one as it gives it a slightly floral note, but you can use whatever you like really.

I was particularly in the need of the comforting smells of cake today as I was having a bit of a 'growing up mope' - a bit of a "childhood's nearly over and what have I really achieved?" type complaint. I'm no olympic athlete, I'm not in a band or dancing on the west-end and I'm not a super-successful entrepreneur. I've experimented with a lot of hobbies, but they've all just fizzled out over time - ballet, gymnastics, violin, drums, tennis... my 'quit' list goes on. I came to question, "why didn't I just pick one and become really good at it?", "why did I never see the big picture?". My mum had the best advice, she said that if I was destined carry on with a hobby, I never would have doubted it, I would never have asked to quit, or found excuses not to go, I would have just done it no questions asked because it made me happy. And then I thought, isn't that what baking is to me? I've done it since I can remember, I never get bored of it, and I never question why I want to do it, I just do... So I got out the flour and turned on the oven.

Ingredients and method:

Soak 225g sultanas in 225ml earl grey tea (for a minimum of 2hrs)
Add 1 egg, 85g light soft brown sugar and 170g self raising flour and mix.
Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin (about a 900g one).
Cook for 45 mins at 180 degrees then cook for a further 30 mins at 150 degrees c (I used fan).
Leave to cool slightly, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Serve in cold slices with butter or spread.


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