Tea Bread

This cake keeps for days and if you ask me is actually improved by giving it a couple of days (in an airtight container) to mature after baking.

Ingredients:

• 4 tea bags, I used English Breakfast
• 300ml boiling water
• 500g mixed dried fruit, choose your favourite, but I had 200g currants, 100g dried pineapple 100g dried papaya and 100g dried cranberries
• 125g unrefined caster sugar
• 250g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 egg

Method:

Pour the boiling water onto the tea bags and leave to brew for 15 minutes before removing the tea bags.

Put the dried fruit in a large bowl and pour the tea over it.

Leave the fruit overnight to soak up the tea.

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.

Mix the sugar, flour, spice and egg into the fruit and stir until it's well mixed.

Put a loaf tin liner into a 2lb loaf tin and then pour the mixture into that.

Bake for 70 minutes in the oven.

Remove and leave to cool in the tin.

Makes a 1kg loaf.