Moist Fruit Tea Loaf (Fat Free) (2024)

Published: May 11, 2020 · Modified: Mar 20, 2023 by REALMEALDEAL ·

ThisMoist Fruit Tea Loaf recipeis quite possibly the easiest cake you will ever make. Just soak the fruit overnight. The next morning stir in a beaten egg and flour, bake in the oven and that's it.

A great Everyday Fruit cake, it also has a relatively low amount of added sugar and is Fat-Free. Soaking the dried fruit overnight in tea plumps it up and keeps the fruit loaf lovely and moist.

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An easy tea loaf recipe, it's perfect all year round and handy for lunch boxes or as an afternoon snack. It freezes well too so why not make several at once and save on energy costs?

For more easy sweet snacks try my Soft Flapjacks or Oat Bars or Banana and Cinnamon Muffins, perfect for using up leftover bananas.

What is a Tea Loaf?

A Tea Loaf is a traditional British fruit loaf, sometimes called Irish Tea Loaf, Irish Tea Brack, Tea Bread, Bara Brith, or Everyday Fruit Cake. You make it with dried mixed fruit such as sultanas, raisins, and candied peel and moistened with black tea. I think this is why we consider it a traditional British cake. We all love our tea!

Ingredients

• Dried Mixed Fruit -a simple mixture of dried sultanas, raisins, currants and candied peel.
• Golden Caster Sugar - an unrefined soft brown sugar with a golden colour and molasses flavour. It dissolves easily.
• Self-Raising Flour - Self-Rising (US) is a plain flour with baking powder already added. This will make the Tea Loaf rise.
• Black Tea - any black tea will do. Some recipes call for Earl Grey, which will give it a distinct flavour, but any black tea will do.

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

If you are making more than one fruit loaf, use one bowl for each loaf. Soak the fruit overnight or for around 8 hours.

Place the dried mixed fruit & sugar in a large bowl and pour over the hot tea. Give it a quick stir to dissolve the sugar, cover it with a plate, and leave overnight.

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/340°F/gas mark 3. Add the beaten egg and sieve in the flour. Fold the mixture together with a spoon until it is all mixed in.

Transfer the mixture to a standard 2lb loaf tin, lined with a standard 2lb loaf tin liner. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes. To test if it's ready, insert a fork into the middle of the cake, if the fork is clean - ie no cake mixture is stuck to it, it is cooked. You may need an extra 5 minutes.

Leave it to cool. Cut into slices to serve. You can also spread the slices with butter.

Hint: To check if the Fruit Loaf is cooked all the way through, insert a skewer or fork into the centre of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it is cooked. If it has wet cake mixture on it, it needs slightly longer.

To stop the top of your tea loaf from going too brown, cover it loosely with some aluminum foil or baking parchment.

Variations

This is a perfect Everyday Fruit Cake but it's easy to add some additional flavours. Make sure to keep the overall weight of dried fruit etc to 380g / 13oz or your tea loaf will not be moist.

• Spices - add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon or All Spice
• Deluxe - add some finely chopped nuts or glace cherries. You don't need to soak the nuts or cherries overnight, just add them along with the eggs and flour
• Orange zest- add the zest of one orange to the fruit and tea mixture
• Dried Cranberries - add a slightly tart flavour

Substitutions

My Fat-Free Tea Loaf recipe is one of my most popular and has been made thousands of times. These are some of the substitutions and questions readers have used and asked.

Gluten-Free Flour - readers have successfully substituted self-raising flour for gluten-free self-raising (self-rising) flour. The brand used was Freee Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour.

Sugar - Although there is only a small amount of added sugar for a cake, (50g - the equivalent of 1 teaspoon per slice) the sugar does also help with texture and stops it from being too chewy. However, some readers have successfully used artificial sweeteners as replacements. It's impossible to test the recipe with all the artificial sweeteners available, so I'm just sharing the experiences of readers who've made the recipe here. You should be aware that substituting the sugar with an artificial sweetener will change the texture of the fruit loaf and it won't taste exactly the same. Also, artificial sweeteners are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar so you may not need as much. Readers have tried the recipe with Sucralose and also Lakanto Sweetener which comes as a powdered sugar replacement.

Equipment

You'll need :-

• 2lb loaf tin
• Loaf tin liner or greaseproof paper
• Large Mixing bowl.

You can't use aluminum foil in place of greaseproof paper. Foil conducts heat and will make the outside of your fruit cake dry.

Sustainability

The dried mixed fruit, tea, and sugar can all be boughtFairtradewhich makes a big difference to the farmers who grow the produce. Because it can be stored for several weeks, you're unlikely to waste any so it makes a great standby.

Storage

A Tea Loaf will keep very well stored in an airtight container in your cupboard for about 2-3 weeks. If it starts to go a little dry, you can spread it with butter. It also freezes well. To freeze it, wrap it up well to prevent freezer burn. It will keep for about 6 months. De-frost your tea loaf at room temperature for about 4 hours.

FAQ

Looking for other sweet snack recipes like this? Try these:

How to make Tea Loaf

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