Nice fruit cake loaf recipe?

[Caspianberg]

I’m looking to make a nice light fruit loaf.
Not a dense Christmas cake type thing, but something nice to have with Tea.

Just baked Mary berry’s Bara brith fruit cake to try and it’s so horribly sweet I can’t eat it!
Feels like such a waste of time as I soaked the fruit in earl Grey tea last night, then made and baked this morning and it’s inedible

ps can I even feed it to the birds? Or not due to sugar?

I think that the birds, especially with the snow covering the landscape, would be very pleased to find a fruit cake.
They will be fighting over the fruit and the cake will get eaten too.

I hope you get some good responses to your post op.

I used to have an excellent recipe for a light fruit cake.
I made it every Xmas for my late DM.
Somehow it must have got lost in the shuffle of moving and I would dearly love to make it or something very similar again.
Agree; excellent with tea, when not too sweet!

@Vehxxed Thanks. I do already feed the birds actual bird stuff so will see.
Dh said he will see if it improves toasted with salted butter for breakfast ( I think he was just being kind!)

It’s a shame you lost the recipe. Even looking online and in my cookbooks most are huge Christmas dense cakes.

This recipe for Cut and Come Again cake is a family favourite. traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/cut-come-again-cake/

@Caspianberg I too feed the birds, the poor things really need it especially when snow is on the ground and it becomes so cold!
They might be a bit perplexed by their bounty of fruit cake, but I'm pretty sure they will enjoy it!

Yes, it really is a shame about my recipe; it was a cutting from a magazine from long ago.
I enjoy a dark Christmas cake also very much, but a lighter one is lovely too!

Maybe you should try a bit of salted butter on your cake, salt, if not too salty, can help balance the sweetness of a cake; I've had to do this before with muffins.

Thank you @Zombella I read the recipe and it sounds lovely!
I'm definitely going to try this soon.
I'm so craving a bit of cake with my tea, only problem is that cake ( of any sort) doesn't last long in my house!

https://britishchefstable.com/mary-berrys-boiled-fruit-cake/

I've had success with this one, although there was also a MB one with boiling the fruit that had baking powder or bicarb in the boiling mix which I can't find, but which is also not sweet.

I took a screen grab of this yesterday because it was accidentally vegan and also no added sugar. I planned to try it this weekend possibly in the oven though.

Do you want to take a look at my favourite emergency Christmas cake recipe? Its essentially just a tea cake, I've yet to pop it in a loaf tin but I have every intention of doing so once we've finished the Xmas cake.

I occasionally annually forget to make the Christmas cake but I actually prefer this now.

Link in next post

https://www.easypeasyfoodie.com/last-minute-emergency-christmas-cake/

...if baked in a loaf tin, and without the traditional icing, I think this would work x

Have you tried davina mccalls tea loaf recipe? If you Google it you'll find the recipe. I came across it when I was looking to reduce sugar but wanted something nice to eat (uses maple syrup instead of sugar and spelt flour) and I love it, it's delicious

@cartreffi Thanks for the heads up about Davina McCall's recipe.
All the posted recipes so far are really sounding really good!
None are as light in colour as the ones I used to make, but I'm sure they're all delicious.
The Davina one might be useful; I have a large tin of Maple syrup in the back of the cupboard; a Xmas gift once, never found the opportunity to use it yet!

That has an egg in it so it isn't vegan but it does look good.

Oh thank you. I will work my way through looking at these when Ds is in bed later

In desperate cake need I make a lemon drizzle instead this afternoon whilst I waited

I was given this Slimming World recipe years ago; and have used it ever since. There's no sugar in it, so the only sweetness comes from the dried fruit.
12oz mixed dried fruit
4tbsp brandy
3oz glace cherries
one mug hot black tea
6oz SR flour
1tsp mixed spice
1 egg.
Soak fruit overnight in tea and brandy (you can use extra tea, or orange juice if you don't like alcohol)
Add spice, stir in egg and flour.
Put in small loaf tin. Bake at180C for about an hour. If you want a larger cake, just double the ingredients. I make this just before Christmas, as it doesn't keep as well as a traditional one.

It's not a tea loaf recipe, but what about a Dundee cake? Classic lighter fruit cake. I've used this recipe twice, and it's gone down very well indeed. Keeps well. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dundee_cake_22157

I love this one

www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/tea-loaf

I would make a basic sponge cake but just add all spice/cinnamon and sultanas.

I love this one, super easy to make. I melt the butter in the microwave before adding

This is my fave fruit cake, on fact its the only one I like. My mum has her own receipe bit this looks very similar to the one she uses

https://www.farmersgirlkitchen.co.uk/yorkshire-barm-brack-with-wenslydale/

This fatless tea loaf is dead easy and very tasty. I make it often. I don’t bother with the dry tea mixed in, I use a generous teaspoon of mixed spice instead.

Soaking the fruit for 24 hours makes it even nicer.

Mine is

225g dried fruit
160g brown sugar
250ml water
1tsp each cinnamon, ground ginger, 2tsps mixed spice
bring to boil, simmer for 5 mins, cool

250g plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb
add to fruit mixture

Spoon into lined 2lb loaf tin, bake at 170 for 40 mins or until clean skewer.

@smallsilvercloud hmm maybe that’s what I have had before somewhere.
i have definitely had a really light fruitcake that I suspect had butter etc in also. I don’t need it fatless, just not so sweet.

Because of the amount of soaked fruit, it just doesn’t need butter in the mix. Fatless because of the ingredients required, not fatless as a dietary restriction.

Delia had a lovely tea loaf recipe in her Cakes book which is ages old but worth looking for. Nigellas banana bread recipe uses sultanas soaked in tea - makes a very moist, not too sweet loaf cake.

https://saffronbunny.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/chunky-fig-prune-and-apricot-cake/

This is just the ticket