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?

Thank you for the scientific updates on sugar ratios. Really interesting

I do make yeasted tea cakes or hot cross buns occasionally, but like you say, they take much longer. So I want just looking for a simpler version for when less time to faff with proving timings.

have taken note of several recipes and will try when I get some more fruit. Ps the original cake baked was actually edible this morning. We toasted it and added salted butter to reduce sweetness. Have frozen 1/2 in slices so I can repeat toasted another week

Sorry to detour from your op @Caspianberg and have saved a lot of the suggested recipes to try out. Would be nice to have a good fruit cake in the tin for emergencies ;)

@Onlyvisiting can I thank you for mentioning the reverse creaming method. I've never heard of it before and have just been having a read. I've been trying to make a decent gluten free sponge cake and it seems this might be a good way to get a good cake. I've found a recipe which I will try this afternoon.