Anyone made the Bara Brith from Great British Baking book??

[TwigletMonster]

I've just tried, and it looks a bit peculiar, too dry.

Never made Bara Brith before, but the mixture was really just dried fruit and flour. There was an egg in the recipe, and I did add a bit more milk to try and make it bind together, but didn't want to put loads in.

It's in the oven now, looking a bit dubious.

Should the mixture be really dry and crumbly before baking??

I've made this and the first time I made it it looked like you described.Could not eat it,was dry and barely combined,it looked like rubble from a building site . I made it again and this time did not tip the tea away,this worked and looked and tasted like bara brith should.All the other receipes that I have for bars brith / tea loaf say to keep the tea so not sure if it is a mistake in the receipe as not sure how it would work without the tea.
Hope this helps.

you need to keep the tea! I think it's a printing error, because the whole point of Bara Brith is it is a tea cake.

As I was pouring away the tea (as per recipe!) I did think it was a bit of a waste as it probably had lots of flavour from the fruit.

That's annoying, will see if I can recycle the fruit into muesli or flapjacks, and try again with the tea.