Bara Brith

This is the tea bread I made and brought to France last summer. The only difference is that I used lemon juice and zest instead of orange, and I added crystallised ginger quite generously.

175 ml strong, warm tea
225g mixed dried fruit
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed orange
150g light soft brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
225g self raising flour
Pinch of sea salt
1 tsp mixed spice

Start the day before you need this. Place dried fruit, orange zest and juice, sugar and tea in a mixing bowl large enough to hold everything. Cover and leave overnight for everything to plump up.

Preheat the oven to 180° C/gas mark 4. Add the egg to the fruit mix and stir it in. Then sift the flour and salt and spice together over the mixture. Mix carefully together to form a soft dough. Spoon it into a lightly greased and lined loaf tin.

Bake in the oven for about 1 hour until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.

It will keep for 2 or 3 weeks if you can wait and tastes better if you leave it a few days before getting started on it.