Quick Fruited Tea Cake

 

This delicious cake recipe I am sharing with you today is for a really quick Fruited Tea Cake.  A tea cake is the type of cake that one might be encouraged to sit down and enjoy thickly sliced and with a hot cup of tea to enjoy along side of it.

This one is especially nice. It is simple to make and incredibly fruity and rich, with a lovely moist and tender crumb.  I can no longer remember where I got the recipe from.  I suspect it was purloined from a magazine, perhaps one of the food magazines.  I cannot say for sure which one.  I do subscribe to several.  

Good Food.  Delicious. Olive. Sainsburys.  What can I say. I love a good recipe magazine!  And the recipe magazines in the UK are some of the best in the world.

I am also prone to picking up recipe cards in the grocery stores. Most grocery stores have them. My favorites are the cards you get in Waitrose.  Some shops even offer you their own magazine once a month, and it is free. You can't complain about that!

 This fruity cake is one of my favorite indulgences to enjoy with a nice hot drink and my feet up!  Its a simple and easy cake and I am betting you have everything you need in the house to bake it right now!

This cake is also a great way to use up the last of that mincemeat languishing away in the back of the refrigerator if you will. But, if you are like me, you always keep a jar or two of mincemeat in the cupboard because, its not just for Christmas you know 

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE QUICK FRUITED TEA CAKE

It uses a quantity of mincemeat. Most of the time  I use homemade, but feel free to use any good quality readymade mincemeat.

• 175g butter (3/4 cup)
• 100g light muscovado sugar (1/2 cup packed) (can use soft light brown sugar)
• 3 large free range eggs, beaten
• 225g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups, plus 2 TBS) (see notes)
• 300g prepared mincemeat (1 1/3 cups)
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon and ginger
• Icing sugar to finish

 

I just use regular salted butter. I don't bother to keep in both kinds. I use salted and it serves me well, both for every day eating and for baking with.

Some people might think that when I am talking about mincemeat that I am talking about ground up meat.  There is no meat at all in the mincemeat I am talking about, although there might have been at one time.

 

At its very basic, mincemeat is a delicious mixture of chopped dried fruits, spices, beef suet and often some sort of alcohol, usually brandy although the use of port is also very popular. It will sometimes even include chopped nuts, usually almonds.

The dried fruits might contain sultana raisins, regular raisins, currants, mixed citrus peels and sometimes glace cherries.  If your fruit mixture has cherries in it, it is usually considered a luxury mix.

 

It is very simple and easy to make your own. I usually make my own in September/October. That way it has plenty of time for the flavors to develop.  One good recipe that I can highly recommend is that of Delia Smith's. 

Hers contains all of the usual suspects, including brandy, but it also has chopped almonds and freshly grated orange and lemon peels, in addition to dried candied peel.  There is also chopped apple.

 

Back home in Nova Scotia, people often add ground venison/deer meat to their mincemeat when they make it.  I have to say I was never fond of mincemeat back home, or when I was growing up.  It is only since I have come to the UK that I have come to love and enjoy it.

The British make the best mincemeat in the world in my opinion. I will never be without at least one jar of it in my cupboard and I tend to make my own every year without fail. 

Having said that it is not too late to make your own. It might not be quite as robust as some that has been left to ripen for a few months, but it will still be delicious, and you will have plenty to use  in your mince tarts, etc. and of course cakes like this one!

 

HOW TO MAKE A QUICK FRUITED TEA CAKE

This is a very simple cake to make and goes together very quickly. It also bakes in far less time than a traditional fruit cake would take.

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter and line a 9 inch round cake tin with baking paper. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the mincemeat.

Beat in the eggs, a bit at a time, until all are combined.

Sift together the flour and spices. Fold this mixture thoroughly into the creamed mixture. It will be fairly thick. Spread into the prepared cake tin.

Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and the top springs back lightly. It might even be slightly cracked on top, and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Let sit in the cake tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Break out the tea pot!

 

This is the type of cake our grandmother's would have baked.  Over here it might have been served in late afternoon for tea, with some bread and butter, maybe some jam, and steaming hot cups of tea!  I can just picture it now.

Everyone sitting around the table munching away and chattering about the day they have just had.  This is one of those cakes that just gets better with each day that passes.  I dare say it would even be quite tasty thinly sliced and buttered.

This is a real family cake.  Buttery, dense and deliciously moist,  generously studded with bits of fruit and lightly spiced, this is a cake that pleases on many levels!

 

Some other cakes here in The English Kitchen that you might want to enjoy with a hot cuppa are:

RASPBERRY YOGURT CAKE - I love cakes which are made with sour cream and yogurt.  Adding sour cream or yogurt add moisture and makes for a lovely tender crumb.  This  is a beautiful cake, with a lovely moist crumb.  Its light in texture and filled with pockets of sweet tart raspberries. 

TRADITIONAL SEED CAKE - Seed cake is actually a very traditional cake which goes way back in British history.  It was very popular in Victorian times, and a good seed cake recipe would have been included in most cookery books of that era. It has a texture very similar to a pound cake and is studded with caraway seeds. It was said to be William Wordsworth's sister Dorothy's favorite cake.  All I can say is that she had exceedingly good taste! 

Yield: 1 (9-inch) round cake

Author: Marie Rayner

Quick Fruited Tea Cake

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 40 MinInactive time: 10 MinTotal time: 1 H & 5 M

This is a great last minute cake. Its nice for Christmas, but actually its pretty special any time! A real teatime treat! It is especially nice served with a hot cup of tea.

Ingredients

• 175g butter (3/4 cup)
• 100g light muscovado sugar (1/2 cup packed) (can use soft light brown sugar)
• 3 large free range eggs, beaten
• 225g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups, plus 2 TBS) (see notes)
• 300g prepared mincemeat (1 1/3 cups)
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon and ginger
• Icing sugar to finish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter and line a 9 inch round cake tin with baking paper. Set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the mincemeat.
3. Beat in the eggs, a bit at a time, until all are combined.
4. Sift together the flour and spices. Fold this mixture thoroughly into the creamed mixture. It will be fairly thick. Spread into the prepared cake tin.
5. Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and the top springs back lightly. It might even be slightly cracked on top, and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean.
6. Let sit in the cake tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Break out the tea pot!

Notes

Make Your Own Self Raising Flour:

You can make your own self raising flour by adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt to every 1 cup (140g) of plain flour needed. I make mine up two to three cups worth at a time and it always gets used up.

Did you make this recipe?

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I know you probably have about a bazillion other things you are baking at the moment, but do make note of this for future reference.  It is a cake you will not want to miss out on!  

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