300ml tea – make as usual but don’t add the milk!
2 tablespoons marmalade
1 egg
6 tablespoons soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice – I put a little extra as I like it spicy!
450g self-raising flour
Milk as necessary
To glaze: honey
Salted butter to serve
Method
Start by soaking the fruit for 24 hours. Place all the fruit in a bowl and cover with the tea. Stir when you happen to walk past!
Preheat the oven to 170˚C/fan oven 150˚C/325˚F/Gas mark 3
Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper – this will help you to get the loaf out of the tin.
Mix the marmalade, egg, sugar, spice and flour into the bowl containing the fruit and tea.
Spoon into the loaf tin and level the surface.
Bake for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the loaf, comes out clean. After about an hour of baking check that the loaf isn’t browning too much – if it is, either move it down a shelf in the oven or loosely cover the top with foil.
Leave to stand in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes then turn out onto the wire rack.
Use a pastry brush to cover the top of the loaf with honey. As the loaf is so warm, the honey will melt and become easy to work with.
The cake will keep for several days in an airtight tin.
Serve in slices, thickly buttered.
Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.
Eat.
