Tea Loaf...?

I remember a few years ago watching a show where the cook made a loaf cake and a cup of tea was an ingredient. I never wrote the recipe down, and for the life of me I don't remember anything but the cup of tea. It may have been a madeira base, a plain sponge, any basic cake really but with tea thrown in for good measure.

So when I was bored, last week, I decided to try to make something like it, basically a tea cake... tea loaf?

My Cup of Tea Cake

You'll need

175g soft butter

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

250g self-raising flour

3 tbsp milky tea

1 small cup tea (without milk)

4 tbsp sugar

zest of 1 lemon

Method

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs one at a time alternately with the flour until blended to a thick batter, add lemon zest and 3 tbsp of the milky tea.

Bake at 180c for about 40 minutes then check with a skewer every five minutes until it comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cool.

Make a syrup by heating the small cup of tea and adding the sugar until bubbling, remove from the heat when it starts to thicken and pour over loaf. Prick the top of the loaf to allow the syrup to seep through.

Wait about ten minutes before slicing.

To be honest, this wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was different and you could definately taste the tea, I will make it again but only because the flavour was intriguing as opposed to downright yummy! I made it as an experiment and as an experiment it was worth doing, and I'm passing the recipe on because it was worth baking and eating. However if I could only bake one cake for the rest of my life this wouldn't be even in the running... not with lemon drizzle, chocolate squares, buttermilk birthday and all the other "I'll fight you for the last slice" cakes that have become repeat offenders (calorie wise) over the years of baking.

Sorry cup of tea cake but you just don't make the cut!