Now this IS a traditional British recipe – the cold tea loaf; a good keeper, moist, fruity, delicious and very low fat. What’s not to like?

This is in 2 parts simply because before you fling together the ingredients, you first have to soak your dried fruit in cold tea.

Make 1 cup (250 ml) of strong tea – I use 2 teabags. Let it stew and then remove the teabags and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, measure a lightly packed cup of light brown sugar. I use Waitrose’s own light brown sugar because it is much darker and more treacle-y than other brands. If you can’t get it, consider using ¾ light brown and ¼ dark brown sugar. Add that to the bowl and quickly stir together.

Measure 1 lb of dried fruit. This can be raisins or sultanas or a mixture of both. I like to use about 7 oz of raisins, 7 oz of sultanas and 2 oz dates. Cut the dates up so they are nearer the size of the raisins and sultanas. Put into a medium bowl.

Once the tea is cold, pour it over the fruit and sugar and stir briefly again

Cover with clingfilm and leave out overnight.

Night night.

By the way, to make the loaf tomorrow, we need 2 cups self-raising flour, 1 egg and 1 tbsp oil. And a 2lb loaf tin to cook it in.

The rest tomorrow!

Here’s part two

Brainwave. Sheer brainwave.

We all loved the dough for Michelle’s cinnamon buns and Mum and I were discussing how it was reminiscent of the lemony buns we can get from the bakers.

So I decided to have a go. It worked!

First, I put a scant ½ cup sultanas in a small bowl and covered them with just-off-the-boil water and a tbsp triple sec liquer.

Once they had plumped and softened, I drained them and added the zest of 1 lemon to them.

Make the cinnamon bun recipe up to the point of painting the rolled out dough with butter, ready to fill.

(NB. I had to cut the rolled dough in half to do a batch of lemon and one of cinnamon; if I was doing the whole batch as lemon, I would add the zest of another lemon to the cream cheese.)

Instead of the brown sugar and cinnamon, spread the buttered dough with 4-5 tbsp lemon curd. Sprinkle evenly with the sultanas and roll up as before.

Cut the cylinder into slices as before

Leave to rise overnight and bake for 30 mins as per the cinnamon buns.

I made the icing up with lemon juice, just to reinforce the flavour. Yummo to the max, baby.

Here’s the recipe in full with the lemony changes:

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