Rooibos tea cake

Rooibos ‘red bush’ tea originates from South Africa. I find it has a smooth, almost gentle flavour (if you don’t leave the bag in for too long that is). It can be used in baking and features quite a bit in SA recipes and puddings and has also been made into the most delicious gin which I tried with family.

My dad is South African and so most of the food we eat have a subtle influence from this; cinnamon sugar on toast (delicious, don’t knock it), bananas with our curry, dishes a little more spicy than usual and mrs balls chutney with everything.

I used a mixture of apricots, dates and raisins which are soaked in the tea and take on an earthy and slightly nutty flavour. If you can, do this the day before so they are super plump and almost bursting. You can use traditional rooibos tea but you can also get vanilla or orange flavoured teas now which are equally as delicious and would work very well in this cake. You can replace the Fruit with any dried fruit you have and the nuts too. I used flora butter and Alpo coconut yogurt to make it 100% dairy free.

This cake is super light, not too sweet and delicious warm and buttered with a cup of tea (preferably rooibos).

Rooibos Loaf cake

• 250g mixed dried fruit ( I used dates, apricots and raisins)
• 250ml strong rooibos tea
• 25ml dark rum
• 100g butter
• 50ml oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 50g yogurt
• 50g soft dark brown sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 100g spelt flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste/ extract
• 1/4 ground cloves
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 80g walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 356F / Gas mark 4. Grease and line a loaf tin
2. Cut up any larger fruit into the same size as the raisins. Soak the dried fruit in the hot tea and rum for at least 30 minutes.
3. In a free-standing mixer, cream together the butter, oil, sugar and a pinch of salt until pale
4. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, sieve together the two flours, the spices, baking powder and bicarb. give them a whisk to evenly distribute.
5. Slowly add the two beaten eggs along with the yogurt, vanilla and half of the dry mix.
6. Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients along with the soaked fruit, all of its liquid and the chopped nuts.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, top with more walnut halves if you like.
8. Bake at 180 for 20 minutes then turn down to 160 and bake for a further 30-40minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly. Enjoy.