As you may already know, plenty of us think it’s time for a revival of the great British tea loaf. They taste great, you don’t usually need any fancy equipment or much experience to make one, they don’t need fancy decorations, they’re great to share or give as a gift and they’re the perfect excuse for a tea or coffee break. What’s not to love?

This month we have a refreshingly citrussy lemon loaf cake recipe from the most excellent Claire Napier. You may also know her as the very entertaining @illusClaire on Twitter. While you’re at it, you can also hire her to do some illustrations for you, if you’re in the market for a few of those.

But for now, on with the fabulous cake. Take it away, Claire!

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Ingredients

8oz plain flour

8oz golden unrefined caster sugar

4oz butter

1-2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

2 serving spoonfuls of lemon juice

icing sugar (optional)

1. Your fan oven should be pre-heated to 170. Adjust it slightly hotter if you don’t have a fan oven. Grease your loaf tin with butter (or whatever you like).

2. Mix the sugar, flour, and eggs together smoothly.

3. Chop in the butter, mash it with the fork and beat it into the mixture. Keep beating until you’re satisfied with the consistency.

4. Add the baking powder and lemon juice (your cake will be so clean!). Stir it in slowly, so as not to slop.

5. Pour the mixture into the tin; put into the oven. Bake for one hour (keep an eye on it, don’t let it burn).

6. Allow the loaf to cool in the tin until you can lift it without burning yourself. Tip the loaf to cool away from the tin.

7. Slice, and eat!

If you like drizzle, score the surface and mix up some icing sugar with lemon juice. Pour the mixture into the scores and make sure it goes down quite deep. If you don’t feel like drizzle, it’s delicious eaten alone but also benefits from a spreading of quince or crab apple jelly! Our quince crop failed spectacularly, so this is shop-bought but still so delicious.

The texture you get from adding so much lemon juice is a little different from your average cake or loaf. It’s visually just a little reminiscent of the top of a freshly baked cheesecake – it’s a bit more resistant than usual. I think it makes an interesting change, and the lemon flavour comes through so strongly! It’s very, very refreshing. If you prefer to go more traditionally, you can substitute grated rind for one of the spoonfuls of lemon juice, and cook for a shorter time.

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Are you going to try making October’s Tea Loaf of the Month? We’ll certainly be tucking into one at Golightly Gardens, with extra drizzle. If you have a great tea loaf recipe of your own and would like to be next month’s guest poster then please let me know via the ‘Contact us’ page (the link’s on the right hand side if you scroll down).

Welcome back to pennygolightly.com, that well-known hive of industrial espionage and den of libel, defamation and slander. Actually, if you came here looking for that you’re going to be sorely disappointed, sorry. Not on the menu.

So welcome to the real www.pennygolightly.com instead where it’s business as usual: a dash of playful sarcasm and a little militant tea drinking. And cake. Always with the cake.

Last week saw me bemoaning the current lack of love for the tea loaf (something that goes perfectly with any mildly militant cuppa consumption), and it turns out that a lot of other people feel the same way too. It’s time for a revival, cake fans! From now on we’re going to have a tea loaf of the month. You know it makes sense. It’s a lot like playmate of the month, but with cake.

Our first tea loaf is also our first guest blog, so it’s a double whammy of goodness. This slice of loveliness is made by the fabulous Maggiebob. I strongly recommend that you make this cake, visit her blog and follow her on Twitter. And now, over to her.

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“When the weather turns autumnal, I always start to dream about wonderful things to bake and enjoy with a nice warming cuppa. Nothing hits the spot quite like this Earl Grey tea loaf though. Sliced and buttered it is the perfect treat for any well earned tea break. This is my recipe, adapted through practice from various across the internet. You can create your own variation by playing around with different flavoured teas and different spicing.

Ingredients

2 Earl Grey tea bags

200g mixed dried fruit

100g Demerara sugar

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon each of cinnamon and ground nutmeg

1 medium egg

1. Make up half a pint of tea. I like to use two tea bags for a nice strong tea flavour, but once the tea is brewed to a strength you’re happy with, remove the teabags and add the dried fruit and Demerara sugar to the bowl. Stir well, cover with a towel and leave to macerate for a few hours (or preferably overnight – trust me, it’s worth the wait).

2. Preheat the oven to 170oC (which I think is gas mark 3). Grease a loaf tin, or line it with a paper liner.

3. Add all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and the spices) to your bowl of fruity tea and mix through, then beat in the egg. Spoon your mixture into the lined loaf tin.

4. Cover your tin loosely with baking parchment (allow enough room for the loaf to rise) and bake for 1 hour, then uncover and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until a skewer pushed into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the tin (when cool enough) and place on a rack to cool further.

A nice idea if you’re visiting someone for tea is to wrap the tea loaf in cling film and then brown paper, tie with a rustic ribbon and take it to them as a little gift. The loaf lasts at least 5 days wrapped up or stored in a tin – if you don’t eat it all first.”