Tropical Green Tea Honey Ginger Tea Cake

This is a modification of a standard teabread recipe that I use but with the changes I made, it has a more cake like texture. The final product is lighter, and more crumbly than a bread, but not quite a cake. Because of the texture, I cut it in thick slices, and then cut those slices in 1/2 to serve. The flavors are very light, and tropical, and the color is very light due to the fact that it is made with green tea. White tea could also be used for this. I will publish a more bread like version, using the same flavors, at a later date.

Ingredients

2 oz dried apricots + 1 ½ oz dried mangos + 1 ½ oz dried sour cherries, all chopped finely

250 ml strong green or white tea (I use 2 teabags to the amount of water. I like to use Lipton Mango Peach flavored tea).

1 tbsp honey

3 oz sugar

4oz butter (or 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil)

9 oz self rising flour

1/2 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp salt

1 tsp grated root ginger

1 tsp baking soda

  Method

1. Put all the chopped dried fruit in a bowl. Brew 250 ml strong tea and stir in the honey, and grated ginger root. Let all steep for about 15 minutes. Remove teabags.
2. Put the liquid mixture above into a saucepan, and add the butter, sugar, and dried fruit. Bring all to a boil, slowly, stirring continuously. Boil for 3-4 minutes then remove from heat to let cool to room temperature.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. In a separate bowl, put the flour, salt, baking soda and coriander,
5. Mix wet and dry ingredients; stir the mix with a wooden spoon.
6. Transfer to a greased loaf tin (I also line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper) and bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool bread in tin for about 10 minutes then turn out to finish cooling on a wire rack. Cut into thick slices, and serve with butter if desired.