Orange Loaf Cake with Twinings Cranberry & Sanguinello Orange Tea

Here's recipe for a quick and easy (and lovely tasting!) Orange Loaf Cake.

It's easily adapted by changing the tea flavour or juice that the syrup drizzle is made with.  It also can be made with lemons rather than orange to make a lemon drizzle cake.... yum yum!

To be seasonal, I used orange as stated in the original recipe and then used Twinings Cranberry and Sanguinello Orange Tea for the syrup drizzle.

Orange Loaf Cake - Serves 4

Ingredients
125g (4oz) soft margarine
175g (6oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
4tbsp milk
The zest of 1 medium orange
4tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice or freshly brewed fruit-flavoured tea
100g (3½oz) icing sugar

You will need a 1lb loaf tin, greased and lined with greaseproof paper.

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C (360F, Gas Mark 4) and prepare your loaf tin.
2. Cream together the margarine and sugar, either using a mixer or by hand, until it is pale and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and beat them in well, then fold in the flour gently.
4. Add the orange zest and the milk, gently folding it into the mixture, using as light a hand as possible.
5. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and pop into the pre-heated oven. Bake for 45 minutes until the cake is well-risen and golden.
6. Just before the cake is ready, measure 4tbsp of orange juice/tea into a small saucepan along with the icing sugar and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture has become syrupy.
7. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, puncture the top all over with a skewer or cake tester and carefully pour over the syrup. Try to go gently . . . if you try to do it too quickly, the syrup won’t be absorbed and most of it will end up running down the tin.
8. Leave to cool completely before turning out of the tin.

Now, you can simply slice and eat!  Or for a better presentation, slice the top from the loaf, turn over and drizzle glace or royal icing over the top in random stripes.  You can flavour this icing if required, but I like it just plain with the cake holding the flavour of the fruit.

I made this cake over the weekend for a charity car boot sale and, unfortunately, didn't get a picture before it was sold and eaten - my own fault!  So, I'm making it again on Wednesday for another event, so I'll add some pictures then!

Twinings make a fabulous range of teas - from fruity and fresh to seasonal Christmas teas (not trees!!).  Have a look at their website here and choose 2 free teas to sample at home... you really will be spoilt for choice!

Also at the moment, there's some great competitions running on their Facebook page, so pop over, have a look and say "hello"!  Off for some more tea.....!

Edit:  here's the cake from Wednesday's baking session!  Before it was even baked, it had been marked to be eaten by various people!  A quick trip to Luv It! to drop a couple of slices off to the lovely shop-keeper there, some to my father-in-law who missed out last time and the rest to a fundraiser tonight for our local Rainbow/Brownie/Guide group!