Eggless Irish Tea Brack

I have been trying my hands at a lot of new things lately. Especially, the recipes that call for use of oven. When I was coming to Stockholm, I promised myself to practice baking to an extent where my husband is convinced to buy me an oven when we are back in India. That was a smart strategy, isn’t it?

So, in my hit list, I had one item that bakers make in the initial years of baking, a cake! But, somehow, I couldn’t gather enough courage to make one. Finally, I got determined to bake a cake yesterday. But, the typical me would not be happy with usual stuff. I crave for unique. So, I needed a recipe that was easy and unique. Suddenly, I recalled the tea cake that my boss made for fika (a term used in Sweden for coffee with cake) once. Well, I now knew what to bake. And, here I am with my first ever attempt at cake, err Eggless Irish Tea Brack.

Oh! I forgot to mention, I made it with Whole Wheat Flour 🙂

Ingredients:

• Tea leaves – 3 tbsp (or more if you like strong tea flavor)
• Water – 400 ml (assuming it will reduce while boiling, we need 350 ml for the cake)
• Whole Wheat Flour – 250 gm
• Brown sugar – 150 gm
• Baking powder – 1 tbsp
• Salt – ½ tsp
• Cinnamon powder (or if you have allspice mix) – 1 tsp
• Fruit mix (I had only raisins and dates, but you can add dried pineapple, sultanas, currants, prunes, etc) – 250 gm
• Oil for greasing the baking tin
• Bread crumbs or powdered oats – 2 tbsp
• Flax seeds – 1 tbsp (or 1 egg if you want to go for the egg version of the cake)
• Water for soaking flax seeds – 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Brew tea the night before or atleast 5 hours before you bake the cake.
2. Sieve and add the fruit mix. Let it rest overnight or atleast 5 hours. Some recipes call for 2 hours but I didn’t get good results with that much time.
3. Soak the flax seeds in water and leave them overnight or 4 hours atleast.
4. The next day, or after 4-5 hours of soaking as mentioned above, grind the flax seeds.
5. Preheat the oven at 180 C.
6. Sieve flour into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon powder.
7. Add the soaked fruits and the remaining liquid, crushed flax seeds, and mix well with a spatula. The batter consistency will be thick and a little difficult to manage. Fret not. It is just fine.
8. Grease the baking tin and sprinkle the bread crumbs or powdered oats. This will avoid the cake from sticking onto the tin walls.
9. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and bake for 60 mins. Do the toothpick test and adjust the baking time. Depending on the oven you may need more.
10. Remove from oven and let it cool over a wire rack. Do not cut when the cake is hot to avoid gumminess.
11. Enjoy with Vanilla sauce or ice cream or just like that. After all it is a tea cake.

Note: You can garnish with granulated sugar. Garnish before you put the baking tin in the oven. Reduce the sugar in cake if you decide to garnish.