Festive Mulled Port Loaf

This year I decided to make one of our favourite tea loaves into a more festive bake. The ingredients are more or less the same but to give it a true feel of Christmas I have exchanged the tea for mulled port, added some dates to the fruit and added some sweet, nutty marzipan.

The trick with this tea loaf is patience. Leave the fruit to soak up all the mulled port for a day before you are ready to bake. Believe me I have tried it both ways and the longer the fruit was left the more moist and rich the end result!

This is what I did...

Festive Mulled Port Loaf

Ingredients

150g dried mixed fruit with candied peel

50g dried pitted dates, chopped

250mls port

1 sachet of Schwartz Mulled Wine Spices

150g soft dark brown sugar

1 egg

200g self raising flour

1tsp ground nutmeg

1tsp ground cinnamon

75g marzipan

Icing sugar to decorate

Method

1 - Gently heat 200mls of port to just below boiling point, add the mulled spices bag and simmer for 10 minutes

2 - Place the dried fruits and chopped dates in a bowl and pour over the mulled port, cover and leave to absorb the port over night

3 - You will find that you have a thick rich mixture of fruit and port the following day, top up with the remaining port and leave for another hour

4 - Pre heat the oven to 170C fan

5 - Pour the fruit and liquid into a large mixing bowl and stir in the sugar. Mix until the sugar has thoroughly dissolved

6 - Mix in the beaten egg

7 - Sieve in the flour, ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon and mix until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined

8 - Line a loaf tin and lightly grease

9 - Spoon in about two thirds of the cake mixture

10 - Roll the marzipan into a sausage shape that is just slightly shorter than the length of the loaf tin

11 - Place the marzipan in the centre of the tin and cover with the remaining cake mixture

12 - Place in the pre heated oven and bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is thoroughly baked

13 - Remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack

14 - Once the loaf is completely cooled sprinkle over a little icing sugar and serve!

This deliciously rich fruit loaf was a huge success all round and believe me it did not last very long! I already have requests to bake some more. It make a lovely, light alternative to a heavy Christmas cake and in my mind it is just as good, if not better!

Enjoy x

Disclosure: I received the Schwartz mulled spices to try out for the purpose of this post. No cash payment was received. All views, words and opinions are my own and 100% honest.