Earl Grey Tea Loaf

Not sure what went wrong, as I followed the recipe and cooked the cake for 75 minutes (until a skewer came out clean). I poured the syrup over the cooked cake and let it sit for a few hours. When I returned the cake had sunk in the middle, 80% of the syrup had puddled and soaked into the centre and all but the outer edges of the cake had a wet, stodgy texture. I probably should have cooked the cake a little longer before putting the syrup on as the fruit mixture was very cold after sitting in the tea mixture in the fridge overnight and perhaps took a while to heat up. I do love the flavour of the pieces of cake we were able to eat so I will need to make some adjustments if I'm to bake this one again.

Many good things about this recipe: the fruit (I used 4oz cherries, 5oz each of cranberries and raisins) soaked in the tea is delicious. I let mine soak at room temperature for a good 12 hours and it had absorbed a great deal of the tea. The batter is only a bit dry -- once I added the orange juice at the end the batter came together beautifully. The scent while it bakes is simply lovely, as is the aroma of the tea/lemon syrup as it reduces. Best of all, the final result is excellent. It has all the good points of an old-fashioned fruit cake without any of the bad--the fruit is sweet without being cloying, the cake is rich without being heavy. And, amazingly, there's no fat (other than the tiny bit in the egg yolk) -- no butter or oil, not even any butter to grease the loaf pan. The parchment lining works perfectly and the nice loaf pops right out. It should keep well, though my loaf is going fast...