James Martin bakes a traditional English tea bread enriched with lard, sugar, spices and dried fruit.
Ingredients
- For the cake
- 225g/8oz
sultanas - 90g/3½oz
lard, plus 1 tbsp extra for greasing - 125g/4½oz light muscovado
sugar - 2 tbsp
golden syrup - 225ml/8fl oz water
- 225g/8oz
wholemeal flour - 1 tsp
baking powder - ½ tsp
bicarbonate of soda - ¼ tsp ground
nutmeg - 1 tsp ground
allspice - 4 free-range
eggs, lightly beaten
- 225g/8oz
- For the black pepper strawberry jam
- 600g/1lb 5oz jam
sugar (not to be confused with preserving sugar) - 1
lemon, zest and juice only - 1kg/2lb 4oz strawberries, whole, hulled
- 1 tsp crushed
black pepper
- 600g/1lb 5oz jam
Preparation method
For the cake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Place the sultanas, lard, muscovado sugar, golden syrup and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and cool – ideally overnight.
Grease and line a small loaf tin with lard. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl. Mix the cooled fruit mixture into the dried ingredients along with the eggs, beating well to combine.
Turn off the heat and leave the jam to cool, before skimming off any froth. Spoon into sterilised jars (about 2-3 jars, depending on their size).
To serve, slice the cake and spread generously with some of the jam.