Exploding Bakery Cake Drops: Spelt Tea Loaf

So naturally, we messed with it. Just a little.

Meet our latest limited edition Cake Drop: Spelt Tea Loaf, made with spelt flour, dried fruit soaked in Canton Earl Grey Tea and orange marmalade.

It’s our take on a traditional British tea loaf. Familiar enough to bring back memories, with a few better ingredients thrown in to make things more interesting.

What is a Spelt Tea Loaf?

Tea loaf is traditionally a fruit-heavy loaf cake made by soaking dried fruit in tea before baking.

Our version starts with spelt flour, an ancient grain introduced byt the Romans, bringing a slightly nutty flavour as well as extra fibre and protein. Then comes plenty of dried fruit, soaked in Canton Earl Grey Tea so it plumps up and takes on all those lovely fragrant notes of bergamot.

Finally, there’s a good dollop of orange marmalade, bringing a bittersweet citrus kick that cuts through the sweetness of the fruit.

The result is dark, fruity and comforting, with enough going on to make you stop and think about what’s actually in your mouth.

Good Tea Deserves Good Cake

If tea is going to be one of the main ingredients, it needs to be good tea.

For this loaf, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Canton Tea, who share a lot of the same thinking we do when it comes to ingredients.

Quality comes first. Shortcuts aren’t particularly interesting. And where something comes from, how it’s produced and the people behind it actually matter.

Canton puts huge importance on the quality and provenance of its tea, sourcing with a strong ethos and building relationships throughout its supply chain. Basically, they take tea as seriously as we take cake, which makes us very good friends indeed.

Their Earl Grey Tea gives the dried fruit a fragrant hit of bergamot without drowning everything else out. It works particularly well alongside the orange marmalade and nuttiness of the spelt.

A small ingredient choice that makes a pretty big difference.

Why Spelt Flour?

Spelt has been around for thousands of years, so calling it the new kid on the block would be pushing it.

It has a naturally nutty flavour that works brilliantly with dried fruit, tea and citrus, while bringing more fibre and protein to the loaf.

For us, though, flavour comes first. The spelt gives this cake a bit more depth and character than using standard flour alone, while keeping the comforting, slightly rustic nature that a proper tea loaf should have.

Get the Toaster Involved

You can absolutely eat our Spelt Tea Loaf straight from the cake counter.

But we'd strongly recommend introducing it to a toaster.

Give a decent slice some heat and the edges begin to caramelise, the fruit gets stickier and the marmalade wakes up. Add  butter while it's still warm and that's really all you need to do.

Pair it with a good coffee or tea and you’ve got a very solid breakfast, mid-morning snack or afternoon option going on here.

Made for Independent Café Counters

There’s another reason we wanted to bring tea loaf back.

For independent cafés, it gives the counter something different from the usual brownie, flapjack and sponge line-up, while still being instantly recognisable to customers.

It can be served simply by the slice or toasted to order with butter, turning one cake into a breakfast, brunch or afternoon offering without creating loads of extra work behind the counter.

And that nostalgia does some of the selling for you. Customers know what tea loaf is. This version just gives them a few more reasons to get excited about it.

A Limited Edition Cake Drop

Our Spelt Tea Loaf is part of the Exploding Bakery Cake Drops range, where we get to experiment with new flavours, ingredients and formats before they disappear again.

This one is all about taking something reassuringly old-school and making it feel relevant again.