Simply Tea: Country Kitchen

I am currently in market mode at the moment preparing for the Lifestyle Markets on the Saturday the 4th of September. It is a great little market that has just started this year. It offers gourmet food products, antique and craft items and best of all Simply Tea products. I have enjoyed having a stand there over the past few months and have enjoyed getting to know some of the other stall holders there. I hope that if you live in Toowoomba you get a chance to come down and have a browse. It is located at Greek Orthodox Hall, 240 Hume Street Toowoomba and will be open from 10am to 3pm.

What is it about the phrase "Country Kitchen" that conjures images into our minds things like the aroma of freshly baked homemade breads, cakes & biscuits, old wooden tables with checked table cloths laid out in with fine fare, filtered light through lace curtains and freshly picked flowers taking center stage on the kitchen bench, wispy grey haired women bustling round boiling the kettle and setting out teacups and saucers . The phrase to me brings a sense of warmth, fondness and a sense of nostalgia. Mind you i didn't grow up in the country nor lived in a place with a country kitchen but wouldn't it of been nice.......... Country kitchen also reminds me of the CWA Women cooking up a storm of scones or pikelets and along with their outstanding cookbook, i think them as the true image of "country" women of Australia.

I whipped up this beautiful Country Fruit Cake for my husband this week for morning tea and i am not sure when he slathered his piece of fruit cake with butter and sat down with a nice cup of Ceylon Orange Pekoe that images of "Country Kitchen" filled his mind. Oh well at least he liked the cake.

Download & Print Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Cups Self Raising Flour
Pinch Salt
½ Tsp Ground Mixed Spice
90g Margarine
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup Raisins
2/3 Cup Sultana’s
2/3 Cup Mixed Fruit
1 Egg, Lightly Beaten
2/3 Cup Milk

Method:

1.   Preheat Oven to 190 Degrees and line and grease 18cm cake tin.
2.   Sift together the flour, salt and spice.
3.   Rug in margarine and add the sugar, raisins, sultana’s and mixed fruit.
4.   Add the egg and sufficient milk so that the mixture will drop from a spoon when shaken.
5.   Turn into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until the cake is golden and skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
6.   Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.
7.   Serve with a slather of butter.

This fruit cake is a little bit crumbly than a normal rich fruit cake but it adds to the charm of it think - plus if you add a good slather of butter over it, it will hold it all together nicely!

Simply Tea Recommendations: The tea that i would recommend drinking with this cake from our range would be a good strong but simple black tea, such as our Ceylon Orange Pekoe which has Long, wiry, beautiful leaves giving an exquisite taste, almost oaky, with body and strength. You could also try our aptly named blend called Simply Tea. This tea is a good strong fine leaf blend of Ceylon tea . It is Simply delicious. Both of these tea's posses a good strong flavour that will compliment the butteryness (if that is a word) of this cake. You can purchase our Ceylon Orange Pekoe for $7.00/100g or our Simply Tea blend for $7.00/100g. We also stock $2.00 sample bags of each of these tea's.