Rooibos and vanilla loaf cake

My cupboard is a mess. So much so that I have to store half my shoes in Frank’s cupboard, much to his annoyance. He leaves his shoes in the lounge, so I always take the opportunity to sneak my shoes into his shoe-space when he’s not looking. Sometimes I’m even too lazy to put my shoes in his cupboard, so I leave them next to the bed. But then I throw dirty clothes over them and end up tripping on them every time i go back into the bedroom. (Frank doesn’t see them either, so it’s worth hiding them to laugh when he trips and swears!)

My cupboard can no longer close, so as Frank has been feeling very under the weather today I decided to clean out the cupboards and find all those clothes I’d forgotten about. And what better way to reward myself than with a cake!

A couple of weeks ago I entered a competition on Not Quite Nigella’s site and won myself a box of rooibos tea. For those of you who don’t know, rooibos (or redbush) tea is a herbal tea that originated in the Cedarberg in South Africa. I’ve been interested in using it in food, and decided to adapt a recipe to make rooibos and vanilla loaf cake. It has a wonderful delicate and sweet flavour, and worked well in the cake. It is best eaten with a nice hot cup of rooibos tea!

Rooibos and vanilla loaf cake – adapted from BBC Good food recipe for Jaffa loaf cake

140g butter , softened

200g self-raising flour

1 1?2 tsp baking powder

200g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 bag rooibos tea covered in 3 tbsp boiling water (steeped for 5 mins)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp milk

to finish:

1 bag rooibos tea covered in 3 tbsp boiling water (steeped for 5 mins)

50g golden caster sugar

50g dark chocolate

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 1.2-litre loaf tin. Put all the cake ingredients and the tea (excluding tea bag of course!) into a bowl and beat with a hand whisk or wooden spoon for 3-5 mins, until light and fluffy.

Spoon the mix into the tin and level the top.

Bake for 40-50 mins, until golden brown and firm to the touch. Meanwhile, dissolve sugar in boiling water with tea bag. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon over the tea. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Break up the chocolate and melt over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave on Medium for 1-2 mins. Drizzle over the cake and leave to set.