ORANGE CRANBERRY TEA CAKE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

I have made this tea cake so many times!  It is a "tea cake" in the truest sense of the word!  It has tea in the cake!  I got this recipe from my Mom and I think it is from the 60's! 

What I do is double the recipe and actually the cake above is the smaller one of the two cakes...the larger one was put in the freezer. 

Besides traditional round or square cakes - there are many other types of tea cakes!  Some are individual cakes dipped in icing and other are "loaves" which are sliced.  This Orange Cranberry Tea Cake is made in a tube pan.  I double it and make 1 large and 1 smaller one which is the one pictured at the top of this page. The cake is very moist and delicious.  Make sure you chop the cranberries open!

You will need: 1 1/2 cups water, 1 cup orange juice, 4 teabags/black tea, 3 cups sifted flour, 1 tsp baking soda,a/2 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar, 4 TB soft butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup chopped cranberries, 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a small sauce pan bring the water and juice to a boil. Add the teabags and brew 5 minutes, remove the teabags...let it cool.

In another bowl, combine flour, soda and salt. In a larger bowl, mix sugar, butter and beat in eggs.  Now beat in the cool tea mixture, add flour and soda mix and mix till blended.  Stir in cranberries and walnuts.

Turn into a tube pan and bake for 1 hour- watch for burning the top. Cover with foil if browning too much!  Cool 10 minutes

Brush with orange juice (I forgot this) and sift confectioners sugar on top(I forgot that too)  The confectioners sugar will make it really pretty if you remember to do it!