Irish Tea Cake

This is a very old recipe of my Great Grandmothers. It is very buttery and rich and should be sliced very thin when served. It is a lot of work to make but well worth your time and effort. It does make 2 loaves and since it should really be sliced thin, it goes a long way.

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 20
• Yields: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 4 2⁄3 cups flour
• 2 1⁄2 cups currants (do not use raisins they are too large for this)
• 2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1⁄4 cups butter, softened (no subsitutions)
• 2 1⁄2 cups sugar
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3  tablespoons lemon juice
• 4  eggs
• 1 1⁄4 cups milk

• Glaze

• 1  cup powdered sugar
• 1  tablespoon lemon juice, mixed with 2 teaspoons water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9 inch loaf pans.
2. Place 2/3 cups of flour in medium sized bowl. Add currants and toss well to coat. Set aside.
3. Sift together remaining flour and baking powder onto wax paper.
4. Beat together butter, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
5. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk in 3 or 4 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. mixing after each addition only enough to just combine ingredients. Fold in the flour coated currants along with any flour left in bowl after coating them. Spoon batter into pans, smooth tops.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until loaves are lightly browned, springy to the touch and pulling away from sides of pan. Cool in pans 15 minutes, remove from pans and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
7. For Glaze:
8. Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice mixture until glaze like consistency, using less or more lemon juice mixture to achieve desired effect.
9. Drizzle over loaves to coat evenly, allow glaze to harden before slicing. Slice thin to serve.