Lemony Red Currant Tea Cake

Originally, I planned to make a light summery tart with these lovely little currants.

Unfortunately, this box of lovely little currants sat in my refrigerator a bit longer than I had anticipated.

After debating over whether to bake a tart or perhaps a cake, I decided on a sweet bread, or tea cake instead. It’s always nice to have freshly baked muffins or bread in the morning, isn’t it? If you are up and about early enough, a small window of time to yourself to sip tea and enjoy something homebaked is rare and magical for many of us.

I started by using a banana bread recipe from Simply Recipes, substituting a few ingredients with what I had in the kitchen. In place of the mashed banana, I substituted a mix of plain yogurt and heavy cream and followed the rest of the recipe as written. Once the batter was combined, I added the zest of one lemon and the currants, carefully folding them in, making sure they remained whole.

The cake came out beautifully. It was just the right balance of sweetness and tartness with a perfectly moist texure from the yogurt and cream. It was also a snap to put together- no mixer, no waiting around for ingredients to come to room temperature. Really, the hardest part was removing the stems from each currant by hand which wasn’t a big deal at all. It was worth it and delicious.

Lemony Red Currant Tea Cake

Recipe Adapted from Simply Recipes

1 6 oz pkg of fresh red currants

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

the zest of 1 small lemon

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Tagged as: Breakfast, lemon red currant cake, tea cake