Help your 5-a-day with this easy fruit cake

I'll admit it, I've not been great at getting my five a day recently, but there are some surprising things that actually count towards it.

Firstly: beans and pulses. Beans on toast is one of my quick on-the-go shameful secrets, but beans are packed full of beneficial nutrients that make them count as a portion of vegetables. They're stuffed with magnesium, iron and potassium: beans beans really are good for your heart! Even a portion of hummus counts, just don't have it too often as it's full of oil. I have a couple of delicious recipes for Boston Beer-Baked Beans and Healthy Hummus, I'll write them up when I next make a batch.

Also onions. I put onions in almost everything I cook but I hadn't really thought of them as a vegetable counting to my five a day! But they contain many essential nutrients and are even a good source of folic acid, important for pregnant women.

Fruit juice is also one that's obvious but easily overlooked, but one more healthy secret: dried fruit. A handful of dried fruit definitely counts as one serving. And what's the best and most comforting way to eat dried fruit? A slice of fruit cake!

Here's my recipe for a fat free, and if you insist, sugar-free fruit cake that you wouldn't guess is actually good for you.

Tea Fruit Loaf

Fruit cakes have to be moist, which usually means loading them with butter. This simple wartime recipe tea loaf replaces the fat with moisture soaked into the fruit, which means the cake won't last for weeks or months like a traditional cake, but is so delicious it won't need to! The recipe is endlessly variable, I make a different version of it every other week for guests and afternoon snacking.

• 75g/2¾oz raisins
• 75g/2¾oz sultanas
• 75g/2¾oz currants
• 300ml/½ pint lukewarm tea
• 250g/9oz self-raising flour
• 200g/7oz soft light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar (optional)
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg

1. Put the dried fruit into a large mixing bowl, pour in the tea and stir.
2. Cover the bowl and leave to soak for eight hours or overnight.
3. Next day, preheat the oven to 170C/335F.
4. Add the beaten egg, sugar and spices to the fruit and mix well. One done, add the flour.
5. Grease or line a 1lb/medium loaf tin. Spoon the mixture into the tin.
6. Sprinkle the demerara sugar on top, if using.
7. Transfer to the oven and bake for one and a quarter hours, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
8. When cooled, store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Serve sliced with a nice cup of tea, and congratulate yourself that since it's fat free, you're entitled to spread it some with good unsalted butter!

Tropical fruit cake

Variations

This recipe is very forgiving so long as you stick to the proportions outlined. You can use 225g of any combination of dried fruits to get different results. Use whatever tea you fancy, I tend to save up whatever is left from my teapot whether it's Earl Grey, Darjeeling or builders tea. Changing the spices also works, I sometimes add two teaspoons of ground ginger instead.

Tropical Fruit Cake: For a light fruit cake, use a combination of chopped apricots, golden raisins and mixed tropical fruits steeped in green tea. Add a teaspoon of almond extract, and top with flaked almonds or dessicated coconut.

Apple tea cake

Apple Tea Cake: Soak only the raisins and sultanas, then add a whole grated eating apple along with the sugar and spices. Peel a second apple and cut it into slices, arranging it on top of the cake with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Once cooked, brush the cake top with a spoonful of hot apricot jam to give a glossy finish.

Sugar-free Tea Cake: Replace the sugar with 80g of stevia powder, or any other sugar substitute suitable for baking.