Scottish Sultana Loaf Cake Recipe - Scottish Scran (2024)

This simple Sultana Loaf Cake is such a great one to make when you want a little treat or something to give to guests.

It’s a classic Sultana Tea Loaf, which means it’s perfect for afternoon tea! We’ve been lucky to enjoy it many times when visiting relatives for just that.

You might see other Sultana Loaf recipes where the cake is a darker brown colour, more like banana bread, but this is a classic Scottish Sultana Cake, so it uses just a few ingredients to make a basic sponge-like cake, filled with sultanas.

We can’t find any particular history associated with this Sultana Loaf Cake, only that it is of Scottish origin and often served at tea time. That alone was enough for us to give it a go!

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We did a lot of testing on this one to make sure that we got it just right. There were quite a lot of traditional Sultana Loaf recipes out there, so we gave most of them a go, including a cherished family recipe, and made some tweaks to create this one.

The result is a light sponge bursting with sultanas throughout. You can slice it like bread and have it on its own or even with a little spread of butter or jam. That’s just what we like, though; definitely not a traditional thing!

This is a simple but tasty loaf recipe, as is our Golden Syrup Loaf, but if you want a more deliciously decadent cake, then definitely check out our Sticky Toffee Pudding Traybake.

Things You’ll Need to Make Sultana Loaf

• Loaf tin (approx 2lb size) – we love this tin
• We like to use loaf tin liners to make it easy to get the cake out after baking
• Baking scales are useful for this recipe to get the amounts right. They’re a great investment if you intend to do a lot of baking because measuring by weight is much more accurate than cups. We have some similar to these.

Ingredients for Sultana Loaf

• 130g unsalted butter (4.5oz)
• 130g caster sugar (2/3 of a cup)
• 2 eggs
• 200g sultanas (1 1/4 cups)
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 200g self-raising flour (about 1.5 cups)
• 2 tbsp milk

How to Make Sultana Loaf Cake – Step by step method

This cake is easy to make, but it’s important to get the measurements right, or it can turn out a little crumbly.

The best way to do this is to use scales (you can buy them fairly cheaply here), but we have given the approximate cup measurements just in case.

Start by preheating the oven to 160C conventional oven or 140C Fan (which is 320/285F).

Cream the butter and sugar together until it turns a lighter colour.

Beat the eggs separately and then add a little to the butter and sugar mixture, plus a little of the flour, adding a little flour helps it to not curdle. Then add the rest of the egg.

Fold in the remaining flour.

In another bowl, toss the sultanas in the tablespoon of plain flour. This helps them to not sink to the bottom of the cake during baking.

Fold the sultanas into the mixture.

The mixture should be thick rather than runny, but if it’s a little on the dry side you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to loosen it a little.

Tip the mixture into a greased loaf tin and smooth down the top.

Bake in the oven for approximately one hour, or until a skewer or knife pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

The idea is to bake the Sultana cake at a lower temperature for a longer time so that it cooks and rises evenly.

And there you have it, a delicious Scottish Sultana Cake!

How do you store this Sultana Loaf?

To be honest, it disappears pretty quickly in our house! But if you do want to store it, it’ll be best in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Why is my cake crumbly?

This recipe can sometimes produce a crumbly cake that makes it harder to slice, although the taste is still there! We find it’s very sensitive to the type of flour used.

Our tips to avoid this are:

• Don’t overmix the cake. Mix only until the ingredients are just combined.
• If the mixture is really thick, add a couple of tablespoons of milk. It is meant to be a thick mixture rather than runny but not TOO thick so that it’ll be dry.
• Keep a close eye on it while it’s baking as you want it just done, not overbaked at all.

Other simple cakes to try:

• Super Simple Golden Syrup Cake Recipe
• Classic Tottenham Cake Recipe
• Old School Cake Recipe – A Nostalgic Classic!
• Classic Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake Recipe
• 4 Ingredient Chocolate Bourbon Biscuit Cake Recipe
• Traditional Dundee Cake Recipe

Enjoy,

Phil & Sonja