Best 1800s Tea Cakes Recipes

BLACK FOLKS SOUTHERN TEA CAKE RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium-size bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about 2 minutes until creamy.
• Add the egg, lemon zest, sour cream, mayonnaise, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.
• Mix until well blended to make the tea cake batter.
• Sift together the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg over a sheet of parchment paper large enough to fit your baking sheet.
• Fold the parchment paper to pour the sifted flour mixture into the tea cake batter and then mix again.
• Add the batter to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough to approx ¼ inch thickness. This is where the extra cup of flour will come in handy to help with rolling because the dough is sticky!
• Cut out the tea cakes with a 2 ½" up to 3″ biscuit cutter. (I used a 2 ¾" biscuit cutter.)
• Place the rounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. (You may need to bake more than 1 batch if all your rounds don't fit on your baking sheet.)
• Bake until light brown (but don't let them get too brown!). 5-6 minutes in the conventional oven and 3-4 minutes in the Instant Pot Omni Plus oven. (Tea cakes don't take long to bake, so keep a close eye on them to avoid burning! Like a biscuit, you want them firm on the outside and fluffy on the inside.)
• Optional: When the tea cakes are finished baking and cooling, optionally make the lemon glaze frosting by combining the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
• Mix well with a whisk to remove any lumps from the powdered sugar.
• Use a small spatula or spoon to drop a dollop of icing onto each cooled tea cake. The icing will harden in about 5 minutes.
• Optionally, garnish this Southern Black folk tea cake recipe with a sprinkle of lemon zest, then serve and enjoy!

1800'S TEA CAKES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• 2. Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla-mix well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Combine with shortening mixture. Knead dough until it can be rolled out on a floured board. Roll about 1/8 inch thick, cut out and place cut 'cookies' on ungreased sheet pans/cookie sheets and bake until edges are just golden. (About 10-12 minutes) Middle of cookie should be fairly light. The longer baked, and the browner the cookie, the crisper it will be.

ORIGINAL FAMILY RECIPE FOR TEA CAKES (FROM 1800'S)

Steps:

• 1. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time and stir after each one.
• 2. Dissolve baking soda in sour milk and add this to the mixture.
• 3. Add enough flour to make dough stiff enough to dump on floured board. Knead in more flour until you can roll the dough out and cut out tea cakes. Bake and cool.
• 4. Modern day instructions not included in original recipe: Place on cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

GRANDMA'S OLD FASHIONED TEA CAKES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; stir into the creamed mixture. Knead dough for a few turnns on a floured board until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.