Welcome to The Storied Recipe Podcast, a podcast about food, culture, and love.
This recipe for Old Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes came from my podcast guest, Stefani Renee. Make sure you listen to her episode "Granny Octavia" while you make these delicious tea cakes!
Have you ever sat down with a cup of tea or coffee in the late afternoon and wished for a treat that paired perfectly with your mug? These tea cakes are exactly what you're looking for. Though they're called "cakes," I'd describe them as soft, delicate cookies with a tender, crumbly texture and an understated elegance. They're also wonderfully versatile, ready to carry whatever flavor you choose-from classic vanilla to citrus zest, warm spices, or even a hint of almond.
P.S. Want more old fashioned Southern recipes? Check out this Old Fashioned Lemon Icebox Pie recipe or Old Fashioned Pimento Cheese recipe.
Stefani's Memories of Making Tea Cakes
I inherited a love of cooking, throwing parties, telling stories and creating from my Granny Octavia. She was southern through and through, had impeccable style, was no nonsense and magical...I actually think Southern Tea Cakes represent her in many ways. Granny had a certain flare and an impeccable sense of hospitality. She always dazzled with her famous and fabulous dinner parties and ladies lunches. Tea cakes would usually make an appearance at these events or even if she was just getting together with a girlfriend or two. Granny always had tea cakes to offer because they were very easy to make, especially if you were in a pinch; didn't take as long as baking a cake; and were perfect if you just needed a little something sweet.
-Stefani Renee, guest of The Storied Recipe Podcast
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Dry Ingredients: Flour, baking powder, salt, sugar.
- Wet Ingredients: Butter, shortening, vanilla, egg, buttermilk.
Instructions
- Sift the dry ingredients and set aside
- Then cream the butter and shortening, mix in the sugar, and add the vanilla and egg.
- Blend in the flour mixture and buttermilk just until combined
- Wrap the sticky dough in plastic, shape into a disk, and chill until very cold.
- Roll the dough out, cut into shapes, and bake at 325°F for 9-11 minutes
- Cooling briefly on the sheet before moving to a rack.
Are Tea Cakes Cookies or Cake?
When Stefani first shared this recipe with me, I was picturing light, airy, delicate little miniature cakes. So when I started reading the instructions and got to "roll out the dough", I was shocked! Looking back at the ingredients a little more closely, I notice the flour-to-butter ratio was 1.5 cups to 1 stick - not so cake-like at all! Tea cakes are, according to Stefani, a marriage between cakes and cookies, with just a little bit of biscuit thrown in, if you drop the batter onto a pan, rather than rolling and cutting it.
Variations on Tea Cakes
Stefani's Granny Octavia usually went for the most simple and refined - plain vanilla. You can do that, or you can season them however you want! Below is a short list of favorings I tried or think sound delicious to try next time I make them! Truthfully, with a basic recipe like this, you simply can't go wrong!
- Orange or lemon zest
- Cardamom
- Nutmeg
- Cinnamon
- Chopped nuts
- Bourbon, rum, almond extract
- Molasses
Equipment
Storage
You can store these at room temperature for about 3 days in an airtight container, or you can refrigerate them for up to a week.
More Southern Recipes
More Baking Recipes
Listen to Stefani's Episode
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Recipe
Old Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Southern Tea Cakes are soft, buttery, and crumbly - much more cookie than cake. This recipe is basic and endlessly adaptable.
Ingredients
Southern Tea Cakes
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 Tbsp shortening (this is optional but lends to the texture)
- ½ cup +1 tablespoon granulated sugar (traditionally these are not as sweet as cookies, however, if you want it a little sweeter you can bump up to ¾ cup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla or scrape a whole vanilla bean (I like using vanilla bean and seeing the little flecks)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (+ 1 tablespoon)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk
Add ins
Traditional tea cakes are super simple but you can add in other flavors
- Bourbon, rum, almond extract: swap out ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Lemon or orange: 1 tablespoon lemon zest and swap out ½ teaspoon vanilla for ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- Cardamom: ⅛ teaspoon
- Pecans or other nuts: ½ cup
- Molasses: swap 1 tablespoon of sugar for 1 tablespoon molasses
Instructions
Cue up the Episode!
Make sure to listen to Stefani on The Storied Recipe Podcast, Granny Octavia's Tea Cakes while you make her Tea Cakes recipe!
Make the Recipe
Prepare Ingredients
- In a bowl sift flour, baking powder, and salt, and set to the side.
- Using a standup or hand mixer, cream butter and shortening until fluffy. Mix in sugar until combined. Add in vanilla and egg until combined. Add in half of the flour mixture and mix for a few seconds, then scrape down the sides. Add in buttermilk and the remainder of the flour mixture and mix until combined.
- You don't want to over-mix, it should only take a few seconds to combine.
Refrigerate the Dough
- Turn out the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. The dough will be sticky. Form dough into a 2 inch disk, wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour or freeze for 30 minutes. You want your dough to be very cold to prevent spreading.
Preheat Oven
- Preheat oven to 325 and line the baking sheet.
Roll & Cut Out Dough
- Remove from the refrigerator and roll the dough until about ¼ inch thick. I don't like to flour my surface or rolling pin because I think it dries out the dough. Try rolling on parchment paper. Cut dough into the desired shape. I use a large biscuit cutter.
Bake
- Place tea cakes on a baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes then finish cooling on a rack.
- Tea cakes don't rise they'll look about the same as when you put them in the oven.
- Also, the color stays a bit the same, you know they're done when the edges/bottoms turn slightly golden.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Baking, Cookies
- Cuisine: Southern Cooking
Nutrition
- Calories: 263
- Sugar: 13
- Sodium: 157
- Fat: 14
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Carbohydrates: 31
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 54
Would love to hear from you!