When I think of my childhood Christmas, it’s the smell of tea cakes that takes me back to the small-town white 1930s house where I grew up. Of course, they really aren’t cakes at all, but delicate, buttery cookies that aren’t as golly-jolly sweet as a traditional sugar cookie.
They are just a little bit sweet – kind of like me.
This is my great-grandmother’s real-deal late 1800s recipe and I’ve never found one that beats it. In spite of the incredible simplicity, making tea cakes is an art – much like biscuits.
You can use all of the ingredients exactly as stated – except for the flour. You want to get a feel for the right consistency and add it in until it is not too tacky – a nice soft dough. This can vary on any given day due to temperature, humidity, the amount of pixie dust floating through the air and your general disposition.
The hardest part is rolling them flat enough and then being able to cut them into shapes. Authentic southern tea cakes aren’t fat and poofy. They should be slightly crisp around the edges. Honestly, it may take you a couple of times to get it practically perfect. Perseverance please.
Yeah, you can do an icing if you must, but that’s not a real tea cake. Old-school, glittery sprinkles for me. This is a cinch to double, and makes delightful little gifty bites of joy for your glamping neighbors.
They are a super swell addition to your holiday mad tea party as well.
The Best Old-Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 eggs large
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut up
- 2 tsp baking powder
- all-purpose flour (2 or 3 cups, added slowly)
Instructions
- Use a mixer to combine everything except the flour. Mix just until everything is combined and you have a nice sticky dough.
- Use hands to fold in a cup of the flour.
- Slowly add more flour, a half a cup at a time, until you have a soft dough. Don't add in too much flour but reserve the remaining flour.
- Optionally, add in food coloring to the dough. We used red and green when I was a child. I don't usually add it these days.
- Wrap dough in Saran Wrap and refrigerate about an hour.
- Flour a surface and integrate more flour into dough if needed (but not too much). Roll dough out with a rolling pin very thinly - 1/4 or LESS..
- Cut into happy shapes with metal cookie cutters (glass and plastic ones stick too much). Top with sprinkles and don't try to make them perfect.
- Bake in preheated 375 degree oven until edges are brown.
