My Nanny’s old fashioned tea cakes are part of every food memory from my childhood. Like sweet biscuits, they are a little like cake, a little like cookies.
Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
My Nanny had a gift. She had a sixth sense that allowed her to know when guests were coming up the driveway. I remember when I realized this – and learned something important about her.
I was in junior high and we were traveling the 2 hours to her house for a visit. For whatever reason, it was after 10 pm when we got there. We are not a family that went places late so it stands out in my mind. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door to my grandparent’s house was my Nanny pull fresh tea cakes out of the oven. I asked my dad why she was baking at 10 o’clock at night.
He just said simply, “that is who she is.” So true. I wish I had understood more about what that meant when I was younger and she was still here.
This Tea Cake Recipe is part of a Southern Tradition
My grandparents were children of The Depression. They had a special gift for making special things from simple ingredients. Making sure something hot was on the table was part of southern etiquette. There was never a time that we arrived that there were not hot biscuits or tea cakes fresh from the oven. It was ingrained in their nature to share what they had.
One would think that living through such bare times would make my grandparent’s generation more selfish for fear of having enough. But it managed to make them more giving, and in such a genuine, heartfelt way.
I have so many memories of sitting at my Nanny’s table and eating these tea cakes. Every one of those memories is special to me. I wish I could go back to that time in her kitchen and spend more time learning from her and a little less time avoiding chores.
I also wish I could have known how special these little treats were as I was eating them – but that is not the nature of childhood.
Perfecting Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
Now I enjoy these teacakes because my dad makes them, which has been more challenging than it sounds. My Nanny never used a recipe in her life. So there was a lot of trial and error in figuring out how to make them taste like hers. These are close.
When my dad shared his recipe with me for this post, I noticed he had a note in his recipe that my grandmother never rolled these out and cut them. She rolled them in her hands and dropped them like biscuits, then pressed them down with her fingers.
My dad – who is the grandfather now – said he could still see his momma’s fingerprints in the teacakes as he ate them. Isn’t wonderful how food and memories are so closely intertwined.
My dad bakes these tea cakes for my children now every time they visit. It warms my heart to see them eat them the same way I did. I think it makes my dad happy too.
As a testament to how much my kids love these, my youngest daughter helped me bake this batch. Then proceeded to take a bite out of every single one while I wasn’t looking. She was also nice enough to feed some to our dog, who was equally pleased.
What you don’t see in the picture is that I had to turn all the cookies around so you couldn’t see the bite marks. Enjoy the photos and the recipes.
How to make Tea Cakes
Southern Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 4 cups self rising flour, sifted we use organic
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar we use organic
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract almond and lemon extract are delicious too!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Sift flour into a large bowl. In a second bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, milk and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir just until combined. Do not overwork the dough.
- The dough will be sticky. You can either turn it out onto a lightly floured surface being careful not to work in too much flour into the dough. Or you can do it like my Nanny and lightly flour your hands and pinch off a piece of dough, roll it like a biscuit, and drop it on the baking sheet, patting it down gently with your fingertips.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned. Enjoy!
Are there recipes in your family that have been passed down for generations? Did your grandma actually use recipes or was she like mine and did everything by touch and feel? I also really love cornbread but my family disagrees wildly on what it means to make “southern cornbread.”
These are good and easy. They turned out just like your picture. I didn’t have self-rising flour so I used the substitute…DIY, and I used buttermilk. Flattened a bit with a sugar-dipped glass.
Thank you for sharing.
Absolutely perfect deliciousness!! Thank you for publishing this recipe.
Tears come to my eyes as I remember my grandmother making tea cakes . I have her hand written receipt and this is almost identical. I have issues with my hands and can’t roll them out. I cut them with a cookie cutter. THEY WERE PERFECT.
I love its easy to do I told my friend about this and t hey are going try it thank for one put some easy one
Can you use a sweetener, like Splenda Stevia instead of regular sugar? If so, how much do I use?
Hi Amanda! Yes, I believe this should work just fine. I haven’t tried it, but I would point you to this article for more information on measurements and other things to consider when substituting.
The 3 extract dilemma… I think she is saying use vanilla, but you could SUBSTITUTE by using lemon or almond INSTEAD.
I made my first tea cakes. Thank you for the easy recipe. They were delicious. Can the dough be put in the freezer. Thank you, Sue Verdin.
Can you keep batter in fridge if you don’t cook all at once.
Hi Sue and Michelle! These are great questions. Yes….you can freeze the dough. What I have done is make the dough into small balls and then air seal them for freezing. Seems to work great. You can also keep the dough or preformed dough balls in the fridge. I would only do this for 24-48 hours max though.
My husband and I are in our 70s, and we’ve often reminisced about having tea cakes when we grew up. We had his grandmother’s recipe, but we could not seem to replicate the taste. (She probably used lard). Anyway, I’ve been on a quest to find a recipe and had several collected. Yours was the first I tried (tonight). I don’t have to look any further. This is VERY close to the taste I remember. Not too sweet. A chewy cake-like consistency. I did use maybe a tablespoon less sugar. And on a whim, I used heavy cream for the milk…I don’t know why. I just did. These are soooo good. I’m going to use buttermilk next time. Also, I only made a half batch since it’s just the two of us, and that still made about 18 cookies.
We are so glad you found us ShirlAnn. Thank you so much for the feedback! Tea Cakes are a taste that brings back memories for many!
I love this recipe! A simple delicious cookie/cake. Perfect with coffee or tea. To change things up a bit, I sometimes add a pinch or two of pumpkin pie spice as the batter is mixing. It gives it a nice little hint somethin-somethin.
Maybe try just one extract I don’t remember my mom using three different kinds.. she only use lemon zest and they were delicious
My boyfriend told me about tea cakes-never had them before. I love baking, found your recipe and tried it. Now we BOTH love tea cakes lol. Delicious!
I love this recipe because it is old fashioned.
Am going to try it.
They probably would have been really good if I hadn’t have put the lemon and almond extract in along with the vanilla. Next time I’ll only do 2 tsp. vanilla extract along. They leave a funny after taste with all three of in it. I haven’t tried them out on my grandkids yet but I’m afraid I’ve just wasted a whole batch. Of cookies because of the 3 different extract. I might try another batch later and only do extract vanilla extract and see if they are a lot better
I believe she only used vanilla. She was only stating that you can also substitute vanilla with almond or lemon, not add all three!
I have been trying to make tea cakes like my Grannie’s for a very long time. I followed your recipe and this is it! They are just like Grannie’s. I have made them several times now and even substituted buttermilk once. They are perfect every time, soft and buttery. So glad you took the time to experiment until you got the recipe just right!
Does anyone have a recipe for the icing some people put this clear icing that hardens snd turns white. Am any wait to try these