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My Southern Tea Cakes recipe yields tender, buttery, and lemony cakes that will surely bring you back to your childhood.
Here are some of my favorite Southern desserts: Chocolate Banana Pudding, Peach Cobbler, Buttermilk Pound Cake, Cherry Jubilees, and New Orleans Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.
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If you’re not from the South or England, you probably were not raised on tea cakes. Do not be alarmed. Like most Southern recipes, tea cakes only require a few ingredients, patience, and love to make a fantastic dessert.
Growing up, tea cakes weren’t even a thing. I even called my dad to ask him if he ever had them, and he said never.
New Orleans does desserts well, so I guess old-fashioned tea cakes received the cold shoulder from beignets, pralines, and bread pudding recipes.
However, my children will not have the same story after developing this tea cake recipe. This recipe is nothing like old-fashioned Southern tea cakes, and it’s not my grandmother’s recipe. It just became part of my family’s recipes, and I hope these delicious Southern tea cake cookies become part of your family.
A true Southern tea cake is firm, buttery, and tender on the inside. Some people like using baking soda and freshly grated nutmeg for height and a warm note, but I swapped the baking soda for baking powder and lemon icing for the nutmeg and think these are pretty top-tier tea cakes.
Tea cakes remind me of sugar cookies, so if you've never had one, let that be your example.
Southern Tea Cakes Key Ingredients
To make this Southern tea cakes recipe, you will need the following key ingredients:
Butter
Butter is the foundation of an amazing cookie. Only use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in your baking and cooking.
Granulated Sugar and Light Brown Sugar
The second foundation of an amazing cookie is sugar. Using two types of sugar, we create a sturdy but tender cookie.
Egg
One large egg goes a long way for cookie batter.
Lemon Zest and Lemon Juice
The zest of citrus has more flavor than the juice, and this is why we use the zest in the cookie batter and the juice in the icing.
Buttermilk
Use buttermilk ties in the Southern part of these tea cookies.
Ingredients for Southern Tea Cake Cookies:
Here’s everything you need to make these tasty tea cake cookies.
- Tea Cookies:
- Unsalted butter
- White Granulated Sugar
- Light Brown Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Lemon zest
- Buttermilk
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt
- Lemon Icing:
- Powdered Sugar
- Lemon juice
How To Make Southern Tea Cakes
You need to follow these steps and techniques to make these spectacular tea cakes.
Tea Cakes
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, cream butter, white granulated sugar, and brown sugar with a hand mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add egg, vanilla, lemon zest, and buttermilk, and mix until well blended.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over a piece of parchment paper large enough for your baking sheet. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix until blended.
Add the batter to a lightly floured surface, knead five times, and roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness.
Cut cookies out with a biscuit cutter. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until light brown. Repeat with the next batch.
Cool completely for 5-10 minutes before icing.
Lemon Icing
While the cookies bake, whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Spoon icing over cooled cookies. The icing will harden in 5 minutes.
Serve immediately with tea or coffee.
How To Store Tea Cakes
Tea Cakes: You can make the cookie dough one day in advance, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it until you're ready to bake it.
They will be good for five days in an airtight container on the counter. You can freeze the cookies for three months in a freezer-safe container. Thaw a few hours before eating.
Lemon Icing: You can make the icing one day in advance. Store it in an airtight container on the counter for three days.
Southern Tea Cake Recipe Tips & Tricks:
Here are some of my top tips and tricks to help you make this dessert:
- Do not skip the step of sifting your flour, and omitting this step will keep your cookies from being light and tender.
- Do not overmix your batter. Once you see the flour is fully incorporated, stop.
- We get a more tender cookie by using two types of sugar in the tea cakes.
- Salted butter is for the dinner table, and unsalted butter is for cooking and baking.
- Only use about ¼ cup of flour for rolling the dough out; too much flour will make your cakes tough.
- Your tea cakes will have a light brown color on top but a perfect golden brown bottom.
- If you want to make these gluten-free, use gluten-free flour as a swap for unbleached flour.
- Feel free to swap out the lemon zest and juice for orange zest and orange juice.
- Feel free to swap our coarse sea salt for kosher salt. If you use table salt, reduce the amount of salt to ⅛ teaspoon.
- If you have self-rising flour at home, you can substitute 3 cups for the all-purpose flour. Be sure to omit the baking powder and salt.
- You can swap out the vanilla extract for fresh vanilla beans or almond extract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Southern tea cakes.
What are Southern tea cakes?
In the Southern United States, teacakes are a well-liked kind of cookie. They’re made with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour and frequently include a lemon glaze on top.
Why are tea cakes called tea cakes?
There is no definitive answer to this question. One theory is that the name comes from tea cakes, a popular tea-time snack that began in England.
Are tea cakes gluten-free?
No, tea cakes are not gluten-free and are made with flour. However, you can use gluten-free flour as a substitute for all-purpose flour.
What do tea cakes taste like?
If this is your first time having tea cakes, just know that they remind me of a sugar cookie without being overly sweet but having the perfect cakey cookie texture.
What Can I Serve With Tea Cakes?
You can serve several things with tea cakes, but I usually like to do an assortment of sweet treats when I make them. Here are some of my favorite Southern dessert recipes:
- King Cake Beignets
- Ciroc Peach Cobbler
- Nilla Wafers Banana Pudding
- Red Velvet Pound Cake with Spiked Egg Nog
- Strawberry Shortcake with Hennessy Whipped Cream
Before You Begin
Here are the steps I use to make stress-free Southern tea cakes.
Step 1: Get all the ingredients and tools for the tea cakes on the counter.
Step 2: Measure out the ingredients and place them into individual bowls.
Step 3: Follow the recipe below and set my timer until it's time to dig into a new delicious twist to Old-fashioned Southern tea cakes.
Southern Tea Cakes are a classic dessert found in the kitchens of homes across the South. They have all the qualities of an easy-to-make, delicious cake—tenderness, buttery flavor, and just enough lemon for brightness. These are perfect for serving any special occasion or holiday because they can be made ahead and frozen! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does. If you try them out, come back and leave me a 5-star review below!
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📖 Recipe
Southern Tea Cakes
Ingredients
Tea Cakes:
- 1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- lemon zest of 1 medium lemon
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for rolling dough
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
Lemon Icing:
- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Tea Cakes
- Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar with a hand mixer on medium until light and fluffy about 2 minutes. Add egg, vanilla, lemon zest, and buttermilk, mix until well blended.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over a piece of parchment paper large enough for your baking sheet. Add flour to wet ingredients, mix until blended.
- Add the batter to a lightly floured surface and knead five times until the dough comes together. Roll the dough out to ¼ inches thick. Cut cookies out with a biscuit cutter. Repeat with the scraps until you can no longer make tea cakes.
- Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until a tan light brown. Cool completely for 5-10 minutes before icing.
Lemon Icing
- While cookies bake in a medium bowl, whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Spoon icing over cooled cookies. Icing will harden in 5 minutes.
Notes
If you want to make this dish ahead of time, here’s how to do it: Tea Cakes– You can make the cookie batter one day in advance and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Cookies on the counter will be good for 5 days in an airtight container. You can freeze the cookies in the freezer by keeping them in a freezer-safe container for 3 months. Thaw a few hours before eating. Lemon Icing- You can make the icing one day in advance. Store it in an airtight container on the counter for 3 days. Recipe Tips & Tricks
-
- Use the scoop and level method to measure your flour and powdered sugar. Scooping out of the container or bag can result in more than needed, and this can drastically change the recipe.
- The size biscuit cutter you use will increase or decrease the amount of tea cakes you have. I used a 2 ½ inch biscuit cutter for this recipe.
- Do not skip the step of sifting your flour, and omitting this step will keep your cookies from being light and tender.
-
- Do not overmix your batter. Once you see the flour is fully incorporated, stop.
-
- We get a more tender cookie by using two types of sugar in the tea cakes.
-
- Salted butter is for the dinner table, and unsalted butter is for cooking and baking.
-
- Only use about ¼ cup of flour for rolling the dough out; too much flour will make your cakes tough.
-
- Your tea cakes will have a lightly brown color on top but a perfect golden brown bottom.
-
- If you want to make these gluten-free, use gluten-free flour as a swap for unbleached flour.
-
- Feel free to swap out the lemon zest and juice for orange zest and orange juice.
-
- Feel free to swap our coarse sea salt for kosher salt. If you use table salt, reduce the amount of salt to ⅛ teaspoon.
-
- If you have self-rising flour at home, you can substitute 3 cups for the all-purpose flour. Be sure to omit the baking powder and salt.
-
- You can swap out the vanilla extract for fresh vanilla beans or almond extract.
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