Old-Fashioned Tea Cake Recipe

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Lori Dunn
Enjoy your tea cakes with some afternoon tea.

Ken Brown, Oxford, Florida, is looking for a recipe for old-fashioned tea cookies. The soft dough was rolled out and cut. It did not have sugar on top, and it probably was high in butter or lard. He remembers the cookie from the Thomasville, Georgia, area years ago.

MAIN STORY:Holiday Food Recipes

Many of our readers recognized the recipe, including Joan Ferrer, Fort Mill, South Carolina.  

She writes, “This is my aunt’s, Eunice Browning from Anderson County. She would have turned 90 this year. I take a shortcut and skip the chilling by flouring my hands and rolling the dough into 1-inch balls, then flattening them with a glass dipped in sugar.” 

A note in another recipe cautions against adding extra flour; too much will make the cookies hard.  

Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes 

1 cup sugar
11⁄2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
21⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder 

Combine sugar and margarine, add eggs and vanilla. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add to sugar mixture. 

Chill for 1 to 2 hours. Roll on floured board and cut with cookie cutters. If dough is sticky, add a little extra flour. Bake at 375° to 400°F. They bake quickly. Yields about 3 dozen cookies.  

  • Published on Oct 8, 2010
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