Tea Cakes Recipe With Icing
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Follow this beloved Southern tea cakes recipe and in no time you’ll be enjoying pillowy soft and slightly sweet tea cakes with delicious frosting.
If you’ve never had a Southern tea cake, rest assured we sometimes call them cookies but they’re nothing like a cookie (nor are they similar to a ). This tender little cake is soft and pillowy, with just a touch of buttery vanilla sweetness. A very simple and comforting flavor. You can eat them with or without the icing. They are equally satisfying. If you are looking for the crispy variety, click here for my old-fashioned crispy Southern tea cake cookie recipe.
Tea cakes by Mama Reed are something I dearly love to bake. One of the main reasons (despite the flavor and texture) is that I like a lower-sugar snack. These tea cakes are perfect because they are not loaded down with sugar and super-sweet taste as most sugar cookies are. They are the perfect treat with an afternoon cup of coffee or as a snack. If you are expecting something really sweet, you’ll want to add the icing.
Mama Reed (Adle Reed was her given name) made these on a regular basis and the day she made them all 10 of her kids were allowed to eat as many as they wanted as they were coming warm out of the oven. With a shortbread-like texture, it’s easy to see why these tea cakes are total crowd-pleasers. I love to make them around the holidays as they’re the perfect Christmas cookie.
Recipe Ingredients
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Self-rising flour
How to Make My Southern Tea Cakes Recipe
Begin by placing the room temperature butter in a large bowl with the sugar.
Beat this with an electric mixer or until well creamed together and fluffy.
Now add eggs and beat again until well incorporated.
Dump in all of your flour and the vanilla extract. Mix again.
A nice dough will soon form from this .
Turn your dough out onto a floured surface.
I like to line my countertop with paper and flour so all I have to do is fold up the paper and there is no mess left behind.
Roll out the tea cake dough to about 1/4-inch thickness or so. You can make them a little thicker if you like.
Cut out your cookies.
Spray your baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Bake them at 350 until done, about 10 minutes or so.
Here are the finished tea cakes.
As soon as you take them out of the oven you can sprinkle a little colored sugar on them if you like, but do it while they are warm so it will stick.
Otherwise, follow along as we add icing to our tea cakes.
Tea Cakes Icing Recipe
Recipe Ingredients
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Vanilla
- Butter
- Milk
- Food coloring bottle
Place softened margarine or butter in a bowl and top with confectioner’s sugar.
Cut in your butter with a fork and then add the milk and vanilla. Stir that until smooth and creamy.
Add in food coloring if you like.
If it becomes too runny, just add another tablespoon or two of confectioner’s sugar.
First, make sure your cookies are completely cool before you add icing.
Then, spoon the icing on the center of your tea cake (this icing is also excellent on sugar cookies). Spread it around with your spoon and top with colorful sprinkles.
See how pretty these are? I feel like it’s my birthday or something (it’s not).
They are equally pretty with white uncolored icing as well.
Note: This icing is going to be very wet when you first make it and ice your cookies, but it will dry after an hour or so.
Just leave your cookies spread out to dry and once it does you can stack them in a cookie jar or on a plate.
Storage
- Store your cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- You can also freeze either the unbaked cookie dough or the baked cookies for up to 3 months. You’ll just need to add a few minutes to the baking time for the unbaked cookies and simply thaw the baked cookies at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
- This tea cakes recipe can be used for any holiday or occasion. I like to use a round cookie cutter with a bit of a frill when there isn’t a holiday coming up and I have a craving for tea cakes. But you can use heart cutouts for Valentine’s Day, trees for Christmas, or stars for the 4th of July. The possibilities are endless for these little beauties.
- While these are a great treat with a cup of coffee for morning or , they also taste great served with fresh berries and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
- Feel free to make this Southern tea cake recipe your own. Add some lemon zest to enhance the flavors. Or how about a 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg? Another idea is a teaspoon of almond extract, lemon extract, or rum extract.
You may also like these other cookie and cakes recipes:
Heart-Shaped Cookies With Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 1/2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Icing (optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- few drops food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix again. Then add the vanilla and flour and mix well.1 cup softened butter, 1 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 3 1/2 cups self-rising flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Roll your cookie dough out thinly on a floured surface and cut with a cookie or biscuit cutter. Place on a cookie sheet greased with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with colored sugar while warm or ice with the vanilla icing.
To make the simple vanilla icing
- Cut the butter into the confectioner's sugar in a small bowl. Add the milk and vanilla and stir until smooth and creamy. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and stir until blended.2 tablespoons butter at room temperature, 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, few drops food coloring, optional
- Spoon a small amount of icing into the center of each cookie and spread with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles over the top while still wet and allow to dry for about an hour before stacking the cookies.
Nutrition
Ok I am gonna give this a try. My husband is from Tenn and is forever talking about these tea cakes his granny made. He is not very good at explaining them… But I bet these might be close. Thanks Christy.
Teresa, these should be very similar, let me know how it goes!
Hi Christy!! I am so happy to be a recipient of your Southern Plate blog. Today’s just brought a burst of joy to me. My sister introduced me to you, and I just love it. Mama Reed’s tea cakes are the absolute most. I’m on up in age now and don’t get to do too much cooking in the kitchen, but I may have to do this recipe. These tea cakes are such a favorite of mine. Another I enjoy is shortbread. I remember both of these from years ago. I hobble about on my own still and live alone – my son and his wife live close by. Wouldn’t I just knock their socks off if I could pull this one off……. 🙂 You are a great comfort to me and it makes me feel like you’re my daughter or granddaughter. Love your format, pictures and easy recipes. Keep ’em coming, Gal. You’re the tops!!!
I remember as a child my grandmother would make tea cakes every Saturday for all the grandchildren (and there were a passel of grandkids!). She kept them in a big wicker basket that had a wicker top on it. She’d have a clean dish towel in the basket with all those delicious cookies wrapped inside. The wicker basket was kept on top of her china cabinet. As a small child I remember standing at the china cabinet and looking up at the basket. It seemed so high up. After church all her children and grandchildren would meet at her house for dinner. Each family brought something to add to what she had. After dinner she’d get down the wicker basket and all the kids would line up for 1 or 2 tea cakes depending on the age of the child. What a precious memory she left for all her grandchildren, and even great grandchildren. I’ve tried to duplicate her recipe but they don’t taste quite a good as my grandmother. It must be the love she added to her recipe.
Our cough med was electric oil and suger on a spoon. yuch.
This is my first post but I just HAD to tell you a story from MY childhood regarding cough medicine. Back in the earily 1960s when I was 5 or 6 I would get terrible coughing spells during the winter and sometimes so bad I’m sure my mother was scared to death (my dad was a farmer and worked 24/7 so he didn’t ever hear me cause he was a sleep!), well, for her cough syrup she would take a teaspoon of sugar and take a coal oil lamp which was a little cottage with Santa Claus coming down the chimney and pour a little oil on the sugar and in between spells she would poke it down me and take me out side in the cold and hold me in freezing weather until I could catch my breath. Now I KNOW Robitussin does not taste good but try sugar and coal oil one time and it won’t taste near as bad! Love your wonderful website.
My mother gave that to me as a child in the 50’s; too funny to read that someone else used the same “medicine” that we did.
I remember going to my grandmother’s best friends’s house. She always had these around and they were huge and so yummy. She had sugar and nutmeg on the top of hers. This brings back so many warm memories. Thanks for sharing.
I really want to try theses!!!