Tea Cake Island Style Recipes

TEA CAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
• Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Stir in flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, and baking soda until dough is well mixed. Drop spoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes.

BLACK FOLKS SOUTHERN TEA CAKE RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium-size bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about 2 minutes until creamy.
• Add the egg, lemon zest, sour cream, mayonnaise, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.
• Mix until well blended to make the tea cake batter.
• Sift together the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg over a sheet of parchment paper large enough to fit your baking sheet.
• Fold the parchment paper to pour the sifted flour mixture into the tea cake batter and then mix again.
• Add the batter to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough to approx ¼ inch thickness. This is where the extra cup of flour will come in handy to help with rolling because the dough is sticky!
• Cut out the tea cakes with a 2 ½" up to 3″ biscuit cutter. (I used a 2 ¾" biscuit cutter.)
• Place the rounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. (You may need to bake more than 1 batch if all your rounds don't fit on your baking sheet.)
• Bake until light brown (but don't let them get too brown!). 5-6 minutes in the conventional oven and 3-4 minutes in the Instant Pot Omni Plus oven. (Tea cakes don't take long to bake, so keep a close eye on them to avoid burning! Like a biscuit, you want them firm on the outside and fluffy on the inside.)
• Optional: When the tea cakes are finished baking and cooling, optionally make the lemon glaze frosting by combining the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
• Mix well with a whisk to remove any lumps from the powdered sugar.
• Use a small spatula or spoon to drop a dollop of icing onto each cooled tea cake. The icing will harden in about 5 minutes.
• Optionally, garnish this Southern Black folk tea cake recipe with a sprinkle of lemon zest, then serve and enjoy!

TEA CAKE, ISLAND-STYLE

Steps:

• Trim and peel pineapple. Cut 6 slices, 1/2-inch thick, and cut fruit into wedges, removing cores.
• Prepare Streusel and set aside.
• Re-sift flour with baking powder and salt. Combine butter, granulated sugar and egg, and beat until well-blended. Stir in lemon peel, and about half the flour mixture. Stir in the milk, then stir in the remaining flour mixture.
• Turn into well-greased and lightly floured 8-inch springform pan (or baking pan 6 by 9 by 2 inches). Sprinkle with half the Streusel. Arrange pineapple wedges over top and sprinkle with remaining Streusel.
• Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 55 to 60 minutes, until cake tests done and edges begin to pull away from pan. Remove from oven to wire rack and let stand 10 to 15 minutes, then remove from pan.
• Sprinkle with a light sifting of powdered sugar.
• Serve warm or cool. Makes 8 servings.
• Streusel: Combine 1/3 cup brown sugar (packed) and 1/4 cup flour. Cut in 3 tablespoons butter or margarine until particles are like coarse crumbs.