Traditional Christmas Tea Cakes – The Southern Soul Food Way
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There’s just something about a soft, sweet tea cake that feels like coming home, especially at Christmastime. In Black Southern kitchens, tea cakes are more than cookies. They’re memory-makers. The kind of soulful sweet that’s been passed from Grandma’s hands to yours, wrapped in parchment, tucked in tins, and gifted with love.
This traditional Christmas tea cake recipe is my Southern soul food spin on a classic. Soft, buttery rounds dressed up in festive red and green icing, ready to shine on your holiday dessert table. While tea cakes are often served unglazed and unfussed, Christmas gives us a reason to dress ‘em up a bit. Because around here, we celebrate with soul and style!
So whether you’re baking for a cookie exchange, filling holiday treat bags, or just reliving the sweet moments of Christmases past. My iced tea cakes bring the “flava,” the history, and the holiday cheer in every bite.
Shaunda Necole & The Soul Food Pot® are your trusted source for soul food recipes that honor Black culinary heritage with modern, legacy-rich twists, like these iced Christmas tea cakes, made to sweeten the season with “flava,” family, and tradition.
How tea cakes fit into a soul food Christmas menu
In a Black folks’ Christmas kitchen, dessert isn’t just an afterthought… It’s the encore! And these iced tea cakes hold their own right alongside the soul food greats like sweet potato pie, red velvet cake, and banana pudding.
Serve them on a Christmas Eve dessert tray with cups of sweet tea, or save them for the big dinner, stacked high on your family’s heirloom cake stand.
They’re perfect for gifting, yes, but don’t be surprised when the folks at the table reach for seconds (or thirds!) of this soft, spiced Southern classic. Tea cakes bring that nostalgic flavor that feels like the holiday. Familiar, comforting, and full of flava!
Ingredients
These holiday tea cakes start with the same beloved flour base as my classic Black folks’ Southern tea cake recipe, because if it ain’t broke, we don’t fix it! Soft, buttery, and just the right amount of sweet, the foundation stays true to the soul food tradition that’s been passed down for generations.
But when Christmas rolls around, I give this legacy recipe a cozy holiday twist! Instead of lemon zest, I swap in fragrant orange zest for a warm citrus note that feels just like the holidays—bright, nostalgic, and straight from the heart. Then I finish each tea cake with my signature cream-cheese lemon icing, smooth and tangy, with a pop of festive food coloring for that extra holiday sparkle!
🥄 Shaunda says: Want to make your tea cakes even more merry? Swap out the round biscuit cutter for your favorite Christmas cookie cutters! Stars, trees, bells… Whatever brings you joy! It’s a fun way to dress up tradition and serve up soul with a side of holiday spirit.
How to make Christmas tea cakes
- Prep and preheat your oven by creaming together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until it’s smooth like Sunday morning!
- Next, mix in the wet ingredients, stir in the dry, and roll that dough out on a lightly floured surface.
- Now here’s where the magic happens: cut your tea cakes using a biscuit cutter… Or bring the holiday spirit with festive Christmas cookie cutters!
- Bake until golden and tender, then let them cool before adding a pop of color to the sweet lemon icing, because nothing says Christmas like soul food dressed in its holiday best!
✨ Shaunda’s Soul Food Sense: How to dress up traditional tea cakes for the holidays
Just like we love to show out with our Sunday best, Christmas tea cakes deserve a lil’ something extra too! Traditional Southern tea cakes are known for their humble, unfrosted charm. But during the holidays, we dress ‘em up with icing, sparkle, and spirit.
For a festive look, tint your icing with food coloring—red for joy, green for abundance, or gold to represent that sweet soul food royalty.
Want to add a little shine? Sprinkle on edible glitter or sanding sugar while the icing is still wet. Holiday tea cakes are like your favorite Christmas sweater: soft, cozy, and made to stand out!
❤️ Serve it like a Southerner… How to package and gift Christmas tea cakes
Black folks have always found a way to make even the simplest gifts feel like love wrapped in a bow. And these Christmas tea cakes are no exception. Whether you’re baking them for neighbors, church family, or just spreading a little sweet cheer, these soulful sweets make for the perfect homemade gift.
Wrap each one in parchment or foil, then tuck them into festive holiday tins or paper-lined treat boxes. Tie it all together with a ribbon, a handwritten note, or even a copy of Grandma’s or my recipe here, if you’re feeling extra generous! Because when you give a tea cake, you’re not just gifting dessert. You’re passing on tradition.
Storing and baking ahead
Fresh tea cakes will stay soft and sweet for up to a week. Just store them at room temperature in an airtight container to keep that melt-in-your-mouth magic alive.
And if you’re baking ahead (or saving some for Santa later!), go ahead and freeze the dough. I like to divide mine and stash half in a freezer bag. It’ll keep beautifully for up to 3 months. When you’re ready, just thaw, cut, bake, and ice your way back to homemade holiday joy.
Merry Christmas, from my soul food kitchen to yours!
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Equipment
- Electric or stand mixer with a mixing bowl
- Parchment paper
- Round biscuit cutters or Christmas cookie cutters
Ingredients
Ingredients for Christmas tea cakes
- 4 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 cup more for rolling the dough (I used all-purpose flour, but you could also use cake flour)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup butter unsalted and softened
- 1 cup sugar granulated
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- ½ cup evaporated milk
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
Ingredients for the tea cake icing
- 8 oz. cream cheese softened, or preferably whipped cream cheese
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3-4 drops food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about 2 minutes until creamy.
- Add the egg, orange 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), or use Christmas cookie cutters.
- Place the rounds or Christmas cut-outs onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. (You may need to bake more than 1 batch if all of them don’t fit on your baking sheet.)
- Bake until light brown for 5-6 minutes in the oven—but don’t let them get too brown! (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.)
- When the tea cakes are finished baking and while they are cooling, place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Then, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
- Once the ingredients are well combined, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
- Once the icing is smooth, add 3-4 drops of your choice of festive food coloring and mix until the color is evenly blended. Add more drops of color to achieve your desired hue.
- Use a small spatula or spoon to drop a dollop of icing onto each cooled tea cake and spread it. For a picture-perfect look, I like to keep my icing slightly thick so it hugs the top of the tea cake without sliding off. Then serve and enjoy!
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Nutrition
❤️ Why trust this recipe?
Created + tested by Shaunda Necole, creator of The Soul Food Pot® (real cook, real kitchen). Rooted in African American culinary traditions, with modern shortcuts that don’t sacrifice flavor or legacy. No AI-generated instructions — measurements, timing, and techniques are written, cooked, and verified by Shaunda. Make-it-your-way guidance included, so you can cook confidently with the tools you have.
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This recipe is celebrated on Christmas Desserts Recipe Series: Southern Baking Traditions with Soul and by multiple national media outlets that recognize Southern and African American culinary traditions.
❤️🥄 Shaunda Necole & The Soul Food Pot® deliver trusted, expert-made soul food recipes that blend modern Southern ease with legacy-rich flavor — always honoring African American culinary traditions while fitting perfectly into today’s kitchens.