Black Folks Southern Tea Cake Recipe

A Black folks' tea cake recipe is a delightful Southern dessert. These little round cakes are light and airy, sometimes compared to soda bread or pound cake. Like sweet little biscuits, tea cakes are highly valued in the South and are a traditional African American treat dating back to the 1600s.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe!

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 7

Total Time: 22

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Soul Food, Southern Food

Servings: tea cakes

Calories: 143kcal

Author: Shaunda Necole

Equipment

Ingredients

Ingredients for a Black folk tea cake recipe

4 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 cup extra for rolling the dough (I used all-purpose flour, but you could also use cake flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup butter unsalted & softened
1 cup sugar granulated
1 cup light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 egg
¼ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
½ cup evaporated milk
½ tablespoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the tea cake icing (optional)

2 ½ cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

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 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.)
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!

Video

Nutrition

Save it so you can make it!Pin this recipe to remember it later.