Southern Tea Cakes are more like a cookie than cake. This authentic recipe makes thick, buttery cookies topped with vanilla bean icing!
Make sure to try my Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies too!
This Is My Authentic Southern Tea Cakes Recipe!
So, I feel like I know my way around a cookie. I’ve been posting recipes here for almost 10 years…and certainly before that “cookie enthusiast” was a bullet on my resumé. Long story short, I feel like I’m fairly familiar with the cookie game. Anyhow, a few years back I was chatting with a new friend who introduced me to the Southern Tea Cake. If you are as unfamiliar as I was, they are melt in your mouth delicious, buttery, soft cookies that were completely one of a kind. They aren’t “cakey” at all (yay!). There are lots of versions out there for tea cakes…sometimes they’re glazed, sometimes they’re plain, sometimes they’re dusted with powdered sugar.
I have seen recipes where they look a lot like a sugar cookie, and sometimes they look like scones. My recipe is neither of those. It’s literal perfection…everything you want a tea cake to be. It took me a while to get this right, but it was worth every calorie.
How to Make Tea Cakes:
I used vanilla beans in mine, but feel free to use any extract in these that you would like…like almond, rum, coconut, amaretto…really it’s up to you!
And let’s just address the elephant in the room here. I used vanilla beans…which unfortunately (according to my son) makes these my cookies look like biscuits and gravy. So tea cakes in my house are now lovingly referred to as “gravy cookies”. I mean, I guess I see it. Whatever.
The dough for these is super simple, with no chill time necessary. Just roll the dough into balls and place them on a lined baking sheet. It’s very similar to a sugar cookie dough…
When they are baked they won’t spread too much, leaving them tall.
Go ahead and whip up your super simple vanilla bean glaze…
And then pour it onto each little tea cake…
See how pretty! You do this when they are warm for a thinner glaze, or cooled for a thicker glaze.
I let the glaze set up and then I couldn’t wait to dig in.
Southern Tea Cakes are some of the best treats ever…classic, but unique!
How To Store:
These can be stored at room temperature for up too 5 days, or you can freeze these for up to 30 days. Just make sure they’re stored airtight!
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Southern Tea Cakes
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Southern Tea Cakes took me a LONG time to perfect, but now, they’re such an easy cookie recipe! A perfectly dense and thick, but soft, sweet, and buttery dessert. The vanilla bean glaze on top makes these extra special, and the tastiest treat!
Ingredients
Tea Cakes
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla and beans from one vanilla bean pod (optional)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons milk
- 1 vanilla bean with beans scraped out
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar together for 1 minute until mixed. Add in eggs and vanilla (and vanilla beans), baking powder, and salt and mix until incorporated, scraping sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn mixer to low and mix in the flour until the dough just comes together.
- Form the dough into 2- inch balls and place on lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are slightly golden, careful not to over-bake.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire rack while preparing your glaze
- For glaze whisk ingredients all together in a bowl. Pour directly over the tea cakes.
- Allow glaze to set before eating.
Notes
store airtight for up to 3 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tea cake
- Calories: 163
- Sugar: 16.7 g
- Sodium: 81.3 mg
- Fat: 4.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 29 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 15.6 mg
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Yummy love all the pictures you took
Yummy! These would be so perfect with tea 🙂
Just made these tonight, followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfect, not too much spreading! I used a cookie scooper and ended up with 40 of these deliscious cookies and had plenty of glaze! Starbucks has mini vanilla bean scones and this recipe reminds me of them, except for the price! Thanks 🙂
Love hearing this! Thanks for the feedback!
Ooh, I’ve never had these before, but now I must! They look and sound amazing!
Woooow!!!! Tea time CANNNNNOT get better than this!!!!!!!!!!!! Loveeeeeeee these tea cakes and love that vanilla glaze all the more!!!! Yummmm!
I’m obsessing over that glaze.
We used to have a Ham N Goody’s in Nashville and I always got their T-cakes. I actually mourned when they closed the doors and while I have duplicated their teacake, I couldn’t duplicate the glaze. Your teacakes look yummy – although I do love the almond flavoring in the ones I fell in love with.
They’re still open in Knoxville! Northshore Rd near Kingston Pike. Just a tiny jump of I-40 at Papermill Rd to get there for anyone passing through. Well worth it! The tea cakes (un-glazed) are my favorite but the other big favorite is their glazed lemon cookies.
I made these tonight and they are DELICIOUS! I didn’t glaze them yet because I can’t resist warm-just-baked anything. I’ll add the glaze tomorrow and they will be ready for a party (-: thanks for the awesome recipe.
YAY!! Love hearing that!
So glad you did all the trail and error with these beauties! THANK YOU!!
Great recipe! Thanks for putting all the time and effort into perfecting it. Is your family tired of tea cakes yet? 😉