Tea Cakes Recipe: 5 Types of Tea Cakes to Try
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Apr 27, 2023 • 3 min read
Depending on your location, “tea cakes” may refer to yeasted sweet buns, chocolate-covered marshmallows, or sugar cookies served with tea or lemonade. You can make any version of tea cakes to serve with hot tea, iced tea, or another sweet drink.
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What Are Tea Cakes?
In the United States, tea cakes are soft, cake-like cookies eaten with tea. Around the world, there are countless tea cake variations. Swedish tea cakes are flat, yeasted breads. Russian tea cakes, also known as Mexican wedding cakes or snowballs, are buttery cookies with nuts, like pecans, and a powdered sugar coating. English tea cakes are sweetened yeasted buns that get toasted and spread with butter during afternoon tea.
Given the various recipes for tea cakes, an old-fashioned tea cake means something different depending on the location.
5 Types of Tea Cakes
A tea cake is a broad term for any soft cookie, cake, sweet treat, or bun eaten with tea. Here are five of the most popular varieties:
- 1. English tea cakes: This sweet, yeasted bun studded with dried fruit accompanies afternoon tea in England. Toast the bun and spread it with butter. These buns differ from traditional cakes because the recipe uses yeast as a leavening agent instead of baking soda or baking powder.
- 2. Russian tea cakes: Similar to shortbread cookies, Russian tea cakes are small, ball-shaped cookies. Roll the buttery cookies in powdered sugar after baking, once when they’re still warm and a second time when they’ve cooled. Russian tea cakes are popular wedding cookies in Mexico and notable Christmas cookies in the United States. These lemon tea cookies are a variation of Russian tea cakes.
- 3. Scottish tea cakes: A confection of sweet and fluffy marshmallows sitting atop a shortbread cookie, then coated in chocolate is the tea cake of choice in Scotland. Other varieties exist, but the most popular is the marshmallow variety. Learn how to make shortbread cookies.
- 4. Southern tea cakes: These tea cakes, or tea cake cookies, blend cake and cookie ingredients and look like a soft sugar cookie. Southern tea cakes are often drop cookies, meaning they get “dropped” onto a cookie sheet using a spoon or scoop instead of rolled out and shaped with a cookie cutter. Even within the Southern region of the United States, there are many varieties of Southern tea cakes.
- 5. Swedish tea cakes: Also known as tekakor, Swedish tea cakes are similar to English tea cakes in that they are a type of yeasted bread. Swedish tea cakes are flatter than English tea cake buns and use a darker flour, like whole wheat or rye flour.
Southern Tea Cakes Recipe
makes
24–30 tea cakesprep time
20 mintotal time
35 mincook time
15 minIngredients
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 2
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 3
In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.
- 4
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the unsalted butter and granulated sugar for 7 minutes.
- 5
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- 6
With the mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar, and eggs together for 7 more minutes.
- 7
Add the vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest (if using).
- 8
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture.
- 9
Scoop 12–15 cookies on each cookie sheet, leaving enough space to account for spreading.
- 10
Bake the cookies until golden around the edges, 12–15 minutes.
- 11
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 12
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
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