Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

These old fashioned tea cakes are soft, lightly spiced cookies with a tender texture and simple, nostalgic flavor. This classic tea cake cookie recipe uses pantry staples and a chilled dough to create cookies that are easy to roll, bake, and enjoy plain, glazed, or lightly frosted.

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes vs Sugar Cookies

Tea cakes and sugar cookies share some ingredients, but they are not exactly the same. Tea cakes are typically less sweet, more softly spiced, and often a little more tender or cakey in texture.

Sugar cookies tend to be sweeter and more neutral in flavor, especially when they are made for decorating. Tea cakes are more understated and nostalgic, with the flavors of butter, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon carrying the recipe.

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes Ingredients

All this recipe requires is some super simple ingredients and – voila – you have delicious tea cookies to snack on at home or take to a brunch or book club meet-up.

• Unsalted butter – As with most baked goods, this recipe requires unsalted butter. There’s other salt in the recipe so you want to rely on that to bring out the flavors in these tea cakes.

How To Make Old Fashioned Tea Cakes (Step-by-Step)

Transform basic ingredients into a delicious and decadent dessert with a few easy steps.

1. Cream Butter. Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream butter and sugar until they are fluffy and light.
2. Combine wet ingredients. Turn the mixer from high speed to medium speed and add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.
3. Sift. Using a sifter, combine flour with the baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. This ensures that all are evenly distributed through the dough.
4. Combine dry ingredients with wet. Next, add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar. Mix gently, ensuring to completely combine the ingredients while not over-mixing.
5. Chill. Once the ingredients are fully combined, place the dough on a large piece of plastic wrap. Cover the dough completely with the wrap and flatten. Place dough on a flat surface and refrigerate.
6. Prep. When ready to bake, remove the old fashioned tea cakes dough from the refrigerator to take the chill off. Also preheat the oven.
7. Roll. Sprinkle flour onto a clean surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough so that it is about ¼ of an inch thick. 
8. Cut. Cut the dough using the cookie cutter or a large biscuit cutter and place the cut slices on the baking sheet prepared with parchment paper.
9. Bake. Bake the cakes until the edges are golden brown.
10. Cool. After removing from the oven, let the cakes rest until they are cool enough to remove them to finish cooling on a wire rack.
11. Frost. Serve the cakes plain or choose a glaze or frost to top them with.

Variations 

Make your own version of old fashioned tea cakes by customizing them.

• Extracts – Replace some or all of the extracts with others that you prefer to impart different flavors. Citrus notes like lemon and orange are also delightful.  
• Spices – Change up the spices, or add your own. Cloves, allspice, and pumpkin spice are all good options.
• Nuts – Crush some of your favorite nuts and sprinkle them over top after frosting or glazing.
• Citrus – Try grating some lemon zest or orange zest into the dough for elevated flavor. You can also try adding a bit of lemon juice.
• Cinnamon Sugar– After cutting the dough, toss the cookie dough in cinnamon sugar.
• Frosting or Icing- While these cookies are simple and quite frankly, pretty plain, you can frost or ice them to give them an edge. These are our favorites!
  • Powdered Sugar Icing 
  • Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Vanilla Buttercream Frosting 
  • Easy Chocolate Frosting 
  • Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting 

Tips for Tender Tea Cakes

These old fashioned tea cakes are meant to be soft and tender in texture. Follow these tips to ensure they are.

• Don’t overmix the dough – Once the flour goes in, mix only until combined. Overmixing develops more gluten, which can make tea cakes tougher instead of tender.
• Roll evenly – Keeping the dough at an even thickness helps the cookies bake consistently and stay soft in the center.
• Use room temperature butter and eggs – Room temperature ingredients incorporate into the dough easier and provides a smoother texture.
• Chill between batches if needed – If the dough gets too soft while rolling and cutting, chilling it again briefly will make it easier to handle.

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These old fashioned tea cakes are soft, simple, and warmly spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. A classic tea cake cookie recipe perfect for holidays or everyday baking.

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Chill Time: 4 hours hrs

Total Time: 4 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

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Servings: 24

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Equipment

• Stand Mixer
• Electric Hand Mixer
• Sifter
• Silicone Baking Mats
• Rimmed Baking Sheet
• Rolling Mat
• Rolling Pin

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the softened 1 cup unsalted butter and 1 ¾ cups sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 1-2 minutes.
• Beat in the 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract. Set aside.
• Sift or whisk together the 3 cups flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, being careful to blend until just mixed and not overmix.
• Turn out onto a large piece of plastic wrap, covering fully and flattening. Refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Lightly flour a rolling mat or clean rolling surface, roll out a quarter of the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut using a 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter and transfer to baking sheet, placing them 1-2 inches apart. If you don't want to roll them, use a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop to make round balls and push flat with the bottom of a glass.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until very lightly browned along the edges.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
• Continue with the remaining dough.
• Serve plain, glaze or frost as desired.
• If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.

Notes

Use one of these simple icings or frostings: 

• Powdered Sugar Icing 
• Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting 
• Easy Chocolate Frosting 
• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting 

Refrigerator: Keep these tea cakes in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days for maximum freshness.

Freezer: Freeze tea cakes in individual ziploc bags for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Calories: 188 kcal, Carbohydrates: 27 g, Protein: 2 g, Fat: 8 g, Saturated Fat: 5 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2 g, Trans Fat: 0.3 g, Cholesterol: 34 mg, Sodium: 175 mg, Potassium: 25 mg, Fiber: 0.5 g, Sugar: 15 g, Vitamin A: 256 IU, Vitamin C: 0.004 mg, Calcium: 8 mg, Iron: 1 mg

Calories: 188

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: classic tea cakes, homemade tea cakes, old fashioned tea cake recipe, old fashioned tea cakes, soft tea cakes, southern tea cakes, tea cake cookies, tea cakes, vintage tea cakes

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