While ordering from a skilled baker can make a great gift or an easy snack to keep on-hand for teatime, creating memories in your own kitchen is a wonderful way to preserve this Southern tradition, and countless bloggers and home chefs have begun sharing their own tried-and-true recipes passed down from generations. Lana Stuart, author of Lana’s Cooking blog, recalls growing up in a picturesque, small town in Georgia, where tea cakes were a beloved treat. “I started baking them myself probably about 50 years ago, following my Aunt Marjorie’s recipe. I still remember the big old glass cookie jar always filled with tea cakes in Aunt Marjorie’s kitchen. I think everyone in our family baked tea cakes, but hers were my favorite,” Lana reminisces. Enjoying these pillowy treats while the sweet aroma of baked goods wafts through the air often conjures vivid memories of rural Georgia for Lana. Riding her bike through a small town, which she likens to the quaint, fictional town of Mayberry, and ending a tiring day with a tall glass of milk and a tea cake with “just the right sweetness” was her idea of a perfect day.
Lana highlights that the most important part of making tea cakes is to ensure that you do not roll your dough too thinly. Ideally, the cakes should be at least 1⁄4-inch thick, and she suggests chilling the dough before baking to prevent spreading. Along with helpful baking tips, she also offers creative suggestions like using tea cakes in place of vanilla wafers in banana pudding, resulting in a truly Southern treat that any guest would enjoy. Lana also recently released her first cookbook, My Southern Table: Recipes from a Georgia Kitchen, which includes a selection of old-fashioned family recipes, along with stories of her upbringing in rural Georgia. She explains, “Cooking is not always just a way to get food on the table so you can get on with something else. It’s about fellowship, too. A time to be together and enjoy each other’s company. And if you have an old family recipe like my Old-Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes to enjoy, all the better!” Visit lanascooking.com to find her recipe for tea cakes, along with purchasing information for her cookbook.
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