Welcome to 12 Days of Christmas Recipes with Spilling the Sweet Tea! I am glad to be back sharing some of my favorite holiday recipes. If you followed my series last year, then you know that I love mini appetizers and mini desserts. The recipes that I will be sharing are perfect for holiday parties and fun recipes to make with and for your kids. To see the entire series, follow me on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram.
The first recipe from my 12 Days of Christmas Recipes series is a Southern classic and a sweet treat that my mother would make from time to time. Southern Tea Cakes are fluffy and lightly sweetened cookies. They are similar to sugar cooks but are much softer and less sweet. Southern Tea Cakes have the look of a cookie but the taste has a cake like consistency. I honestly enjoy tea cakes more than sugar cookies because they aren't as sweet and they are such a simple cookie to make.
According to Southern Living, they most likely hail from the rural South and date back to times when rations were meager. If pantries were stocked, they just included basics like flour, salt, etc., (my mother use to make them with Crisco.) I personally like them plain but you can dust them with green or red sugar to make them perfect for your next holiday party or leave them for Santa!
Ingredients Needed to Make Southern Tea Cakes
1 cup of butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons of buttermilk
4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
Directions to Make Southern Tea Cakes
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract and then add the eggs, one at a time. Add buttermilk until incorporated.
Gradually add the flour and baking soda into the creamed butter mixture until just combined.
Divide the dough in half and wrap well in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour to overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350º. Remove the dough from the refrigerator 15 minutes before rolling out on a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough with cookie cutters and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes.