Tea Cakes

A tender cross between pound cake and shortbread, as Heidi Haughy Cusick described them in her 1995 cookbook, Soul and Spice, tea cakes are not as sweet as sugar cookies and less fluffy than madeleines (the French tea cakes shaped like a scallop shell). They show up in black cookbooks—a lot.  

Through the history of this recipe, I found the combination of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour usually flavored one of three ways. A hint of nutmeg seemed essential for some, while modern interpretations add a bit of citrus zest or extract. Cooks without access to spices baked plain dough, enriched with whole milk, evaporated milk, buttermilk, or sour cream.  

With reverence for the old ways, and pulling from several recipes, here is my rendition of tea cakes, with baking powder added for a little extra lift. You can personalize them, too, substituting a pinch of cinnamon, allspice, or mace for the nutmeg or sour cream for the buttermilk.