Tea Cakes

Contents:

Yorkshire Tea Cake
"Mrs. Hudson's" Lemon Tea Cake

Yorkshire Tea Cake

 Contributed by Susan O'Brien on May 23, 1998

Source: "Dairy Book of Home Cookery," 1968.

1 lb flour
1 level teaspoon salt
1 oz English or Welsh butter [Well, it *is* the Dairy Cookbook]
1 oz caster sugar
2 oz currants
1/2 (half) oz fresh yeast
1/2 pint lukewarm milk
  1. Sift flour and sugar into bowl and rub in butter. Add sugar and currants, toss together lightly
  2. Blend yeast with milk. Add all at once to dry ingredients. Mix to firm dough. Knead for 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.
  3. Cover and leave to rise for 10 minutes. Knead well again, divide into 6 pieces. Roll into 6" rounds. Cover and leave to rise until almost double in size.
  4. Bake just above centre of fairly hot oven, 400 F or gas mark 6 for 20 minutes.
  5. To serve split open and spread thickly with butter. Can be split open and toasted before buttering.

"Mrs. Hudson's" Lemon Tea Cake

Contributed by Mary Hudspeath on November 12, 1998

Source: Having Tea by Catherine Calvert

Note from Mary: "I came across an interesting book last year called "Having Tea" by Catherine Calvert. Each chapter deals with a different season, holiday or place, all celebrating the joys of taking tea. In a chapter called "Thirties-Style Tearoom" appears this recipe. As an interesting footnote to this - the recipe is from the Tea-Time tearoom near Clapham Common, Mr. Brett's former neighborhood."

Yield: Makes one 7" round cake or 8" loaf

2 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
8 T. (1 stick) salted butter, softened
2 lg eggs, beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 T. milk
3 T. sugar, for topping
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and line a 7" round cake pan or 8" loaf pan with parchment or wax paper.
  2. Grate the lemon rinds and set aside. Combine the juice of 1 lemon with 3 T. sugar in a bowl and set in a warm place until the sugar dissolves and forms a syrup with the juice.
  3. Cream the butter and the rest of the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the grated lemon rind and flour; beat again thoroughly ( the longer you beat, the softer the cake). Add the milk and beat again.
  4. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for at least 1 Hour; the cake should spring back when pressed gently in the center. Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, prick the top with a long-tined fork or thin skewer and pour the lemon juice-sugar syrup all over the top until completely covered. Cool in the pan to allow the syrup to be soaked up and create a moist and tangy cake.



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Last Modified: Nov. 14, 1998