Tea Cakes

These sweet little tea cakes look as exquisite as they taste! They are light and moist with bits of raspberries scattered throughout. Then they are covered in a blanket of glossy pink rose icing adding just a touch of delicate floral flavour. They are the perfect little cake to serve along a cup of tea or for a special occasion. You can make this recipe ahead of time.

Want to bring a touch of sophistication into your world of baking? Or perhaps just try something new? Well, there is nothing lovelier than these sweet little tea cakes. They look as exquisite as they taste!

Would you believe me if I told you these tea cakes are simpler to make than you think? What this recipe involves is a little patience; the time it takes to cut out the little cakes and drip the icing over top and then maybe the most difficult part – to wait for the icing to firm up before indulging. It’s a simple cake recipe with bits of raspberries folded into the batter then cut into smaller circles. After each mini tea cake has been cut out you simply drop a heaping spoonful of icing on top, letting it drip off the edges and down the cake.  Then top each cake with a small piece of fresh raspberry. You can also top the tea cakes with sugared flowers or even edible flowers, but I do love the extra burst of raspberry flavour that cuts through the sweet floral rose icing.

Tips On Making Tea Cakes

• Have patience and wait for your cake to cool before cutting out individual circles. If the cake is hot when you start cutting you will squish the cake down and possibly break parts of it too.
• Place the cake into the fridge to speed up cooling time.
• Use the bottom of the cakes as the top. This will create a flat, clean surface to pour your icing on to.
• Make sure to break up your raspberries in smaller pieces when adding them to your batter. Since the cakes are mini you want to keep the berries proportionate to the cake size (and avoid one big berry in your mini cake).
• To get icing the right consistency (runny enough to pour and thick enough to set) add milk in tablespoons, mixing completely into the powered sugar before adding another tablespoon. Add a little at a time! Test icing consistency on cake scraps before starting on the circle cakes.
• Use fresh raspberries to top mini tea cakes and place the cut side of raspberries up. If you place the cut side down, the juices from the raspberries will bleed into your icing.

Why not use a mini muffin tin to bake the tea cakes instead of cutting each cake out?

You most definitely can! But… I find when you bake the cakes in a muffin tin you lose the moisture that you get from a large cake. In a muffin tin all the edges of each ‘cake’ are getting baked and at a much quicker speed. With a larger cake and cutting out smaller cakes you get nothing but the middle section where it is moist and soft, leaving you with every tea cake moist and delicious.  You will have cake scraps doing this method, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat them as you work away!

Occasions for Tea Cakes

I mean do we always need to have a special occasion to enjoy something exquisitely sweet?! How about just as simple as having a friend over for tea? Or enjoy for;

• • Mother’s Day
  • Baby Shower
  • Wedding Shower
  • Themed Tea Party
  • Birthday Party
  • Wedding

using a round cookie cutter, cut out 1 – 1 1/2 inch circles

spoon a heaping amount of rose icing over the tops of each cake

let icing set for a minute then add a small piece of raspberry on the top of each tea cake

Tea Cakes

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

These sweet little tea cakes look as exquisite as they taste! They are light and moist with bits of raspberries scattered throughout. Then they are covered in a blanket of glossy pink rose icing adding just a touch of delicate floral flavour. They are the perfect little cake to serve along a cup of tea or for a special occasion. You can make this recipe ahead of time.

• Author: Alie Romano
• Prep Time: 1 hour 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 25 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: British

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Cake

• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup raspberries

Icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 – 4 1/2 Tablespoons milk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon rose extract (substitution – almond extract)
• red food colouring
• handful of fresh raspberries, cut into quarters

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper and grease any exposed sides.
2. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Continue to beat until well incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, add sifted flour, baking powder and salt together, mix well.
4. Turn the mixer on low. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk into your butter mixture in 2 additions (just until incorporated). Make sure to scrape down the bowl.
5. Break up your raspberries into smaller pieces and add to your batter. Using a spatula fold the raspberries into the batter, be careful not to overmix your batter.
6. Pour your batter into prepared pan, evening out the top.
7. Bake for approx. 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes. Carefully, remove the cake from the pan and turn the cake over onto a cooling rack so the bottom now becomes the top (this is to help flatten the top of the cake).
9. Let the cake cool completely.
10. Using a 1 – 1 1/2 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out 25 circles. Place the cakes onto a cooling rack.
11. Make your icing.
12. Cut fresh raspberries in quarters and set aside.
13. In a large bowl add powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons of milk, rose extract and 1 drop of food colouring. Whisk together until smooth. Your icing should be thin enough to run but thick enough to hold a little shape. Add more milk if it’s too thick or more powdered sugar if it’s too thin. Add a little at a time.
14. Using a spoon, add a heaping amount of icing over the tops of each cake. Let the icing run down the sides (you can help the icing run down the sides by pushing the icing out over the edges).
15. Let the icing rest a little before adding a small piece of raspberry on top. Make sure to add the raspberry cut side up. This is to avoid raspberry juice bleeding into the icing.
16. Let the cakes rest 1-2 hours for the icing to set before serving.

Notes

Cakes will last 2 days before the tops start to sweat.

Freeze cakes in an airtight container for one month.

Don’t have a round 1 inch cookie cutter? Cut into 1 inch squares using a large knife, trimming off the edges of the 8 x 8 cake.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1
• Calories: 101
• Sugar: 12.5g
• Sodium: 46mg
• Fat: 3.3g
• Saturated Fat: 2g
• Unsaturated Fat: 0
• Trans Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 14.7g
• Fiber: 0.3g
• Protein: 1.1g
• Cholesterol: 14mg

Keywords: Tea Cakes, Petit Fours, Rosewater, Cake, Dessert

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