45 teacake recipes

Irish tea cake with cream cheese and buttermilk batter studded with dried currants, finished with a bright lemon glaze. Tender crumb that keeps for days.

Poppy seed tea cake with sour cream, almond extract, and cinnamon, baked in a tube pan. A buttery, tender cake with nutty seeds and a delicate crumb from cake flour.

Russian tea cakes (also called Mexican wedding cookies): buttery nut-studded shortbread balls rolled twice in powdered sugar. A classic holiday cookie tin staple in 30 minutes.

Harvest spice tea cake folds steeped autumn-spice tea into a simple egg-and-sugar batter for a fragrant, almost-sponge cake. Served warm with butter, fresh nutmeg, and spiced whipped cream.

Whole wheat pumpkin tea cake sweetened with honey and brown sugar, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, and topped with chopped hazelnuts. A lighter autumn loaf for afternoon tea or breakfast.

Light plum or apricot tea cake made with egg whites, orange juice, and fructose instead of butter and sugar. A lower-fat fruit loaf that stays moist for days.

Black-eyed pea cakes with smoky adobo cream and melty Monterey Jack. An 18-minute vegetarian main that fries up crisp on the outside with a tender, cumin-spiced center.

This super fruity and moist cake is absolutely divine. It's a great coffee or tea cake. I had it for breakfast with my morning coffee for a few days, perfect. Made with mostly whole wheat flour and applesauce, not loaded with sugar, so it's much healthier than your regular coffee cake, that's why it's also a great breakfast to start off your day.

Scottish marmalade cake with orange marmalade and sultanas baked into a simple creamed batter. A traditional British tea cake with just six ingredients.

These cookies have many names: Butterballs, Russian Teacakes, etc. In New Mexico, they are "Polvorones" which is Spanish for "Dust Balls".

One-bowl orange marmalade tube cake with warm spices, chopped walnuts, and a hint of lemon. A bittersweet British-style tea cake that dusts clean from a vanilla-wafer-lined pan.

Butter ball cookies (Russian tea cakes) with ground walnuts, cake flour, butter, and vanilla rolled in powdered sugar twice. A melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie with just five ingredients.

Butter pecan snowball cookies (Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes) with finely chopped pecans, rolled in powdered sugar while warm. Christmas cookie tin staple, freezes beautifully.

Classic French madeleines: tender shell-shaped tea cakes with crisp golden edges and a hint of lemon. Buttery, light, and best eaten the moment they cool.

Orange walnut madeleines: shell-shaped French teacakes with orange zest, cardamom, and chopped walnuts, finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. Elegant holiday cookies to pair with coffee.

Buttery pecan tea cookies rolled in powdered sugar while warm, then dusted again after cooling. Melt-in-your-mouth snowball cookies also known as Russian tea cakes.