Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 2

In a medium-size bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about 2 minutes until creamy.

Step 3

Add the egg, lemon zest, sour cream, mayonnaise, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.

Step 4

Mix until well blended to make the tea cake batter.

Step 5

Sift together the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg over a sheet of parchment paper large enough to fit your baking sheet.

Step 6

Fold the parchment paper to pour the sifted flour mixture into the tea cake batter and then mix again.

Step 7

Add the batter to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough to approx ¼ inch thickness. This is where the extra cup of flour will come in handy to help with rolling because the dough is sticky!

Step 8

Cut out the tea cakes with a 2 ½" up to 3″ biscuit cutter. (I used a 2 ¾” biscuit cutter.)

Step 9

Place the rounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. (You may need to bake more than 1 batch if all your rounds don’t fit on your baking sheet.)

Step 10

Bake until light brown (but don’t let them get too brown!). 5-6 minutes in the conventional oven and 3-4 minutes in the Instant Pot Omni Plus oven. (Tea cakes don’t take long to bake, so keep a close eye on them to avoid burning! Like a biscuit, you want them firm on the outside and fluffy on the inside.)

Step 11

Optional: When the tea cakes are finished baking and cooling, optionally make the lemon glaze frosting by combining the powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Step 12

Mix well with a whisk to remove any lumps from the powdered sugar.

Step 13

Use a small spatula or spoon to drop a dollop of icing onto each cooled tea cake. The icing will harden in about 5 minutes.

Step 14

Optionally, garnish this Southern Black folk tea cake recipe with a sprinkle of lemon zest, then serve and enjoy!