Vegan Southern Tea Cakes

On Sunday Rob and I made tea cakes and gingerbread cookies. It took us basically the whole day. Even so, the gingerbread cookies turned out so funny. They were so crudely shaped and poorly frosted that we were giggling and snickering and rolling our eyes as we arranged them on a bright red platter. Our gingerbread boys were dressed in smeary mittens and drippy hats, and our Christmas trees were decorated with the messiest, blobby-est ornaments.

“Let’s tell people the cats frosted them,” I said. “But not the older cats, just the little ones—Elroy and Leroy.”

“Right,” Rob said. “It’s the only plausible explanation. The older cats would have done a better job.”

The tea cakes turned out a little prettier than the gingerbread, so I’m including a picture and the recipe. I got into the idea of tea cakes when we went to the Agrirama, where they were being sold in little brown paper sacks at the general store. Ours were delicious, but I ate waaaaay too many. I kept eating the mess-ups, so I probably consumed about 5,000 calories just on Sunday morning.

Vegan Southern Tea Cakes

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 stick non-dairy butter, softened
2 Tbls water
1 1/2 tsps Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the water and egg replacer until frothy. Add the egg replacer mixture to the butter and sugar. Mix in the almond milk and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend well.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Roll out on a floured surface until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a cookie or biscuit cutter and arrange on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

You can serve your tea cakes plain or frost them and decorate them with sprinkles.