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Tea Cakes (Cups flour teaspoons)
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking-powder 2/3 cup milk 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons shortening Mix and sift the flour, baking-powder and salt, and chop in the shortening. Add sufficient milk to make a soft dough, about two-thirds cup. Toss on floured board and roll into a sheet one-half inch in thickness. Reverse a pie-plate upon the rolled dough, and with a sharp knife, cut a cake the exact size of the pie-plate. With a cake-turner transfer the cake to a greased baking-tin and bake in a quick oven (400 degrees-425 degrees F.). while hot, split, butter and cut like a pie. Another may be made of the trimmings.
This is a single large baking-powder biscuit, baked as one round and split like a shortcake. The dough is handled exactly like biscuit dough, and the same rule applies: work it as little as possible.
- OvenThe original gives the number, 400-425F, which is right for a leavened round this thick. Bake on the upper-middle rack, 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is evenly tan and the sides feel firm.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons to two cups of flour is heavy by current practice; older tartrate and phosphate powders were generally weaker than today's double-acting kind. Three teaspoons of modern baking powder should give comparable lift.
- ShorteningThe recipe does not say which fat; lard, vegetable shortening or butter all suit. Cold butter tastes better, but keep it cold and leave it in pea-sized flakes rather than rubbing it smooth.
- MilkTwo-thirds cup is a starting figure, not a fixed one. Modern flours vary in absorption; add milk until the dough just gathers and is noticeably softer than a pastry dough.
- The pie-plate trickInverting a pie plate on the dough is simply a way to cut a clean round of even thickness, whatever size the plate happens to be. A cake pan or the rim of a skillet does the same. Do not re-roll the trimmings more than once or the second cake will be tough.
- Splitting while hotThe cake must be split, buttered and served hot; it is a shortcake base, not a keeping bread. Pull it apart with a fork rather than cutting, so the crumb stays open.
- YieldOne round the size of the pie-plate used, cut into six or eight wedges. The same dough would serve as a base for shortcake or creamed dishes.