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Tea Cakes

by Vivian Perez

An image of a tea cake often brings thoughts of afternoon tea and a serving of a flat semi sweet cookie or biscuit. The tea cake is depicted as a British teatime pastry served with Earl Grey tea. Actually tea cakes are defined differently in every country, the Irish tea cakes, Mexican tea cakes, Italian tea cakes, Welsh tea cakes are diverse in form and taste. The Downey's Restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sells an Irish Whiskey tea cake created from own recips and soaked with the finest liquors. The Irish tea cake is a glazed coffeecake made for the Christmas Holiday and St. Patrick's Day, but also available for any day of the year. Throughout history, the tea cake has varied in size, shape and appearance and occasion. During the Regency period, servants greeted guests with ginger biscuit shaped tea cakes as a warm welcome. Even tradition has followed the tea cake into the present time from the French Revolution to the Civil War. The tea cake has made its appearance at celebrations, parties, restaurants, and weddings.

Leah Stewart is the innkeeper/pastry chef of the Gallery House Bed and Breakfast in Louisville, Kentucky who abundantly makes tea cakes-petit fours, battenburgs, and tweed cakes in a variety of colors and pastry design. She graduated from summa cum laude from the National Center for Hospitality Studies of Sullivan College with a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. "Tea cakes are time consuming fiddley little things. They set me apart from the competition. Almost no one in town will do them." Leah likes the challenge of taking an oridinary tea cake and creating a work of art. She always has her paintbrush and canvas of colors ready to create a whole new tea cake. "A way of making tea cakes practical is a variation of a recipe thats made its way around every pastry kitchen and bakery."

Indvidual tea cakes take a long time to make and decorate, Leah has an easier technique of making petit fours. They are less of an intrusion in a baking schedule. First a good dense cake such as a firm white cake or pound cake is needed, use an extra small square pan. Brush the pan with thinned corn syrup or warmed apricot then top with mazipan. Cut into squares no bigger than 2" square wrap it tightly and freeze. When the petit fours are needed, mix up the poured fondant and tint if desired then skewer the cake, still frozen. Dip into the poured fondant, the fondant adheres to the cold cake, giving a smooth finish. Then put the skewer with the cake still attached through an opening of a cooling grid. The cake remains on the cooling grid to dry. "This is much easier than pouring "poured fondant." Leah decorates the petit fonts to be an eye catching product with shape and color.

The easier technique Leah created increases the practicality in the professional kitchen. Tea cakes aren't practical in the professional kitchen and making them decreases practicality. "I provided a technique thats easier, quieter and looks good. A recipe that uses ingredients commonly found. This technique gives practicality." says Leah Stewart.

Tea Cakes

The easier technique Leah created increases the practicality in the professional kitchen. Tea cakes aren't practical in the professional kitchen and making them decreases practicality. "I provided a technique thats easier, quieter and looks good. A recipe that uses ingredients commonly found. This technique gives practicality." says Leah Stewart.

Tweed cakes are a variation of an old mountain spice recipe that everyone in Kentucky uses. The bakery recipe calls for dried baked goods generally breads. Leah modified the original recipe into a new recipe made with leftover cake tops and cake crumbs. One night, she had only chocolate and white cake crumbs, she added the crumbs to the cakes and baked them. People said they looked unusual and very pretty like a tweed. Tweed cakes were a big hit at the Gallery Inn Bed and Breakfast, the taste was described as heavenly. The icing on the tweed cakes is a dollop of ganache on the top. They are not immersed in icing as are the petit fours. Leah liked the way they look so she served them at a dessert party and everyone loved them. When people started asking for the recipe, it was tricky explaining that they were made from "leftovers." Leah continues to experiment with different flavored cake crumbs. She is a true artist in the kitchen with her palette of colors and her paintbrush ready at all times.

Innkeeper/Chef Lesley Marquis uses her Grandmother's Russian Tea Cake original recipe at the Rose Country Inn Bed and Breakfast in New Hampshire. The Cherry Nut Tea Cakes recipe was found on the internet a few years ago, Lesley has been making it ever since. She has made a few changes to the recipe and Lesley has kept the Russian Tea Cakes recipe the same. The recipes are a tradition at the inn, Lesley serves the Russian Tea Cakes and the Cherry Nut Tea Cakes for the "Inn to Inn" Christmas and all the Mother/Daughter weekends. Lesley Marquis started cooking after she and her husband bought the inn.

Once upon a time, the tea cake existed only in the country they came from. Nowadays, chefs are innovative and inventive about their work in the kitchen. It doesn't matter where a tea cake recipe originated from, tea cakes gracing the kitchens of chefs are uniquely created and uniquely recreated with a little bit of tradition mixed in.



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