Teacake

Last updated
Teacake
Teacake.jpg
A toasted English teacake (right) shown with a mocha
Type Sweet roll
Main ingredientsFlour

A teacake in England is generally a light yeast-based sweet bun containing dried fruit, typically served toasted and buttered. [1] In the U.S. teacakes can be cookies or small cakes. In Sweden, they are soft, round, flat wheat breads made with milk and a little sugar, and used to make buttered ham or cheese sandwiches. In India and Australia, a teacake is more like a butter cake. Tea refers to the popular beverage to which these baked goods are an accompaniment.

Contents

Regional variations

England

In most of England, a teacake is a light, sweet, yeast-based bun containing dried fruits, most usually currants, sultanas or peel. It is typically split, toasted, buttered, and served with tea. It is flat and circular, with a smooth brown upper surface and a somewhat lighter underside. Although most people refer to a teacake as a cake containing fruit, in East Lancashire, certain areas of Yorkshire and Cumbria the name currant teacake is used to distinguish fruited 'cakes' from plain bread rolls.

In West Yorkshire, a large plain white or brown bread roll 9 inches or 225 mm diameter is often also called a teacake and is used to make very large sandwiches. Many cafes sell these for breakfast or midmorning snacks.

Like Chelsea buns, Yorkshire puddings and Bath buns before them Yorkshire tea cakes lost their specific attachment to a geographical English location. While the aforementioned were no longer only associated with specific places before the 1800s, the same happened to Yorkshire tea cakes during the Victorian era. It became defined as a traditional English food. [2]

In Kent, the teacake is known as a "huffkin", which is often flavoured with hops, especially at the time of harvesting hops in September. In Sussex, a luxurious version of the teacake with added aromatics such as nutmeg, cinnamon and rose water is still sometimes made and called a manchet or Lady Arundel's Manchet.

In East Lancashire, the former West Riding of Yorkshire, and Cumbria a teacake is a round bread roll which is cut in half to make sandwiches. They do not usually contain any sort of dried fruit. They can be made with either white, brown, wholemeal, or Granary flour (a brand of flour produced by Hovis, made by malting wheat, crushing the grains, roasting them, and then mixing them with brown flour). [3]

Sweden and Finland

In Sweden, the word for teacake (tekaka) [4] refers to a sweetened wheat yeast bread. In Finland there is a similar dish called teeleipä.

United States

In the Southeastern United States, a teacake is a traditional dense large cookie, made with sugar, butter, eggs, flour, milk, and flavoring. [5] They are particularly associated with the African-American community and were originally developed as an analog of the pastries served to guests by white women when entertaining. [6]

Australia/India

In Australia and India, a teacake is typically a butter cake, usually ready to serve warm from the oven in less than 30 minutes. Ingredients typically consist of flour, eggs, butter, cinnamon and sugar. It is traditionally served warm as an accompaniment to tea. Australian teacakes are sprinkled with cinnamon and fine (caster) sugar, and are usually served warm from the oven with additional butter. [7] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bun</span> Bread-based food

A bun is a type of bread roll, typically filled with savory fillings. A bun may also refer to a sweet cake in certain parts of the world. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, buns are most commonly round, and are generally hand-sized or smaller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biscuit</span> Sweet baked product

A biscuit, in most English speaking countries, is a flour-based baked and shaped food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rusk</span> Hard, dry biscuit

A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Czech cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of the Czech Republic

Czech cuisine has both influenced and been influenced by the cuisines of surrounding countries and nations. Many of the cakes and pastries that are popular in Central Europe originated within the Czech lands. Contemporary Czech cuisine is more meat-based than in previous periods; the current abundance of farmable meat has enriched its presence in regional cuisine. Traditionally, meat has been reserved for once-weekly consumption, typically on weekends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffee cake</span> Cake intended to be eaten with, or flavored with, coffee

Coffee cake or coffeecake is a sweet bread common in the United States, so called because it is typically served with coffee. Leavenings can include yeast, baking soda, or baking powder. The modern dish typically contains no coffee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saffron bun</span> Sweet bun flavoured with saffron

A saffron bun, Cornishtea treat bun or revel bun, is a rich, spiced yeast-leavened sweet bun that is flavoured with saffron and contains dried fruit including currants and raisins similar to a teacake. The main ingredients are plain flour, butter, yeast, caster sugar, currants and sultanas. Larger versions baked in a loaf tin are known as saffron cake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kue</span> Southeast Asian bite-sized snack or dessert

Kue is a Southeast Asian bite-sized snack or dessert, especially in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Kue or kuih are fairly broad terms in the Malay archipelago to describe a wide variety of snacks including cakes, cookies, fritters, pies, scones, and patisserie. Kue are made from a variety of ingredients in various forms; some are steamed, fried or baked. They are popular snacks in the Malay archipelago, which has the largest variety of kue. Because of the archipelago's historical colonial ties, Koeé (kue) is also popular in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tea loaf</span> English bread

A tea loaf is an English bread, made with dried fruit and traditionally served sliced and spread with butter. It is seen as a very traditional cake and the tea loaf is available in cafes and other establishments that serve traditional afternoon tea. It is particularly associated with Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biscuit (bread)</span> Type of bread

In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Like other forms of bread, a biscuit is often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sponge cake</span> Type of cake

Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.

Breakfast, the first meal of the day eaten after waking from the night's sleep, varies in composition and tradition across the world.

References

  1. Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (revised) 2006
  2. Broomfield, Andrea (2007). Food and cooking in Victorian England: a history. Victorian life and times (1. publ ed.). Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN   978-0-275-98708-4.
  3. "Granary®". Rank Hovis. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  4. "te-kaka | SAOB" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-12-08.
  5. The Georgia Cook Book, Georgia Home Economics Association. Atlanta, 1980.
  6. Karen Grigsby Bates (2016-06-19). "Food To Celebrate Freedom: Tea Cakes For Juneteenth!" . Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  7. "Cinnamon tea cake". Taste.com.au. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  8. "Cinnamon teacake". Player.fm. 16 October 2006. Retrieved 4 May 2020.