Tea Cakes for Halloween

A while back I purchased a huge set of cookie cutters, but with all the chaos of moving and everything else, I had not yet gotten the chance to use them. With Halloween upon us, I felt it was the perfect time to try them out.

When I was a kid it was always a big treat whenever we got to make tea cakes. At my house we only made them occasionally, so I probably would have forgotten about them entirely, except that my grandma used to make them too, and I also remember going over to my aunt's house and "helping" her make them.

The only problem is that I didn't have "the" recipe for them, and so I found myself perusing cookbooks and trying to decide which one of the half dozen recipes I wanted to try. The recipe I tried turned out pretty well. The taste and the texture are slightly different from what I remember, but all-in-all, it's a pretty good cookie. (However, if I try another recipe in the future and it turns out better, I'll be posting it too!)

To give them a bit of festive, Halloween styling, I cut them out in the shapes of pumpking, ghosts, and cats. And for fun, I decorated some of them using chocolate chips. It was tempted to go all out and put a bunch of sprinkles or icing on them too, but I think these taste better without all that extra stuff.



Tea Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup water or milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Cream sugar, margarine, shortening, water or milk. Add beaten eggs and vanilla. Add flour a little a time until completely mixed in. Roll onto floured pastry sheet. Cut with cookie cutter and bake on greased cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for 8 to minutes. (similar recipes also say 350 for 10-15 minutes) Note: This recipe makes around 2 dozen cookies, give or take a few, depending upon what size cutters you use.