Golden, warm Irish Tea Cake is an easy dessert to serve with your St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef and Cabbage. It’s also a homey, delicious Irish baking recipe that’s also perfect any time of year.
What is Irish Tea Cake?
Irish Tea Cake is not the same thing as making Irish Soda Bread then adding a handful of raisins. I have to say this because there are some purists out there who have conniption fits about Irish Soda Bread recipes involving more than four ingredients.
It’s not Irish Soda Bread
They’re not altogether wrong, mind you. Traditional Irish Soda Bread uses only flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. That’s it. No sugar, no butter, and certainly no raisins. As explained by the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread (yes, there is such a thing), anything else is “tea cake.”
And so, this recipe is for Irish Tea Cake and not Irish Soda Bread with Raisins, though you’re welcome to call it whatever you like. One thing you’re bound to call it is your new favorite Irish baked goods for St. Patrick’s Day, because it’s so simple to make and delicious with a hot cup of tea.
Irish Tea Cake Recipe Steps
Rub Cold Butter into Dry Ingredients
To make Irish Tea Cake, combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Next, add the cubes of very cold butter and, using your fingertips, rub them into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. This step leads to a “shorter” bread which minimizes the breakdown of gluten, so you wind up with a more tender result.
You might need to fish around in there a few times to ensure there are no more large chunks of butter. Shaking the bowl a bit also helps.
Pour Buttermilk into the Well
Once the butter is completely rubbed in, make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Quickly pour the buttermilk into the center of this well and stir until the ingredients are just combined. Don’t use beaters or a stand mixer or you’ll over-stir and end up with a tough cake at the end.
Add Raisins and Bake
Sprinkle the raisins in during the final few strokes and stir just until they’re mixed into the batter. Doesn’t it look like chocolate chip cookie dough? It has about the same consistency, too, so don’t expect it to flow as a cake batter would.
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Spoon the dough into a well-greased cake pan, pushing it to the edges with your spoon then sprinkle on the remaining sugar. Again, try not to overhandle the dough or it’ll get tough. Since this is a rustic-style Irish baking recipe, you want it to have a craggy top to catch butter when you serve it. Oh, man, it is so good with butter!
Bake for roughly 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. It’ll develop a gorgeous golden brown top while it cooks and your kitchen will smell amazing!
Let it Cool a Bit After Baking
Once it’s ready, remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack. I let it cool for another 15 minutes longer while I heated the kettle to make tea. After that, we couldn’t wait one more minute to dig in.
Storing Irish Tea Cake
Irish Tea Cake keeps well up to 3 days if stored in an air-tight container at room temperature. If you want to freeze this Irish Tea Cake, let it fully cool and wrap it well in cling wrap followed by two layers of aluminum foil. Defrost fully before serving.
Irish Tea Cake
Inspired by Irish Soda Bread, this sweeter version is studded throughout with raisins and sprinkled with sugar. It’s delicious on its own or slathered with good Irish butter.
Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C and position a rack in the center of the oven.Grease an 8-inch cake pan well.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, 4 tablespoons of the sugar, and all of the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add butter to the bowl and, using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the center of the dry mixture.Quickly pour the cold buttermilk into the well and stir just to combine.Add in raisins during the final few strokes.
Spoon the dough into the prepared cake pan and use the spoon to bring it to the sides. Do not flatten or smooth the top of the dough — you want it to remain craggy.Sprinkle the dough with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
Bake at 375°F / 190°C for 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.Cool in pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes
Storage: Keeps well up to 3 days if stored in an air-tight container at room temperature. If you want to freeze Irish Tea Cake, let it fully cool and wrap it well in cling wrap followed by two layers of aluminum foil. Defrost on the counter before serving.
What do you think? Are you ready to give my Irish Tea Cake Recipe a try?
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Made your Irish Tea Cake recipe but the texture is dry. Why is this as I followed your directions exactly. This should be soft and dense in the inside? And crunchy hard on the outside?
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It’s a tea cake, not soda bread, so it shouldn’t be crunchy on the outside. If that’s what you were aiming for, then my guess is you cooked it too long which would result in a dry texture.
Love this! Just had it for tea..with butter and marmalade. Absolutely perfect. So quick and easy to make, followed directions as written. Thank you so much!
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I’m so glad you liked it, Peggy. It’s a favorite here, too. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. Coniption fit! Ha ha. Happens to be one of my own personal sayings. Delighted you had the metric conversion. Waterford, Ireland 🇮🇪
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I just made this and it is delicious!
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I’m so glad you liked it, Lynda!
Can I use any dried fruit?
Reply
I haven’t tried a lot of different dried fruits but can’t think of why you couldn’t try some. Let me know which ones work out for you!
Can I add pecans or walnuts along with raisin s?
Reply
I don’t see why not! They sound like yummy additions. Maybe just a handful, though, so you don’t need to adjust the other ingredients.
This is delicious! It is just sweet enough and has a nice dense, but not heavy, texture! I had to add a few extra splashes of buttermilk to get my dough/batter to come together. It was easy to make and I will make it again!
Reply
I’m so glad you liked it!
Totally trying this! Timing is perfect. I am totally on an Irish Breakfast tea kick, AND I have fresh buttermilk in my fridge right now. Thanks for the recipe, for your hilarious newsletter yesterday (3/6/17), and for your amazing blog. The quality of your content, and your personality, humor, and professionalism bring me back every week. I’m a fan, Katie B!
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Texture: Tea cakesare typically denser than sponge cakes as they contain more butter and are often made with a lower amount of rising agents like baking powder.
Beat together, in a bowl, the sugar and butter until creamy. Gradually add the eggs, dusting a little of the flour in with each egg added. Add the treacle and grated fruit rinds and mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl of soaked fruit and add the salt, spices, and almonds.
A grown-up occasion calls for a grown-up cake. Might we suggest an Irish cream cake? This beautiful creation uses Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ devil's food cake mix, pudding and Irish liqueur in both the cake and frosting. The result is an unbelievably delicious Irish Cream Celebration Cake.
As we learned last week, a teacake can actually be one of three or four different foodstuffs: a cookie, a spice or sponge cake, a yeast bread, or a soda bread. But a coffee cake is always a cake. Sure it might have a crumble topping or a cinnamon swirl (drooling yet?) or added flavorings but it is always in cake form.
Worried, Janie calls for Dr. Simmons, the local white doctor who is well-respected in the muck. After Tea Cake explains his story, Dr. Simmons pulls Janie aside and informs her that the dog that bit Tea Cake must have been rabid, as Tea Cake's symptoms align with those of rabies.
Using an air-tight container is the best and easiest way to keep your cake from getting exposed to air. However, if you don't have one of those, you can wrap your cake in cling film, or if it's iced, place a large inverted bowl over it to trap the air.
For an Irish family Christmas, the traditional dinner is key and getting it right is a real art. Roast turkey and stuffing, clove-studded baked ham, crispy goose fat potatoes, steamed Brussels sprouts, buttery sweet carrots, crispy parsnips, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, gravy, phew, there's a lot to think of!
Apples, pears, cherries, and plums seem to have been the most commonly eaten fruits. Pulses such as peas, broad beans, and lentils were grown and dried since early medieval times, becoming common with the Normans. Berries and nuts were extensively eaten.
You can use rum, brandy or whisky for spice, or if you like citrus flavours, try an orange liqueur. Cherry brandy and amaretto will also work well if you prefer these.
This is where it all began! Original Irish Cream blends Irish whiskey and spirits with Irish dairy cream and a touch of rich chocolate and vanilla flavours. Pour over ice cream, mix into coffee, or enjoy it with ice for an originally delish Baileys moment.
At first, it has a smooth flavor that resembles something sweet that you would have after dinner for dessert. Then, the Irish whiskey comes out and gives it a hint of spice. Adding sugar, cinnamon, and other ingredients can further limit this spiciness or bring it out even more.
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.
Celebrate in style with Bite's Birthday Tea Cakes, a confetti-flavored treat topped with sweet icing and sprinkles. Whether it's a birthday party or any festive occasion, these cakes are the perfect bites. We keep these tea cakes frozen and ship them refrigerated.
Tea cakes are soft roll-out cookies that are tender, chewy and pleasantly dense. They are a cookie with a cake-like texture. The ingredients are very simple (flour, sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, and eggs), and the gentle flavor of nutmeg is what makes these so special.
Tea cakes are soft roll-out cookies that are tender, chewy and pleasantly dense. They are a cookie with a cake-like texture. The ingredients are very simple (flour, sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, and eggs), and the gentle flavor of nutmeg is what makes these so special.
Pound cakes are similar to tea cakes except that they are more dense and their main four ingredients are measured in pounds like a pound of flour, sugar, butter and eggs each. These cakes are popular in the U.K and are usually served plain or with light frosting during tea time.
Outside the South, the words “tea cake” mean any cake served with tea. But to Southerners, tea cakes are more than that. They are the nostalgic cookies—crispy and golden around the edges, soft and cake-like inside—that are perfect for tea, or just about anything else you choose to drink.
Introduction: My name is Corie Satterfield, I am a fancy, perfect, spotless, quaint, fantastic, funny, lucky person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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