Welsh Tea Cakes for Tea

Corgyncombe Cookery

Another cold, snowy, blustery day, a perfect day for making Welsh tea cakes to enjoy with tea. In a yellowware bowl a swan butter print sits atop the sugar ready to be creamed together.

The tea cakes are made from scratch, rolled out, and cut into circles.

Diane Shepard Johnson, reporter and photographer for The Corgyncombe Courant, has these remembrances of visiting a favorite elderly relative: The little receipt book atop the little lap desk (in the photograph above) was given to me by my great grandmum's cousin Lena. (Receipt is an old word for recipe.) She excelled at domestic skills such as pickling, breadmaking, sewing, and many others. She always won prizes for her domestic abilities at the county fair. My family used to visit them often and I would usually take a doll with me. One time she surprised me with a handmade dolly wardrobe in an old basket. Lena was such a wonderful lady! And to think that she weighed only a few pounds when she was born and wasn't expected to live. To keep her warm after she was born they put her in a basket in the warming oven atop the old wood cookstove. It was just warm enough to keep the premature baby comfortably warm. Lena lived to a ripe old age and she passed many of her skills on to me! She taught me how to do piecing and quilting. I inherited some of her quilting patterns and equipment. Lena was so thrilled that I wanted to learn from her!

She always reiterated small, tiny stitches and she was very pleased with my efforts... but then we are from a long line of kindred who love to sew. In the old days tiny quilting stitches were prized and well so because they made items that would last. The same goes for spinning excellence as they wanted good yarns to make into items that would last. These heirloom pieces last because of their fine workmanship. Children were taught at an early age such skills as spinning, knitting, and quilting.

The Welsh Tea Cakes are baked atop the stove, browned on each side.

The pretty wooden butter print was used to make the swan design on the butter.

Years ago farm wives would print their butter and take it to the country store for trading. If the housewife was known for superior butter, people would seek out the butter with her print.

The Welsh tea cakes are sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Tillie Tinkham, Corgyncombe's seamstress for the dolls, loves confectioners sugar.

Welsh tea cakes for tea at Corgyncombe Cottage. Delicious!

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