Some of my favorite childhood memories center around my mother's Old Fashioned Tea Cakes.  A southern dish, they are simple, easy-to-make and relatively low-sugar, for such a sweet treat.

If you decorate them with icing, the sugar content jumps.  But if you paint them with colored evaporated milk, they are pretty, shiny and delicious, without being laden with sugar.

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<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/tea_cake_ingredients3.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-407" title="tea_cake_ingredients" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/tea_cake_ingredients3-264x300.jpg" alt="" width="264" height="300" /></a>Only six ingredients: shortening; sugar; eggs; milk; vanilla and self-rising flour.

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And you just mix those six things together, add enough flour to get a stiff dough.  I find it usually takes another 1 - 1.5 cups of flour to make it the right stiffness.<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/stiff_batter.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-397" title="stiff_batter" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/stiff_batter-277x300.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="300" /></a>

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Then roll it out and cut it with cookie cutters.<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rolling_pin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-398" title="rolling_pin" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rolling_pin-266x300.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="300" /></a>

I collect cookie cutters. I found nine pumpkin and 2 apple cookie cutters.  I have WAY too many cookie cutters!<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/cookie_cutters.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-399" title="cookie_cutters" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/cookie_cutters-300x277.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="277" /></a>

Brush them with colored evaporated milk. Notice that I am NOT neat when I paint these cookies. I dribble colored milk everywhere.  B<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/painted_cookie.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-404" title="painted_cookie" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/painted_cookie-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="219" /></a>

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Then bake for 6 minutes or so. Gotta love these simple recipes.

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Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups self-rising flour

Mix all ingredients together. Add enough self-rising flour to make a stiff dough. (It usually takes another 1 cup to 1.5 cup.)  Roll out on a floured board. Cut with cookie cutters and put on a cookie sheet.

Mix food coloring into a small quantity of evaporated milk, to desired color.  Bush onto the uncooked cookies.

Bake at 400 degrees until brown, 5 or 6 minutes.