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Sip 'n' See Lemon Tea Bread

Source of Recipe

From "The Glory of Southern Cooking" by James Villas


Recipe Introduction

"Refined Southern hostesses don't merely invite friends to tea. The event must have a theme, a notion, a concept. There's an April tea to welcome springtime. There's a pink tea, where the tablecloth, napkins, tiny cakes, butter mints, and even the tea itself are pink. There's a pageant tea to honor a town's beauty queens. And there's a sip 'n' see tea, where a new bride's friends sip tea from dainty porcelain cups and view wedding presents. (I understand there's also an intimate trousseau tea to display everything a bride plans to wear on her honeymoon, including bras and panties.) At a typical sip 'n' see, the tea cups are antique, the silver by Towle or Reed and Barton, the finger sandwiches perfectly trimmed of their crusts, and the delicate tea bread flavored with lemon or orange and delicate tea bread flavored with lemon or orange and lightly glazed. Most civilized. This is also the sort of loaf that might be kept at the ready for those who simply drop by the house 'just to visit.'"

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
â—¦ 1 cup sugar
â—¦ 2 large eggs
â—¦ 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
â—¦ ¼ teaspoon salt
â—¦ ½ cup whole or 2 percent milk
â—¦ Grated zest of 1 lemon
â—¦ 1 cup confectioners' sugar
â—¦ 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
â—¦ ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then add the eggs and beat till well blended. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the creamed mixture and mix till well blended. Stir in the lemon rind.

Scrape the batter into a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan and bake till a straw inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Transfer the bread to a rack and let cool completely before slicing.

In a bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla, stir till smooth, and pour the glaze over the cake.

Makes 1 loaf