Comments on: Rescued Recipes: East Texas Tea Cakes

By: olivia garvin

olivia garvin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:59:07 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing these recipes. My mother had just mentioned the day before a recipe that her grandmother had for 1234 cake. My mother grew up in east Texas as did a lot of her cousins. We have also been looking for a tea cake recipe that my grandmother used to make and I’m hoping that this was the basis for it.

By: marian

marian — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 15:56:39 +0000

The 1-2-3-4 recipe has been on the back of swan cake flower for as long as I can remember

By: John Turner

John Turner — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:55:04 +0000

Mr Campbell,
I would really like to see the picture you have of the truck from Schlieper’s Bakery. My Mom passed away on Thankgiving and of course we are now in control of all the receipes from the old bakery. We are attempting to get copies made and passed to nieces & nephews and a picture from the old days would really be nice. You may e-mail me at
jwt603@cablelynx.com

By: bloglily

bloglily — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:56:59 +0000

Dear Gene, I’m sorry not to have replied before now, but I wanted to thank you for stopping by. Yes indeed, it is amazing the things you can find! Best, Lily

By: Gene Campbell

Gene Campbell — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:27:48 +0000

The mention of Schlieper’s Bakery is interesting since I have a picture of a Schlieper’s Bakery delivery truck on my computer. My father drove this truck for the bakery in the middle of the Great Depression. He died at an early age in 1938. Passing through Cleburne many years ago I located the bakery where their sign could still be faintly read on the side of the building. It was, indeed, behind the house in a residential neighborhood. It’s amazing what can be found on the internet.

By: Art Pfeffer

Art Pfeffer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:39:28 +0000

I’m 55 years old from Houston, Texas of German decent and Big Mama always had tea cakes (24/7)for the 55 grand kids. I have my grandmothers hand written recipe. As I reseached the history behind the recipe I thought it interesting that the recipe is considered African-American. I bake these at Christmas. This year I will include photo copies of Big Mama’s recipe and the history when I give them as gifts. Peace. Love.

By: Elizabeth Leger

Elizabeth Leger — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:03:10 +0000

I’m putting together a cookbook for a school group and one of our members mentioned that she used to get some delicious oatmeal raisin spice cookies from a bakery in Cleburn, TX. Would you happen to have this recipe in the box? Or perhaps her family wouldn’t mind sending it my way. It would be a fun surprise for this mom.

By: Rumire

Rumire — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:06:10 +0000

Looking for interesting recipes, found the 1-2-3-4 cake on your site. Thank you.

By: Jan L

Jan L — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:14:12 +0000

I just read your story and believe that the handwriting is my mother’s! She was born in East Texas in 1932 and her maiden name is Gore. Her mother’s name was Edna Stanberry and was born in 1900. My grandmother Stanberry made the best tea cakes ever!!! Her receipe disappeared (maybe sold on ebay) and I have been searching for this one and others for years! Is it possible for you to send me more information regarding the receipe box and it’s contents? This might verify if these are our family receipies. My mother is now 73 years old and lost her mother (my grandmother Stanberry) in 1968 and it would mean the world to us all if we knew that these are in fact our family receipes. Thank you and God bless you!

By: John

John — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:36:53 +0000

Just found out about this site from my son. Nora is my mother and his grandmother. Was interesting to see the old recipies. Of course we have a large number of them left over from the bakery days. The bakery was hand built by my grandfather and uncle. Was nice growing up with the many treats that my mom baked. She also has a killer recipe for tutti-fruity homemade ice cream that they used to have at parties at Salt Water and at thankgiving she made the best cream puffs. She was always passing out the recipes to whomever wanted them.

By: kenneth w.scott

kenneth w.scott — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:58:03 +0000

thank you for sharing your recipies and your stories. I was born in 1957 I grew up nacogdoches county, deep in the country woods around the cushing tex area. As a small child I remember my aunt and grandmother cooking several items that date back to their African heritage and slave heritage as well. I;m so glad that I hung out in the old cold kitchen while my Big Mama cooked and baked some of the best food known to man. I can’t imagiene how she did all this on a wooden stove but she did. I have most of the recipes in my head just like they did. most of the old cooking ladies have since gone on to be with the FATHER BUT i STILL COOK A LOT OF THEIR HEAVENLY FOODS. Some day I will write these recipes down on paper and share them with the world so that they wont be forgotten. One of my favorites was my BIG MAMAS THREE LAYER BANANA CAKE.

By: Janice

Janice — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:15:48 +0000

Hi Lily
After some research and consulting with a retiree of East Texas Salt Water Disposal Company, it is determined that the East Texas Tea Cakes recipe was shared by a very sweet lady, Nora Schlieper Turner. She grew up in Cleburne, Texas (south of Ft. Worth). Her father owned a bakery that was built in the back yard of their home. She said her mother worked as a “hand” in the bakery, and could handle just about anything any of the men could do. Nora now lives in Kilgore, Texas, where she retired from ETSWD in 1989.

By: bloglily

bloglily — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:08:06 +0000

Hello Janice — How wonderful to hear from you! Thank you for that incredibly thorough explanation. Your post, in addition to being very informative, has really taught me something important — which is that real people live in these real places and that my comment about east Texas being a place people want to leave wasn’t very artfully put. What I meant was that there are interesting stories here about why people might sell things as precious as this: because they’re in a hurry to move on, because it’s painful to look at the past, because they didn’t know this was being disposed of.

All I know, though, is that I loved making these tea cakes, and I’m thrilled that other people have been able to make them too.

By: Janice

Janice — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:58:33 +0000

I have been employed by East Texas Salt Water Disposal Company (ETSWD) in Kilgore, Texas, for 20 years. Kilgore is in the heart of the East Texas Oil Field (not the Gulf Coast). ETSWD was formed in 1942 when the the oil boom began. The by-product of oil produced in the East Texas Field is salt water. As oil wells produce oil from the Woodbine Formation of soil, they also produce large amounts of salt water. In processing, the producers must heat the oil and water in large vessels, resulting in oil rising to the top and the salt water going to the bottom of the vessel. ETSWD collects the salt water by gravity lines into large pits and pumps it back into the Woodbine Formation thus helping to produce more oil. We collect close to a million barrels of salt water per day.

We found this article very interesting and are searching our files to see if we can determine who the recipe originally belonged to. Thanks for sharing the story!

By: bloglily

bloglily — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:18:42 +0000

Hi Gmarita — Sorry to be so long in getting to your question. The lack of liquid means the dough is a bit crumbly at first, but if you roll it out thinly, it’s just fine. But it’s not terribly sweet — just very rich. I think one of the charms of this recipe is that it’s very much a taste from the past.

Lana — Thank you so much for this clarification. The recipe’s vague about the pan, because the baker made it so often and knew just what she wanted to do with it.

Lynda — How wonderful to think of seashells being found in the mountains of East Texas.

Edwin and Helen and Fencer — There’s another post about how things turned out, and I’ve added a link in this post to it. Best to all of you, BL