Gather ingredients: 4 cups of flour, 4 t of baking powder, 1 cup of shortening, pinch of salt, 2 cups of sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 t of vanilla
Sift the dry ingredients together
Cream together the shortening and sugar
Beat the eggs just enough to break the yolks
Add the eggs to the shortening/sugar mixture
Add the flour and milk, alternately as needed to allow ease of mixing
Add the vanilla
Knead the resulting dough lightly on a floured board
Roll the dough out to desired thickness
Cut the dough with a cookie cutter
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet
Reduce heat to 350 degrees
Cook until done: cookie dough is firm to a light touch and begins to turn brown

Tips:

This recipe makes about nine dozen tea cakes, adjust the ingredients accordingly to make differing amounts
Traditional tea cakes are rather thick, you may however adjust the thickness to suit your taste
Thick dough makes a soft tea cake while thin dough makes a crisp cookie