Cell background colour

Tobias
I know how to set the background of a cell by specifying the row and column in the CSS options. However, I want to set it in a way which is independent of the row number.

I have tried CSS options:
.tablepress .xx-tab-subhead {background-color: #e6f2ff;}

With cell contents:
<span class=”xx-tab-subhead”>text</span>
the background only applies to the text itself

With cell contents:
<div class=”xx-tab-subhead”>text</div>
the background applies to most of the cell, but not the padding inside each edge.

Is there a way of changing the background of the entire cell in this way?

Andy