Sansa Stark: "Lemon cakes are my favorite."
Olenna Tyrell: "So we've been told."
— Olenna Tyrell and Sansa Stark during their first meeting.
Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa was so stuffed that she could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them.
—A GAME OF THRONES
Lemon cakes are a kind of sweet baked dessert, made using lemons. They are typically served as small cakes, held and eaten with one hand (as opposed to a larger cake requiring utensils). Lemon cakes are relatively expensive treats enjoyed by upper-class noblewomen of the Seven Kingdoms, where they are a mainstay at the refined social gatherings of noble courts.
Lemon cakes are Sansa Stark's favorite food. Lord Robert Arryn loves lemon cakes too, perhaps because Alayne Stone does.
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, a running joke is that Sansa Stark is obsessed with lemon cakes. They are a delicacy enjoyed by refined "proper" ladies at court, and Sansa can think of nothing better in the world than the paragon of "lady-like" pursuits: a social gathering with major noblewoman wearing extravagant dresses, reclining on feather pillows, sipping tea and gossiping while eating lemon cakes.
Thus in many ways lemon cakes come to symbolize Sansa's concepts of what normal, glamorous court-life is like: she wanted nothing more than to have lemon cakes and tea with Queen Cersei while chatting about her proposed marriage to her son Joffrey.
Sansa's obsession with lemon cakes is also more understandable in context: citrus fruits such as lemons don't grow in the North, and with medieval methods of food transport and preservation being what they are, lemon cakes are actually a relatively expensive treat for those living in the North. Dorne in the far south is the only region of the Seven Kingdoms where citrus fruits grow, far away from Winterfell.
Elizabethan Lemon Cakes
To Make Lemon Cakes. ½ lb flour, ½ lb fine sugar, the peel of two lemons, or one large one; 3 oz. butter; 3 eggs; ½ the whites.
Break the butter into the flour and stir them with a knife. Make them the bigness of a gingerbread button. Grate the lemon peel with a piece of the sugar. Butter the tins. Take them of the tins whilst warm. Place them upon the tins about 2 inches distance because they spread in the oven. Two minutes will bake them.
—LUCAYOS COOKBOOK, 1690
Makes 36 small cakes
Preparation: 5 minutes
Baking: 15 minutes
Pairs well with Roasted Boar, Leek Soup, Iced Green Minty Drink
Falling somewhere between cakes and cookies, these chewy lemon delights are both addictive and easy to make. They have an elegant simplicity and a delicate sweetness that renders them the ideal companions for afternoon tea, whether in London or King’s Landing.
INGREDIENTS:
2½ cups flour, plus more as needed
2 cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Grated zest from 2 lemons
1 egg
2 egg yolks
⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
1½ teaspoons milk
BAKING PROCEDURE:
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a large baking sheet.
2) In a large bowl, combine the flour and granulated sugar.
3) Cut in the butter, then add the zest and the whole egg and yolks.
4) Mix thoroughly, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and can be easily shaped by hand.
5) Roll the dough into balls about 1 inch across and place them on the prepared baking sheet at least 2 inches apart, giving them room to spread as they bake.
6) Bake for 15 minutes, until the tops are just slightly golden. Allow the cakes to cool for a minute before moving them to a cooling rack.
7) Mix the confectioners’ sugar and milk to a smooth consistency.
8) Once the cakes have cooled, use a spoon to drizzle the icing over the cookies.
Next time you should try Medieval Pigeon Pie Recipe from the Game of Thrones TV series.
Reference:
Have you tried Tyrion Lannister's favorite lamprey pie, or Daenerys Targaryen mouth-watering honeyfingers? Then you are missing a lot!
If you are a true fan of the critically-acclaimed Game of Thrones HBO TV series. You should taste some of the food if not all in the TV Series.
Taste the food at the King's Landing. Buy the A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook at Amazon.com using this link and you get a 10% discount and FREE shipping if you order the hardcover version. More than a hundred authentic recipes in the book for your enjoyment.
Watch cooking video: How-To Make Lemon Cake: Game of Thrones Special
Sexy FoodtoEat chef, Jane Poretsky, teaches us how to make lemon cakes, inspired by the Game of Thrones series.
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Are you interested in Culinary Physics? Watch the FREE video tutorials at Culinary Physics Lecture Series.
Excerpted from A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer. Copyright © 2012 by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer. Excerpted by permission of Bantam, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dough very VERY dry, either have less flour or put 2 tbsp more of butter and a few tbsp of water
ReplyDeleteDID they have confectioners sugar back then??
ReplyDeleteDid they have confectioners' sugar back then?
ReplyDeleteConfectioners sugar is just “powdered sugar”. Confectioners sugar is supplemented with about 3 percent cornstarch to keep it loose and flowing. They don’t use it in medieval times. This recipe is a modern take of the traditional recipe.
ReplyDelete