Click here to see the scene in Game of Thrones where Sansa eats lemon cakes with her Aunt Lysa.
Lemon cake is the favorite food of Sansa Stark. It comes up several times in the show, but the scene in Game of Thrones when Sansa is eating lemon cake with her aunt Lysa has some really great acting and is a very interesting moment for Sansa’s character. This recipe turned out very light and was the perfect amount of sweetness. I’d recommend making this in the summer, but it taste great year round.
So I am not a baker by any means and I still was able to make something delicious, that should speak to how good this recipe is. I did discover while doing this that it is best to do some prep work ahead of time to make life easier when making the cake batter. Preheat your oven to 350ºF and start by zesting three small lemons. You will also need a half-cup of lemon juice; make sure there are no seeds. Next, lightly grease three round cake pans with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper. Now we are ready to start making the batter! In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, place two sticks of softened butter and one and a half cups of granulated sugar. Mix the sugar and butter together until the mixture in creamy and fluffy (about 1 minute). In a separate bowl, we are going to combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together one and a half cups of buttermilk, three eggs, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and the quarter cup of lemon juice. Once the wet ingredients homogenize, it’s time to put together our dry ingredients. In yet another bowl, use a sifter to combine three and a half cups of all-purpose flour, four teaspoons of baking powder, and half a teaspoon of salt. Alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients into the stand mixer on low. Make sure to add only a little at a time to prevent the batter from getting too wet or dry. Take the lemon zest from the three lemons and fold into the batter once mixed. When everything is well incorporated, divide the batter equally between between the three cake pans. Bake for twenty minuets or until a toothpick comes out clean. Flip the cakes out of the pan, onto wire cooling racks and remove parchment from the bottom of the cakes. Wait to ice the cake until the separate layers have cooled down to room temperature. For this cake I would recommend using a cream cheese icing and add some lemon juice. Here is a link to a cream cheese icing recipe by Martha Stewart. Stack the layers of cake on top of each other and separate with a layer of icing. Smooth out the frosting as evenly as possible on the outside and garnish with three slices of lemon.
Sansa has one of the saddest storylines in Game of Thrones. She’s been held captive almost the entire series and forced into two marriages, all while her family tries to rescue her but inevitably fails. In the scene where she is eating lemon cake with her aunt Lysa, which should have been a sweet moment for Sansa, it turns into a nightmare. Sansa has been through a lot up until this point. She starts to understand how people think and begins to manipulate the those around her. In the final seconds of the scene, Sansa has a look on her face that doesn’t show panic, but rather she’s thinking. She knows when to bide her time and wait until the opportune moment. This was something that Ned Stark should have done in the first season. Sansa grows a lot throughout the series and in the final season is helping Jon Snow in the North. I don’t know how this story will end for her, but I hope her character survives. That, to me, would show that everything that she had endured up until that point wasn’t for nothing.
Oysters, Clams, & Cockles 