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Inspired by Sansa’s favorite dessert in Game of Thrones, these Lemon Cakes are a true labor of love but have an amazing flavor a texture!
Sansa’s Lemon Cakes
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Season 4 of Game of Thrones starts tonight and to say I’m excited would be an understatement! I’m excited because I know how awesome this season is going to be. As sad and as painful as last season was, this season will be equally as exciting but in a revengeful and victorious sort of way.
This season will have it’s sad and disturbing moments (George R.R. Martin did write it after all), but most of them will help to soothe the pain we felt from The Red Wedding last season. Plus, if they filmed it right, the last scene of this season is going to be Ah-mazing, like leave you going “holy-#$%^ing-Sh*t-balls” good! Or at least that’s how I felt when I read the Epilogue to Storm of Swords, this seasons book equivalent.
Another reason I’m excited for this season is because Sansa finally starts to break through the pitiful princess role she’s had since the beginning of the series. It’s a Feast for Crows, or what will be season 5 and possibly 6, where she truly starts to tell her own story and is not longer just our eyes in King’s Landing. So I thought it was only fitting to make a batch of Sansa’s favorite Westerosi desserts, Lemon Cakes. They are the perfect way to celebrate the coming season, and trust me, there will be lots to celebrate!
Because The North Remembers, and we’ll get our “bloody” revenge!
Eek! I’m just giddy thinking about this season… that seems a little dark, I know. Matt is always telling me how weird it is for someone who loves cupcakes and pink so much to also love A Song of Ice and Fire (and other dark things) as much as I do! But hey, that’s me!
When I started imagining this recipe, I wanted something more than the biscuits in the Game of Thrones cookbook or a standard cake, I wanted something impressive. I wanted something that was going to wow, something that was worthy of all Sansa’s talk in the books. I decided that a take on a Magic Cake would be perfect and I wanted to add some extra wow factors too! So I decided Candied Lemons, Lemon Creme, and a Lemon Simple Syrup were necessary to really push this dessert out the moon door!
You’re probably wondering what a Magic Cake is, right? Well, it’s a cake that is one batter, but it separates into three different layers as it bakes. The end result is a light sponge layer on top, a creamy custard layer in the middle, and a dense layer on the bottom. It sounds pretty amazing, right?
This cake takes some time, it’s not a dessert you can whip up in an hour, it’s something you need to make the morning of or a day ahead of time. However, the extra details and time are so worth it, this cake simply just melts in your mouth! It’s the perfect dessert to pin or save for the season 4 finale, you know that one with the scene I’m so excited for (seriously though, they better not botch it)!
More Great Pop Culture Inspired Recipes!
- 4 Eggs separated/room temp
- 1 tbsp Water
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp Sugar I used Zulka
- 1/2 cup 1 stick Salted Butter (melted)
- 3/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Milk room temp
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon
- 1/2 cup Lemon Simple Syrup + addition syrup for the topping
- 1 cup Whipping Cream
- 3 tbsp Instant Lemon Pudding Powder
- 1/4 cup Confectioners' Sugar
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Preheat oven to 325 F.
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Whip egg whites until stiff and transfer to a separate bowl.
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Beat egg yolks, vanilla, sugar, and water until light fluffy yellow.
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Add butter and beat for another minute or so.
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Add flour and beat until fully combined.
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Add in milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon syrup until thoroughly mixed.
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Beat in egg whites on low until just incorporated, batter may look a little clumpy, that's okay.
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Pour batter into greased 8 inch pan, you can also use a 10 inch round pan, but the layers won't be quite as distinct, like in mine.
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Bake for 60 minutes, remove from oven and let set in pan for at least three hours.
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If you are making small cakes like I did, using a biscuit cutter to cut them out of the large cake.
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Add ingredients to a stand mixer or in a bowl and beat on medium-high until you have a light and fluffy cream.
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Spread [Lemon Simple Syrup| out on top of the cake.
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Pipe lemon cream on top of cake and syrup.
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Top with a Candied Lemon slice.
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Dust with Confectioners' Sugar and serve.
Are you as excited about the coming season as I am?
Sarah says
Hi,
This looks like a delicious recipe that I’m trying to create today! The link to the candied lemon slice and lemon syrup is not working unfortunately. But just wanted to say keep up the great posts! This is the first lemon cake I’ve seen that looks so juicy and yummy!! Excited to try it out!
Happy Eating,
Sarah
[email protected] says
Sarah,
Thank you so much for letting me know, when I transferred my blog to wordpress some of the links broke, I’ll go correct it now! I hope you love them as much as I do!
Brandi White says
I made these yesterday and loved them! I’m not an experienced baker, but they still turned out great. The lemon creme was a wonderful addition. When I candied the lemons, they stayed more of a gummy texture than a hard sugar. Is this correct or should I have done something different? They were still great, but just wanted to make sure.
Rebecca says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Brandi! Yes, the lemons should be chewy 🙂
Nikki says
The simple syrup link still isnt working…
[email protected] says
Let me try to fix it again, so sorry about that.
Ellen says
I was going to make this recipe as well tonight, looks yummy! I can’t access the link for the lemon syrup as well. 🙁 thanks!
[email protected] says
Sorry, I had linked to it twice in the post and only updated the first one, both have been fixed. Thanks for letting me know and enjoy!
Jaime says
These look SO good! Saw the link to this page while drooling over some of your cookie recipes and wondered…Sansa? Could that be GoT Sansa? 🙂
Here’s to enjoying baking and pink AND GoT!!! I haven’t seen any of the new season yet but I’m hoping to soon!
[email protected] says
I’m so glad you spotted them! It was such a fun post and recipe to work on. I’m a bit of a Game of Thrones junkie so I’m sure it won’t be the last GoT inspired recipe! I’m thinking a Red Viper cocktail 😉 You’ll definitely have to catch up… it’s been an awesome season!
Maq says
hi! so these are little cuties — but I tried making them last night and they came out — well, they did come out in three layers, at least, but it was a layer of custard almost like flan, a thin cakeylayer, and then meringue like top. the top two look like how your cakes turned out, but the custard certainly doesn’t.
the whole time I was making it I was wondering if it was supposed to be as liquid heavy as it is (what with melted butter, 1 1/2 cups milk, juice from a single lemon, egg yolks, etc) with only 1/2 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of flour to counteract it, or if maybe i did something else wrong? but by the time i was pouring it into the pan to bake it was almost total liquid due to the additions
i also let it bake (covered so the meringue-like layer wouldn’t get over done) for an extra half hour and the flan layer still never became cake-like
so i guess I was wondering if you had any idea what could have gone wrong or any suggestions for the future?
Maq says
though! i do wonder if that’s how it’s supposed to be? just the pictures look all the way crumbly to me so it makes me worried i messed it up bad XD
[email protected] says
Hey there,
Have you tried the cake, how does it taste? What size pan did you use?
I remember thinking the same thing about how heavy it was with all the liquid, but it should come through fine. I’m a little bit confused about you references to the layers? You said that the top to layers look fine, which should be your custard/sponge cake layers, but then you said the custard didn’t? Some of the photos look crumbly because when I used the biscuit cutters to cut them out some of the top sponge cake layer crumbs came down the side. The custard layer should be the biggest layer and then a thin crust layer on the bottom and a think sponge cake layer… I’m not sure why yours got a meringue layer.
From what I can make out, your cake sounds like it came out correctly. But maybe you were just confused about the proportions of the different layers?
Jade says
The cakes look so good but it sounds so very sweet, but I’m going to try.
[email protected] says
They are sweet, but small portions is the key to these. They have a ton of lemon flavor too!
Kat says
How long should I bake it in a 7inch round pan? I did not have an 8inch available. The candied lemons and syrup smell divine. I used some lemon syrup in with the water i used to boil the lemons for the candied lemons. Perfect lemonade!
Rebecca says
Those candied lemons are amazing, I use them on everything! As for the pan, I’m not entirely sure, It’s going to make it thicker, so I would start with an extra 10 minutes and see how it looks. If you find that the edges are starting to brown but the middle still looks really soft, loosely cover with aluminum foil and that will protect the edges while cooking the center. The recipe was adapted from this traditional Magic Cake – You may want to keep it as a whole cake where it will be thicker. http://www.kitchennostalgia.com/desserts/cakes/magic-cake.html
Laura says
Can you use muffin tins to bake them, if you don’t have a biscuit cutter? Or is it better to leave it as a whole cake?
Rebecca says
I would do the whole cake.
Melissa says
Hi! I found your post on Pinterest as I’m planning a GoT party for this season’s release. I was wondering if these cakes could be made in advance or if that would adversely affect the texture. Thank you! 🙂
Rebecca says
They definitely should be consumed fresh and they do take a long time to make. I believe I linked to my friend Maggie’s recipe as well and her’s takes less time and can be made the day before, that might be more what you’re looking for!
Shiina says
Hi,
I would like to make this cake in advance for a party. Do you think I can freeze it and take it out the day before?
Rebecca says
Hi there, I honestly don’t know, I’ve never tried it, but if you do I would keep it as a whole cake and slice it up after it’s thawed.
Maria Phelan says
The recipe sounds wonderful and the photos look delicious. I want to try it out. Do you have a recipe for lemon simple syrup. Thanks for your help.
Rebecca says
Hi Maria, the simple syrup is actually made during the lemon candying process: https://www.sugarandsoul.co/candied-lemons/
Joyce says
Hope I get a response by the morning. The lemon sansa cake is cooling. How do I used cutters? Do I take the cake out of the pan and then use the cutter? I’m at a loss.
Rebecca says
What kind of pan did you use? You don’t have to use a cutter if you don’t want to and want to avoid waste, you can just slice. If you would like to use the cutter, I would recommend cutting them out while they’re still in the pan since moving the whole thing out would likely result in a broken cake. Just make sure that the cutter you are using is taller than the cake so that when you cute the pieces out the whole cutter isn’t submerged in the cake. Hope that makes sense.
Diane Mueller says
I made these for my Game of Thrones premiere party and my boyfriend went NUTS over them. Admittedly, when I was making it I thought it was going to be a dud due to being the most liquid cake batter I’ve ever used but I was so so so pleasantly surprised at how they did turn out.
I used my petit four pans instead of cutting out circles from a bigger pan (because I hate waste if I can prevent it) and they worked brilliantly. It’s one of the only batters that released from these pans without any problems and was able to retain all the minute details of the molds.
Is there another flavor you can recommend for this? I’d like to make them again for Thanksgiving, but wanted to try something more fall-flavored than lemon (not pumpkin)
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Diane, I’m so glad you enjoyed the cakes! I haven’t tried it with any fall flavors but am hoping to make a maple version in a few weeks! So stay tuned! This would work well with any citrus fruit though!