Just six more days until the premier of Game of Thrones!!  My sister and I are going to have a little premier party and she has delegated me as the GoT Food Specialist.   This is super thrilling because for the last two years, I had to watch GoT all by myself in Taiwan with Taiwanese munchies like peanut brittle and butter cookies from the many weddings my parents attended to.  This year, I am reading recipe books and re-watching some episodes to immerse myself in the GoT world so I can create my own recipes!

If you are a fan of GoT, you probably already know that Sansa Stark loves her lemon cakes.

Jeyne yawned. “Are there any lemon cakes?” Sansa did not like being interrupted, but she had to admit, lemon cakes sounded more interesting than most of what had gone on in the throne room. “Let’s see,” she said. The kitchen yielded no lemon cakes, but they did find half of a cold strawberry pie, and that was almost as good. They ate it on the tower steps, giggling and gossiping and sharing secrets, and Sansa went to bed that night feeling almost as wicked as Arya. ~ George R.R. Martin

Today, I am going to recreate her lemon cakes with strawberries (since she also loves strawberry pies).  As I was developing this recipe, I couldn’t help but noticed that she is still well alive after four seasons!  I mean, this is a huge anomaly because as we all know, George R.R. Martin (the writer) has a fetish (or obsession) of killing pretty much every character in his story, popularity irrelevant.  The more I dig into this anomaly, the more I am convinced that it’s got to be the lemon cakes that are keeping her immortal, kind of like the 1UP mushrooms in Mario because how does a weak and naive girl survive all the backstabbing and betrayals?  See what I mean?

It’s easy to love lemon cakes in those days (or should I say the imaginary GoT days) as there aren’t many fancy sweets (what, no chocolate?!).  People basically eat what they can get from their land and lemon cakes are much more refreshing compared to desserts made with figs and dates.  This lemon cake recipe is very similar to a lemon pound cake.  It’s moist and zesty and topped with sweet strawberries soaked in sugar syrup.  You really can’t get better than this!

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Sansa Stark’s Lemon Cakes with Strawberries (Yield: 12 cakes)

Level:˜  (easy to hard)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Tools:

• 1 muffin pan (12 cakes)
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• 1 Spatula / Wooden spoon
• 1 Whisk
• 1 Sieve
• 1 Pastry brush
• 1 Chopping board and knife
• 1 Large bowls
• 12 Cupcake liners optional
• 1 Small saucepan

Ingredients:

Lemon cakes

• 1 1/3 cup flour*
• 1/2 cup milk (2% or whole)*
  
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (one whole lemon)*
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (one whole lemon)*
• 3/4 cup butter*
• 1 cup sugar*
• 3 eggs*
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon or vanilla extract*

Lemon glaze

 

• 1/4 cup lemon juice (one whole lemon)*
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar*

 

Strawberry Topping

• 7-8 strawberries cut in half*
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar*
• 1/2 tablespoon water

*Organic

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F degrees.
2. Grease muffin pan.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until you reach a pale light color. 
4. Add one egg at a time into the butter and sugar mixture, fully incorporating after each addition.
5. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt, then sift.
6. Add flour mixture and milk alternately into the large bowl.  Mix gently until combined.
7. Add in lemon juice, zest and extract until combined.
8. Use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin pan with equal batter.
9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.  Place in cupcake liners after they have cooled.

Lemon Glaze

1. In a small saucepan on medium heat, whisk lemon juice and powered sugar together  until syrupy (approx. 2 minutes).
2. Use a toothpick to poke holes in the cakes and brush with lemon glaze.

Strawberry Topping

1. In a small saucepan on low heat, cook strawberries, water and powered sugar until sugar has dissolved (approx 3-4 minutes).
2. Garnish cake with strawberry and serve.

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