Elizabethan and Modern Lemon Cakes
*UPDATE: If you dip the tops of the Elizabethan cakes in Lemon Curd, they become exquisitely delicious. We can’t keep them in the house for more than a few hours!*
Thoughts:
First of all, we’d like to thank the author over at Phantasmagorical Musings for her wonderful breakdown of the essential qualities of a Game of Thrones lemon cake. With such clear, concise standards, we were inspired to give the lemon cakes another go.
Round 2 of Battle Lemon Cakes was highly successful. Both the modern and period recipes yielded baked goods that would make top quality additions to any afternoon tea, whether in London, or King’s Landing. For a truly Game-of-Thronsian culinary experience, however, the period recipe can’t be beat.
The period recipe is Elizabethan; it results in deliciously dense lemon poppy-seed cakes with sweet lemony glaze. Although these cakes have a heavier consistency than the modern ones, they go down easily. Too easily. Don’t be shy with the lemon glaze, however, since most of the lemon flavor seems to bake out of the cakes.
The modern recipe, courtesy of Martha Stewart, produces soft sweet cakes with a consistency between pound cake and corn muffins. Ours puffed up a little more than they ought to have, so we might decrease the leavening just a bit next time.
Bottom Line: Tea drinker? Make both. Planing a premier party? The Elizabethan lemon cakes are a must.
Are we satisfied? Yes. Are they perfect? So very nearly. But we believe the third time will be the charm. Join us again when Battle Lemon Cake continues…
Elizabethan Lemon Cakes II
This is an original recipe, based on cake receipts from A.W.’s Book of Cookrye (1591) and The English Huswife by Gervase Markham, 1615. A round cake such as this is described in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where it is compared to the shape of the medieval round shield, the Buckler.
Our changes: The original recipe didn’t call for lemon, which we added in. It also didn’t specify a type of seed, so we opted for the classic pairing of lemon and poppyseed.
Ingredients:
- ~2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 pkg. yeast
- 3 Tbs. warm ale (or water; marsala can work, but watch the yeast)
- dash of baking soda (optional; can dry out cakes a little!)
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tbs. poppy seeds
- Juice of 1 lemon
- zest of 1 lemon
For glaze:
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 Tbs. honey
Sift together the flours and salt; set aside in large bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm ale, along with 1/8 tsp. of the flour mixture. Your yeast should bubble up after a few minutes, indicating that the yeast is still active.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and seeds, followed by the lemon zest and juice. Gently add the yeast to this mixture, then begin to fold in the flour. Use as much flour as is needed to make a smooth, thick batter. Grease your cupcake pan, and fill the cups 2/3 full. Bake in middle of oven at 325° F for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly before turning onto a cake rack.
While they cool, mix the lemon juice and honey for the glaze. When the cakes have cooled significantly, brush the glaze on. This will take several passes since the glaze soaks into the cake. You can also poke holes in the tops of the cakes with a toothpick for the juice to run down into.
For an extra lemony kick, try topping your cakes with lemon curd!
Modern Lemon Cakes II
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
- 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
- Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups sugar
- 5 large eggs
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position, and grease your cupcake pans.
- In a small bowl (or liquid measuring cup), combine buttermilk with lemon zest and juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).
- Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, ~15 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool completely before glazing.
These look amazing! I’ll have to try and make the medieval ones!
Let us know how they turned out! By popular demand, we had to make a second batch here!
ALSO! If you mix up a bowl of lemon curd, and dip the tops of the cake in, they are divine!
I’m definitely trying these. :) A friend posted a link to this blog on Facebook – I’ve never read the Game of Thrones books, but I love cooking and am interested in medieval recipes, so I’m really enjoying reading through this! Thanks so much for sharing!
Glad to hear to you like the blog! We plan to do a ridiculous number of recipes, so keep checking back in!
For a lemon cake recipe, may I suggest my wife’s world-famous and insanely good Lemon Ahead Cake?
1 sm. (3 oz.) package lemon Jello
1 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1 box lemon cake mix (Duncan Hines)
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
Dissolve package of lemon Jello in cup of boiling water. Let cool. In large bowl, beat eggs lightly. Add oil to eggs and a little pinch of salt. Add cooled Jello. Add cake mix. Beat 2 mins. Pour into 13x9x2” greased pan. Bake 350 degrees for 30-45 mins. Pierce w/ fork every 2” while hot. Mix confectioners sugar with lemon juice and pour over cake while hot. Cover when at room temperature.
Better if baked two days ahead, for the cake to become well-saturated (hence the name). Time, and gravity, are your friends.
Let me know if you like it.
let me just say that i love what you cooks are doing with this amazing series of books! you all are so inspiring! i am planning a premier party for the big hbo sunday and have tried to make the period lemon cakes… yum! are they supposed to be so dense? also, they aren’t as sweet as i had expected. did i do something wrong?
Hi there,
Thanks for your comments! As to your questions:
On density:
The Elizabethan cakes are generally pretty dense, but if something went wrong with your yeast they could have become a little too dense. Touch some of the liquid to your wrist and if it feels hot, rather than warm, it is probably killing the yeast. If your yeast is not the problem, you can fluff them a little by adding a dash of baking soda, but be careful because it will also dry the cakes out slightly.
On Sweetness:
Because it is an Elizabethan recipe, the cakes themselves have relatively little sugar. The trick to sweetening them and perfecting the lemon flavor is to be generous with the glaze, or, for a really sweet and lemony kick, top them with lemon curd. We used Alton Brown’s recipe.
All that said, if what you are really after is a lighter, sweeter, more modern cake- try the modern recipe instead. They are delicious and can be glazed with the same lemony sweet mixture we used on the Elizabethan version.
Hope this helps, and happy baking!
-The Innkeepers
Have you tried the recipe used for the GoT food truck lemon cakes? http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/storage/got-lemon-cakes-recipe.pdf
Also, great site!
Thanks for checking us out!
We have not made the food truck lemon cakes yet, but they are definitely on our list. They don’t really fall within our ideal lemon cake boundaries, so we’ve been slacking on testing out that recipe. It’s difficult with so many other great food options in GoT!
Whoa! You were so right about the lemon curd! Yum Yum :) I guess the yeast just needed a bit more time to bloom the second batch was perfect, thanks for the help!
Wondering how many cakes these recipes make? 12? 18?
About a dozen of the Elizabethan cakes, using regular cupcake pans. The modern recipe makes a few more.
I’m going to answer my own question. Elizabethan recipe makes 12, just. I used a standard cupcake scoop. For those of you trying this who are inexperienced bakers, the batter is fairly thick and not at all like a boxed cake mix may be. Also, I my lemon was fairly large, and when I added the juice to my creamed sugar and eggs, it broke it – I suspect it cooled the butter even though it was room temp. Once I added the flour, it smoothed back out. I used a barleywine style ale. The batter carries this flavor. We’ll see if it melds and/or cooks out, and how heavy the cakes end up being. Also, I put the measured ale into a glass jar and sat it in a bowl of hot water to warm it up before adding the yeast. If you’re having trouble with the yeast activating, you may want to try this method.
So I’m kind of a quick and dirty cook when I think I can get away with it. So tonight when I decided at the last minute that I was going to throw together a GoT dinner to watch the King’s Road episode I knew that I wanted to finish the meal with lemon cakes, but wasn’t in the mood for a serious baking session. I had a cake mix in the cupboard (English Tea Cake) so thought I’d use that as the base, and just add some lemon flavour to it. I brought three large lemons and zested two into the cake mix, and cook the batter in patty cake tins, I got 44 cakes using about a tablespoon per cake, next time I’ll use a little less as they did nipple up on me. The cake mix is meant to go into one 20x7cm tin.
After they were cooked (10min in a 180c oven) I stabbed the top of each with a fondue fork (can’t find my skewers currently) and then pour a teaspoon of syrup over each. The syrup I made by juicing the three lemons which gave me just under a cup of juice which I brought to the boil with just under a cup of caster sugar then let cool. after all the syrup had soaked in I then poured on another ~1/2 teaspoon of syrup.
The lemon cakes are everything I imagined that they would be when I was reading the books, very lemony light moist sticky and very very more-ish.
I made the Elizabethan Cakes but doubled the recipe and made some modifications which I think help solve the problem of them not being lemony enough. Here’s exactly what I did:
For Cakes:
-4 C unbleached all purpose flour
-4 & 1/2 tsp bread machine/rapid rise yeast
-2 pinches baking soda
-salt (probably 1/8 – 1/4 tsp but i almost never measure salt in baked goods)
- 2 sticks softened butter (I used 1 stick of salted and 1 stick of unsalted because it’s what I had)
-1 C granulated sugar
-1/2 C turbinado sugar
-3 eggs beaten
-1 tbs poppy seeds
-juice and zest of 5 small lemons (my lemons were tiny, I would guess the equivalent would be about 3 normal sized lemons)
-instead of ale: 4 Tbl gingerale, 2 tsp white wine vinegar, 4 tsp warm water
For Glaze:
Honey + lemon juice on a 2/1 ratio (I think I used 2 & 1/2 Tbl lemon juice and 5 Tbl honey)
Instructions are pretty much the same, but I had a couple of notes:
-I juiced and zested the lemons after putting the yeast in the “ale”, giving it plenty of time to bloom. The type of yeast I used started bubbling immediately.
-When you add the lemon juice and lemon zest in to the sugar/egg mixture, it will get lumpy and funky and not want to come together. Just mix it the best you can and keep it going. It will become smooth after you have added a fair amount of the flour.
I actually ended up with a batter that was too thick and added more ginger ale in until it was “right”. As to what “right” was, I kind of guessed: too thin for a cookie, too thin for bread, but too thick for a “normal cake batter”.
The cakes I ended up with were dense and yummy and VERY lemony but slightly dry. Adding the glaze made up for some of the dryness, but next time I might try adding a tablespoon or two of honey in to the batter to add some moistness. These cakes were lemony and tasty enough that lemon curd was not necessary but they were still yummy with lemon curd (I used store bought because an equipment malfunction ruined the lemon curd my friend and I tried to make)
I tried the recipe provided for the food truck lemon cakes, and they didn’t turn out at all. Over two hours in the oven, and they still resembled some kind of Pledge-flavoured custard, even though we followed the instructions exactly. Going to try these recipes now!
So, tried the modern recipe, and they turned out absolutely wonderful. However, mine stayed a lovely light yellow colour instead of browning like those in the picture, but the taste is just awesome.
pretty much followed the recipe below except added the seeds in to the dry ingredients instead of the wet. Also added a tablespoon of honey in to the wet ingredients at the same time as eggs. Between the honey and not adding too much flour that then needed correcting, the cakes were much moister.
This time i had normal sized lemons and used the zest and juice of 3, which measured out to slightly under 1/2 c of lemon juice and slightly over 1/2 c zest.
Instead of lemon curd for “frosting”, I made a frosting that involved mascarpone, lemon curd, powdered sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, a little tiny bit of nutmeg and a tiny tiny tiny pinch of salt but i didn’t really measure what I did. It was 8 oz mascarpone and about 1/4 c lemon curd beat together with an electric mixer. Then I added in powdered sugar until it seemed a little on the thick side for frosting. Then I added nutmeg, salt and vanilla and then lemon zest. It was divine, but like I said, I didn’t measure… just kept adding until it looked/felt/tasted right.
I think the cake recipe is about perfect except the method might need some work since that amount of lemon juice doesn’t mix right with the butter/sugar mixture. If I make that frosting again, I’ll measure and write it down.
“I made the Elizabethan Cakes but doubled the recipe and made some modifications which I think help solve the problem of them not being lemony enough. Here’s exactly what I did:
For Cakes:
-4 C unbleached all purpose flour
-4 & 1/2 tsp bread machine/rapid rise yeast
-2 pinches baking soda
-salt (probably 1/8 – 1/4 tsp but i almost never measure salt in baked goods)
- 2 sticks softened butter (I used 1 stick of salted and 1 stick of unsalted because it’s what I had)
-1 C granulated sugar
-1/2 C turbinado sugar
-3 eggs beaten
-1 tbs poppy seeds
-juice and zest of 5 small lemons (my lemons were tiny, I would guess the equivalent would be about 3 normal sized lemons)
-instead of ale: 4 Tbl gingerale, 2 tsp white wine vinegar, 4 tsp warm water
For Glaze:
Honey + lemon juice on a 2/1 ratio (I think I used 2 & 1/2 Tbl lemon juice and 5 Tbl honey)
Instructions are pretty much the same, but I had a couple of notes:
-I juiced and zested the lemons after putting the yeast in the “ale”, giving it plenty of time to bloom. The type of yeast I used started bubbling immediately.
-When you add the lemon juice and lemon zest in to the sugar/egg mixture, it will get lumpy and funky and not want to come together. Just mix it the best you can and keep it going. It will become smooth after you have added a fair amount of the flour.”
I just wanted to say thanks a million for posting this version of the recipe. I made them for a premiere party last night, and they came out FANTASTICALLY. I didn’t do the frosting, just the honey-lemon glaze, and they were still the perfect amount of sweet! And super-lemony!
Last night on a whim, I made the lemon cakes (medieval version) — I like the old-style density to them, and adding the glaze really livened up the flavour. I had decided to forego the lemon curd, and now I’m regretting it. Next time, I must try that. Even though only two of us are in the house right now, I have my doubts about there being any left before I get home from work tonight, since the other half is at home and I kept seeing him sneak one here and there last night! They went great with the strawberry-walnut-almond-cranberry-bleu cheese-and-spinach salad I made for dinner. Great recipe!
Since reading Lord of the Rings as a kid (and finding myself hungry after half of the chapters in Fellowship), I’ve always wanted to do something like this website. Congrats for doing it, and also let me shake my fist in nerd rage for being beaten to the punch. I think I have some lemon cakes to bake.
When Tom Colicchio was making the GOT food trucks, he provided the recipes for Lemon Cakes. Here they are: http://www.westeros.org/Files/GameOfThrones_Lemon_Cakes.pdf
You guys should test them out and compare to all your other Lemon Cake recipes.
We’re planning that for our third and final installment of Battle Lemoncake. Should be a fun challenge!
Did you have a rising period in between putting the Elizabethan batter in the cupcake pan and putting it in the oven? I have seen this specified with medieval cake recipes that use yeast as the leaven, and it may have been assumed by whoever originally wrote down this recipe that the cook would do this.
For the glaze, I recommend dipping the tops and bottoms of the cakes rather than just brushing it on: the bottom part will absorb better than the top, and allowing them to sit on their tops in the glaze for a minute might be a good idea, especially with denser cakes. This is what I do when I make lemon-ginger muffins. I also wonder about possibly splitting the cakes horizontally and filling them with lemon curd.
There are, incidentally, silicone muffin pans available that produce a rose shape. I find the description of the lemon cakes that are made in the shape of a rose intriguing – it’s the one thing that would lead me towards something shortbreadish as the lemon cake of the books, since it’s easy to shape shortbread by stamping or molding it before cooking. I do not know to what degree shaped bakeware (obviously not silicone!) could be available or used in a world like that of “A Song of Ice and Fire”.
Dang, leaving it to rise a bit before putting it in the oven…why didn’t I think of that! I’m so torn between trying this recipe again, with that rising period, and trying another lemon cake recipe. Thanks for the tip!
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I LOVE the Iron Chef reference – and your site! Great work, I have copied down by hand and look forward to making most of your recipes!
I made the period cakes, but mini-cupcake style with no changes to the recipe (aside from skipping the poppy seeds – not a huge fan, and the cakes didn’t suffer at all for it!). I was a bit spooked because the batter was way thicker than a usual cake batter, but I ran with it. Luckily, the recipe is awesome, and the mini-cupcakes turned out very, very well. Now, to see how they ship!
I basically envisioned madeleines for the lemon cakes, possibly because of the tea connection, maybe because it’s easy to imagine a rose mold rather than a shell, probably just because I like madeleines. If lemon cakes were made in a mold like a boiled pudding, which is a good old-fashioned cakey kind of dessert, they’d be called puddings, right? Of course pound cakes are often molded, and those style cakes are pretty old…but for some reason I imagined something airy (maybe just because Sansa likes them?). I definitely pictured individually sized portions, which madeleines are. Also, it should be noted, of convenient size for a kid to steal. But I don’t know how that madeleines are sufficiently venerable. Larousse says they may originally be from Commercy, and made popular in court circles around 1730 (I’m completely discounting the story that they were invented by Talleyrand’s pastry chef, because Careme is not reliable even when he’s bragging about someone else for a refreshing change). Larousse doesn’t mention how old Genoese (genoise) is, which is typically the batter for madeleines. Were any of Catherine de Medici’s chefs Genoese, or were they all Florentine? I know very little about the history of food, and have only just discovered this awesome blog, but if possible I’d like to submit madeleines for consideration for round 3.
i have always pictured sansa’s lemon cakes to be more like lemon bars. theyre really thick batter like doughyness and dont really puff up like cake. they stay dense and creamy and so lemony your face puckers!
I used a lemon madelaine recipe, adding some lemon extract, and I baked them in cupcake pans. Once out of the oven, I poured warm honey and lemon juice. They were a great success.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I made a vegan version of the Elizabethan cakes and they came out great! I used Earth Balance margarine and Ener-G egg replacer. Not exactly historical accuracy, but in my fantasy world people who are allergic to dairy can have cake! I also upped the lemon zest to give them more lemon flavor–I zested the lemon that I used for the glaze and threw that in as well.
Made the Medieval cakes. Used AP flour instead of unbleached, didn’t use baking soda, poked tons of holes in the tops of them and drowned them in the topping while still in the muffin pan. They were AMAZING !!!!!
I made the Elizabethan cakes and they came out great. One batch I used the lemon curd and the second I made a raspberry lemon topping which came out amazing as well.