Lemon Pudding Cake
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These Lemon Pudding Cakes use just 7 ingredients to create one batter, yet gives you two layers of delicious lemony delight. The top is a light and airy cake layer, and the bottom, a silky pudding bursting with fresh lemon flavor.
You all know I love my magic cakes, and these lemon pudding cakes, totally remind me of them. One batter baking into two separate layers, well I’m all for that! The combination of bright lemon, light and airy cake, and a luscious pudding makes this dessert a true show stopper.
Luscious Lemon Pudding Cakes
- Easy To Make
- Bottom layer lemon pudding, top layer lemon cake
- Delicious, lemony, tangy and refreshing
- Simple, but fancy enough to impress
- No shopping for fancy ingredients!
Fear not and trust the process. While you may be thinking this may be difficult, it is the exact opposite! This dessert could not get any easier to make. Requiring only a short list of simple, kitchen and pantry staples, I guarantee you’ll be blown away by how easy, yet impressive it is!
Ingredient Notes
- Sugar – Granulated. You can reduce the sugar amount slightly if you don’t want it quite as sweet, but there’s a lot of lemon juice here, so you’ll need the sweetness from the sugar.
- Flour – All-purpose. I know the amount called for is very small, but trust the process!
- Eggs – Use large eggs. Be careful when separating them to not get any yolk in the whites.
- Butter – Unsalted.
- Lemon – Make sure to grab fresh lemons. You’ll need both zest and juice.
- Milk – 2% works best for this recipe. You can use 1% or 3.25%, but don’t use skim. I have made this with lactose free milk as well.
How To Make Lemon Pudding Cakes
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter an 8-inch square glass baking dish, or 6 individually sized ramekins. In bowl, combine together the sugar and flour; set aside.
- Whip the whites: Place egg whites in bowl and beat on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.
- Whip the yolks: Add egg yolks to a medium size bowl and beat on medium-high speed until the yolks are thick and lightened in colour. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice; beat for 1 more minute on medium speed. Alternately beat in flour/sugar mixture and milk, making 5 additions of flour and 4 of milk.
- Finish the batter: Fold in the egg whites with a spatula. Transfer to the prepared baking dish or ramekins. Place dish in large shallow roasting pan. Add hot water to half way up side of baking dish or ramekins.
- Bake: Bake in the centre of oven for 50 to 55 minutes. If making in ramekins, bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cakes start to lightly brown on top. Cool for 5 minutes. Top two-thirds will be cake consistency and bottom third will be pudding consistency.
- Garnish: These can be served warm or chilled. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with berries.
FAQs & Expert Tips
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
How Does Lemon Pudding Cake Work?
How does one batter give you pudding on the bottom and light, airy cake on top? Much like my Magic Cake, this is all thanks to the egg whites. As the pudding bakes, the light egg whites, filled with air, will float to the top, leaving the yolks on the bottom. This gives you that beautiful airy cake consistency created by the whites, while leaving you a custard style pudding on the bottom with the yolks.
How Do I Properly Whip Egg Whites?
As with desserts like meringue, baked Alaska, and macarons, it’s important to get the right consistency with your egg whites. In this recipe, we’re looking for the stiff peak stage. To tell when you’ve reached this result, pull your beaters out of the egg whites. You should see a peak of whipped whites standing straight up, without the tip curling over.
How To Serve
I like dusting my puddings with powdered sugar after they have cooled. I find it adds not only a bit of sweetness that pairs beautifully with the tangy lemon, but also a visually stunning finish!
Tips
- It is possible to over-whip the whites and have them collapse. To avoid this, you can check the whites often to make sure you catch the stiff peak stage right when you get there.
- The water bath is imperative to baking these cakes, to create a humid and moist environment which give these cakes their fluffy texture.
- Every oven is different, so keep an eye on your puddings to make sure the tops don’t burn.
Leftovers
Your lemon pudding will last 1-2 days stored in the fridge. This dessert doesn’t transfer well, so I suggest keeping it the container(s) you baked it in covered with plastic wrap.
Reheating
This dessert is wonderful enjoyed cold! No need to reheat, that could potentially wreck the consistency of the pudding.
Freezing
I don’t suggest freezing this dessert. It is quite delicate made with the whipped egg whites, so it’s definitely best enjoyed fresh.
More Great Recipes To Try
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Lemon Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 3 large eggs (separated)
- ¼ cup butter (unsalted, melted)
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ½ cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 1 ½ cups milk (2%)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter an 8-inch square glass baking dish, or 6 individually sized ramekins. In bowl, combine together the sugar and flour; set aside.
- Whip the whites: Place egg whites in a medium sized bowl and beat on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.
- Whip the yolks: Add the egg yolks to a medium size bowl and beat on medium-high speed until the yolks are thick and lightened in colour. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice; beat for 1 more minute on medium speed. Alternately beat in flour/sugar mixture and milk, making 5 additions of flour and 4 of milk.
- Finish the batter: Fold in the egg whites with a spatula. Transfer to the prepared baking dish or ramekins. Place dish in large shallow roasting pan. Add hot water to half way up side of baking dish or ramekins.
- Bake: Bake in the centre of oven for 50 to 55 minutes. If making in ramekins, bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cakes start to lightly brown on top. Cool for 5 minutes. Top two-thirds will be cake consistency and bottom third will be pudding consistency.
- Garnish: These can be served warm or chilled. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with berries.
Notes
- It is possible to over-whip the whites and have them collapse. To avoid this, you can check the whites often to make sure you catch the stiff peak stage right when you get there.
- The water bath is imperative to baking these cakes, to create a humid and moist environment which give these cakes their fluffy texture.
- Every oven is different, so keep an eye on your puddings to make sure the tops don’t burn.
- Your lemon pudding will last 1-2 days stored in the fridge. This dessert doesn’t transfer well, so I suggest keeping it the container(s) you baked it in covered with plastic wrap.
- I don’t suggest freezing this dessert. It is quite delicate made with the whipped egg whites, so it’s definitely best enjoyed fresh.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
If you love lemons, this is a great recipe very light and satisfying dessert. Taste is great but no “cake” on top to speak of. Mostly pudding. Will make again.
Added comment to my review above: the pudding was runny and I baked it per the instructions – to was lightly brown and separating from sides. Folded egg whites gently. What gives?
Hi Lisa,
Since all ovens are different, it might have been from the way the oven cooks, meaning it browned the outer layers but didn’t get to cook all the way through. Keep in mind to have all ingredients at room temperature before starting to add them all together and make sure the water bath is hot so it helps with the temperature of your pudding as well.
Let us know how it turns out!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Jo. I was intrigued by this recipe. I’ve made your Lemon Yogurt Cake any times, and the idea of the auto-layering cake was fascinating. I must’ve gone wrong somewhere though. I thought I followed your directions and quantities exactly as given, but for some reason the pudding layer was very liquid – not set at all. Any idea why that might be? Still, it tasted delicious and I’ll give it another try soon!
The only thing I can think of is that it didn’t bake long enough. Try baking them a bit longer and if the top is too brown you could always cover them with aluminum foil.
This is my FAVORITE dessert from my childhood- my Grandmother made it for me when I was honored to be her special guest for dinner or a sleepover. Since she used a store bought package mix (Betty Crocker I think) which has long since been discontinued (and I am now too many decades older than I want to see in print!) I’ll just say a ginormous THANK YOU for this recipe which immediately brought back sweet comforting memories to my heart and tastebuds. Made it-love it-appreciate it… more than you can imagine!
Awe!! I’m so glad you loved it Kim!
This desert was so good!!! Definitely will make it again.
I have been thinking about making this. I have not made Lemon Pudding Cake for a long time. I made this in my 20s and now I am in my 60s, got it from Betty Crocker cook book. Thank you, for posting it!
You are so welcome!
Is the 50 min cook time for 6 ramekins or 1 2L dish?
Both! Cook times may vary, so just keep an eye on them.
My grandmother used to make this luscious lemon pudding, as it was called by us also! My mother did also and my three sisters and I have it too. I am 70 years so you can see it has been around a long time! Patrice from New Zealand
My family loves this lemon pudding. I am gluten free and it works perfect with my GF flour..
Absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe, and so glad I did! It was a hit for Easter dinner! (I also used gluten free flour for a family member, with no change.) I will be making this again!
I am so glad you shared about using the gluten free flour bland with no changes. I absolutely love anything lemon and always have a lemon pudding. It’s been well over 10 years and I just cannot adjust to eating gluten free so I’m always very glad to find things the only change is substituting the gf flour for the regular. I hope to make this all for me later this week. Even though Easter dinner is over for this year I’m going to keep this in mind for next year.
How many ounces are these ramikins?
6oz! Any size will work 🙂
I have been making this receipe for over 20 years! I got if from a French cookbook, however, there is less sugar than this receipe (2/3rd of a cup) and half a cup of milk (which I have been using almond the past few years.)
This has become a favorite dessert for family occasions since I discovered it, and I’m with you regarding the sweetness. I cut down on it as well. Recently , i began making a dark cherry/lemon juice puree to be used sparingly on top, instead of powdered sugar.
Oh yum! This sounds like my mother’s old lemon pudding cake recipe. I must get some fresh lemons and make it!
If I’d simply read this recipe, I would have passed it by as too ordinary. Not special enough. I was looking for a lemon pudding with pizzazz.
But after reading the full article and some of the comments, I decided to give it a go.
I am so glad that I did, it is most very excellent. My guests thought so too. We demolished the lot between the three of us.
This recipe is going to be printed out, framed and hung on the wall.
Steve
PS Serve with chilled Limoncello
Thank you so much Steve, so glad you guys enjoyed it!
Its actually an old australian desert called lemon delicious. Unlike pavlova the aussies did invent this one.
Interesting.
I believe this is a British recipe, not Australia or New Zealand, tho’ we have had it for generations!
Instead of serving with Limoncello, how about using some in the recipe itself. Now that sounds like an excellent experiment to try.
I made this recipe today. It turned out delicious! My fiance is not a big dessert fan and he ate 2 ramekan servings in one sitting. The flavor is very similar to a lemon bar.
I’m so glad you liked it. It’s on of my faves. 🙂