Lemon Pudding Cake
This delicious Homemade Lemon Pudding Cake makes the perfect dessert, no need for frosting it makes its own topping. The perfect dessert for lemon lovers and it’s perfect anytime.
If you know anything about me or my husband you will know that we adore anything lemon. I am partial to Lemon Desserts and he will take lemon anyway, on fish, in salad, desserts and gelato.
I always remember my Mom making Pudding Cakes and I was always intrigued that it actually worked! And not only does it work it tastes amazing too. A creamy pudding and soft cake, can’t get much better than that!
Recipe Ingredients
- Butter – I use salted butter
- Sugar – granulated or even better fine sugar
- Lemon zest – room temperature
- Eggs – large room temperature
- Flour – all purpose flour
- Milk – room temperature, best to use 2% or whole milk
- Lemon Juice – room temperature
Why use room temperature ingredients?
Room temperature ingredients help to produce light tender baked good, in this case a cake. The ingredients will come together smoother with a lump free batter. Room temperature egg whites beat up fluffier. Using cold ingredients could deflate the stiff egg whites or solidify the butter.
How to make a Pudding Cake
In a large bowl cream the butter and half the sugar add the zest and egg yolks, beat to combine. Stir with a wooden spoon, whisk or spatula the flour alternately with the milk. Then stir in the lemon juice. Combine well.
In another bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites and remaining sugar until stiff peaks appear then gently fold into the batter. Pour into the prepared 8-inch cake pan or baking dish. Place the cake pan in a larger high sided pan filled with hot water. Bake until golden.
Let cool to warm, dust with powdered sugar and serve. If you wish you could serve with a dollop of whipped cream and fresh berries, such as blueberries or raspberries.
Why is a Pudding Cake baked in a water bath?
The water bath helps to insulate the thick pudding layer and prevents it from over-cooking and becoming rubbery, and at the same time it helps the the cake rise high above the pudding.
How to store it
Store the leftovers tightly wrapped or in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for up to 3 days. Re-heating can be done in the microwave. It’s best not to freeze the cake as it will deflate and won’t re-heat very well.
Recipe Information
- This recipe can also be made in individual prepared ramekins, approximately 6. Be sure to cut down on the baking time to about 20 minutes.
- The pudding cake is baked when the edges are set and the middle should be golden brown. It is over baked when there is no pudding on the bottom of the cake.
- The batter for this cake cannot be made ahead of time as it will deflate, nor should the cake be frozen.
More Lemon Desserts you may enjoy
So if you want to bring back some memories or start some new ones, then I think this Lemon Pudding Cake would be the perfect Dessert! Enjoy.
Lemon Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter (softened)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (or fine/divided) (divided)
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 3 large eggs (room temperature) (separated)
- 1/4 cup flour (all purpose)
- 1 cup milk (room temperature)
- 1/3 cup lemon juice (room temperature)
For room temperature ingredients remove from the fridge about 1 hour before using. Longer if your house is cold.
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C) and grease and flour an 8 inch square or round cake pan.
- In a large bowl cream the butter and half the sugar (1/3 cup), add the zest and egg yolks beat to combine. Stir in (with a wooden spoon) the flour alternately with the milk. Then stir in the lemon juice. Combine well.
- In another bowl beat the egg whites and remaining 1/3 cup sugar until stiff, then gently fold into the batter. Pour into the prepared cake pan. Place the cake pan in a larger high sided pan filled with 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) of hot water. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until golden.
- Let cool to warm, dust with powdered sugar and serve. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Updated from August 18, 2018.
Could this be made in an instapot?
Hi Linda, I really don’t know, I have never used an instant pot. 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe and ordinarily I wouldn’t comment until I’d tried it but I was hoping to find out if I could make this gluten free. I’m thinking almond flour? My niece is alergic and this looks like a wonderful recipe if I can make it gluten free.
Hi Annie, I have never made this gluten free, but I know some people substitute with a gluten free flour (such as King Arthur etc) that isn’t almond flour, because I really don’t know if that would work. Let me know if you try it.
please convert ingredients ratio to grams please on all your recipes otherwise amazing recipes i love them
Hi Rosemary, all the new recipes and some of the old I have the grams in brackets beside the ingredients for all the others click on metric (beside US customary and it changes) Hope that helps. And glad you like the recipes. Take care.
I made this just the other day for our family dinner dessert and it was wonderful. Followed the recipe to a T. Curious how it would be with blood orange juice instead of lemon. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Cal, thanks so much glad you enjoyed it. I think orange juice would be fine to use and delicious too. Take care.
Ciao Andrea.
How great to be living in Italy. I am a South African Afrikaans farm girl and did my last year of graphic design in Italy (and won a national poster competition for my Academia), I would not like to say how many moons ago!
The Afrikaner cuisine is very interesting – a mixture of Dutch and Indonesia, but i am stuck in the Italian kitchen ever since.
Mille grazie per deliziosa ricetta.
Auguri …. Carina
Thanks Carine, glad you enjoy the recipes. Congrats even if it was many moons ago 🙂 ! Have a great weekend.
can you confirm that this recipe only requires 1/4 c of flour? That seems awfully low for a cake
Hi Andrea, Yes I confirm only 1/4 cup of flour. 🙂
So delicious. The flavor of lemon meringue but in a yummy pudding cake. Love it.
Thanks so much Deb, glad you enjoyed it.
A well loved dessert in my family when I was growing up. My recipe fills a 2 quart Pyrex casserole dish so it must have more ingredients.
I made it for my husband when we were dating and he loved it! Now it is a well loved dessert in this household. It is referred to as “The Lemon Thing” .
I had broken my 2 quart casserole, and all I had was a deep 2 quart souffle dish so I used that. Lo and behold, it became a souffle! Now I only make it in that dish. I would think that using a deeper, smaller diameter dish with this recipe would give the same results.
Anyway, it is an awesome dessert.
Thanks Claire, I love a good souffle so that would be ok too! 🙂
I had a hard time getting the egg white to form stiff peaks. After 15 minutes I gave up and folded it in the way it was. It’s in the oven now.
Hi Pat, there could be a number of reasons why the peaks did not form, your bowl could have residual on it or you didn’t beat them on a high enough speed.
Rosemary you are so right! Anything the slightest bit oily on the beaters or the bowl will mess with the volume.
Oh and don’t forget that any yolk that sneaks into the whites will mess it up.
I separate the eggs one at a time and If the yolk gets into the white, I save the whole thing for scrambled eggs and do another one.
Egg whites must be warm ( room temperature ) to give the volume you need. Get your eggs out ahead of time and let them warm up first. I usually separate mine then as they will warm up faster that way.
My mother always taught me to add a tiny bit of salt and cream of tartar to the eggs; this is a Julia Child recommendation as well but I learned it from Mom long before I watched Julia.
Julia Child also recommends using a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer. It helps circulate more air into the egg whites or cream. You can move the beaters around in the bowl for maximum effect.If you are lucky enough to have a KitchenAid with a whisk attachment it should have the same effect. A traditional stand mixer like a Sunbeam Mixmaster is not as effective. So I use the hand mixer.
Rule of Thumb with whipping:
W(hites) = Warm and be sure your bowl is not cold.
C(ream) = Cold (as cold as you can get it and chill the bowls and beaters too) I stick mine in the freezer ahead of time and chill the cream about 30 minutes in the freezer.
Hi, can I use limes instead of lemons. Thanks.
Hi Trish, yes I’m sure you can or even oranges. Let me know how it turns out.
Lime or even a combo is awesome. I shall have to try Orange sometime!
Hi Claire, I think orange would be a great idea. 🙂
Wonderful
I tried this recipe for my husband and myself and it was delicious, we loved it! So I tried it again when we had friends over for dinner. And it didn’t turn out and I have no idea why!. It just came out like a thick cake, without the separate pudding at the bottom. Any suggestions?
Hi Lorna, you may have baked it too long, next time bake it about 5 minutes less and see. Let me know.
This is really easy and really good. A couple things: 1) Next time I’ll use a little less sugar. Not dusting it with powdered sugar as it’s too sweet for me as is. 2) I left it in the over longer than directed as it seemed too runny.
This is absolutely fabulous! I didn’t expect so much taste. Made it exactly as instructed and I will be making this again.
Hi Thelma, thanks so much, glad you liked it.
Very similar to lemon sponge pie without crust. Very good!!
Hi Pam, thanks so much.