Lemon Pudding Cake
Updated March 11, 2025
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4large eggs, separated
- 1teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- ⅓cup lemon juice
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1cup sugar
- ½cup all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½cups whole milk
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
204 calories; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 28 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 174 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Place a large roasting pan on a rack in the center of the oven. Fill the pan halfway with water. With the pan inside, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square or round baking dish.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and butter. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and salt. Whisk half the flour mixture into the egg yolks, then half the milk. Whisk in remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk.
- Step 3
Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.
- Step 4
Pour batter into the buttered dish. Place the dish in the pan of water in the oven. Bake until the cake is set, about 45 minutes.
- Adapted from "The Farm," by Ian Knauer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Private Notes
Comments
I've been making this since the 1960s. I think the recipe came from Fannie Farmer. I use almost twice as much zest and extra lemon juice, less sugar (3/4 cup) and plain yogurt thinned with water instead of milk. It has a slightly cheese cake-y or maybe cheese danish taste which I like very much.
Next time you bake this recipe place the pan containing the batter for the pudding cake in the water bath pan first and then fill the water bath pan with hot water from the tea kettle. Then place in the oven.
I've made a similar recipe for years, using buttermilk, but I fold in a cup of fresh raspberries to the mixture before pouring it into the baking dish. I then serve more fresh raspberries on the side. You could use any kind of berries, or even a mix. In addition to adding flavor, and a bit of texture, the pop of color from the berries is great.
And when baking, the deeper the water, the more custard, and the shallower the water, the more cake. Adjust to your preference!
Quite simple and very delicious! Will happily make again. Some tweaks I made based on comments: Quadrupled the lemon zest because the limit does not exist for me for lemon. If you want this to be a LEMON dessert, do this. It tasted great. I filled the roasting pan more than halfway with water because I wanted it to be more pudding than cake. That worked. I also boiled water in a kettle, let that sit while I made the cake, and set the dish with the batter in the roasting pan, than poured hot water all around it. That just seemed cleaner and simpler. I ended up baking it for about 40 minutes but checked it frequently. It browns quickly but it remained very jiggly so I kept having to let it go longer.
Entire family loved this dessert. I loved that it only requires kitchen staples and is pretty easy to make. For me, 2 lemons was the right amount to get the juice and I zested both. Only substitution I made was plain yogurt for milk because I have more use for yogurt in my house than whole milk, and I brought it to room temp so it would better incorporate into the batter. Worked great.
Really neat recipe! Does anyone know if this could be made with honey instead of sugar? If yes, where would you introduce the honey - with the egg yolks or with the milk or with the flower? Thank you!
For anyone interested in replacing sugar with honey - I tried it! I used 1/2 cup of honey mixed into the yolks and lemon mixture. I reduced milk to one cup. I added a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per internet sources on replacing honey for sugar. Recipe worked fine. In my opinion taste was not quite as good but this may because I also experimented with adding lemon and was perhaps too heavy handed with that. It might also have been the baking soda. In sum, it works but I would stay with recipe as is, maybe just reducing sugar and increasing lemon.