Get the Recipe: Lemon Pudding Cake Recipe
This lemon pudding cake is light, airy, and plenty tangy and zippy thanks to a layer of lemon curd at its base! The cake is made with a soufflé-like sponge cake that sits on top of creamy lemon pudding.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
- fresh lemon zest from 3 large lemons
- ⅓ cup (2.65 ounces or 75 grams) freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (from about 3 large lemons)
- 1 ½ cups (12 ounces or 340 grams) buttermilk
- ½ cup (2.25 ounces or 64 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons 2 Tablespoons (1 ounce or 28 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for pan
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs, separated into whites and yolks
Equipment
- 8-inch square pan, preferably glass or ceramic
- turkey roasting pan OR a baking pan big enough to hold an 8-inch square pan
Instructions
- Prep the oven, pan, and water bath. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8 x 8-inch ceramic or glass square cake pan. Bring a large kettle of water (enough to fill the roasting pan with 1 to 2 inches of water) to a boil.
- Make the lemon sugar. In a large glass bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar—this will infuse the sugar with oils from the zest.
- Mix in the rest of the ingredients (except the egg whites). Add the lemon juice, buttermilk, flour, butter, salt, and egg yolks and mix to combine. It’s okay if the mixture looks lumpy—that’s totally normal, I promise!
- Whisk the egg whites. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites. Whisk on low speed until foamy, 1 minute, then turn the mixer up to medium-high. Whisk until stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients. Use a wooden spoon or ladle to carefully scoop the egg whites into the medium bowl with the rest of the ingredients—be careful not to deflate them! Use a rubber spatula to fold in the ingredients until just combined.
- Assemble the cake for baking. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and use an offset spatula to smooth the top. Set the cake pan inside the roasting pan. Pour the boiled water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
- Bake the cake. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top of the cake bounces back when gently pressed. The cake should wobble ever so slightly when pulled out of the oven.
- Serve and store. Serve warm, or at room temperature. The lemon pudding cake will keep, covered loosely in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To reserve, rewarm in the microwave or eat chilled.
Notes
- It’s important to use ceramic or glass baking equipment whenever you bake with lemons. Why? Lemon juice reacts with metal, giving the dessert a metallic taste! If possible, use a glass bowl to mix the batter, and a ceramic or glass baking dish to bake the cake.
- Want to turn this into an almost one bowl recipe? Easy. Melt the butter in the bowl that you’re planning on making the batter in. Then, add the rest of the ingredients (including the lemon zest and sugar—there’s no need to rub the two together beforehand if you’re going the almost-one-bowl route, but it WILL make your cake more flavorful).
- Folding is one of my least favorite baking techniques. I feel like I always end up with some stubborn lumps that refuse to fold into the mixture despite a solid 5 to 10 minutes of work! That being said, I did learn an awesome trick from a Japanese pastry YouTube tutorial. If you find yourself in a similar situation (in which you’ve folded the mixture hella, but still have a handful of stubborn lumps), use a whisk. Slowly, slowly, slowly whisk the mixture, holding the whisk at the top of the bowl and slowly working your way downwards as you whisk. This will help incorporate everything together. But be careful not to go too quickly, or overdo it! You might accidentally deflate your batter.
Did you make this recipe?Please leave a star rating and review in the form below. I appreciate your feedback, and it helps others, too!