I usually like to make my own version of recipes, but every now and then I come across a recipe that just looks too perfect to change. This recipe for Lemon Pudding Cakes that I found on Food & Wine was one of those.
I LOVE lemon, especially in desserts, and this recipe looked light enough to be enjoyable without making me feel sick afterwards. The top is light and fluffy like an angel food cake and the bottom is a gooey like pudding. That’s the best of both worlds, right there.
This recipe will make you flex your kitchen skills, with all of the egg white-whipping, gentle folding, bain marie making, and lemon zesting, but the work is well worth it. Just make sure to give the instructions a good read (or two) because it is slightly complicated.
The only change I made was to scale the recipe down to two servings because I only have two ramekins and not six. …well, and I also don’t have six people sitting around waiting for dessert. My lemon pudding cakes didn’t turn out quite as pudding-y as the photos on the original recipe, but this was still one of the best desserts that I’ve ever had. I felt like a Goldie Locks who had just found the one that was juuuuussst right. Light, sweet, and slightly gooey – perfect!
Lemon Pudding Cakes
Lemon Pudding Cakes for Two
Servings 2Ingredients
- 1 large egg ($0.22)
- pinch salt ($0.01)
- 2 tsp butter ($0.07)
- 2 Tbsp flour ($0.02)
- 1/4 cup sugar ($0.04)
- 1 medium lemon ($0.69)
- 1/3 cup milk ($0.08)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Separate the egg into two bowls, the whites in a medium bowl and the yolk in a small bowl. Refrigerate the egg whites until you’re ready to whip them. In a third bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar until evenly combined.
- Add the butter (room temperature) to the egg yolk and whisk until smooth and creamy. Stir in the milk. Wash the lemon well and then remove the zest using either a small holed cheese grater or a microplane. Add the zest and juice from half of the lemon to the milk mixture. It may look lumpy, this is okay. Stir in the flour and sugar until evenly combined.
- Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the lemon mixture into the beaten egg whites. Pour the mixture into two ramekins that have been coated with non-stick spray.
- Place the filled ramekins in a casserole dish and pour hot water around them until it reaches half way up the sides of the ramekins. Place the whole dish into the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before eating.
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Step By Step Photos
I started with three bowls – 1) egg white; 2) egg yolk and butter; 3) flour and sugar.
Place the bowl with the egg white in the refrigerator until you’re ready to whip them (they whip easier when cold). Stir together the flour and sugar. Whisk together the butter (make sure it’s room temperature) and the egg yolk until smooth and creamy. Since this is such a small quantity, I just used a fork instead of a large whisk.
Add the milk to the butter/yolk mixture. Zest the entire lemon into the bowl and add juice from just half of the lemon (about 1-2 tablespoons). The lemon juice curdled my egg yolk a little, so it looked lumpy, but it didn’t seem to affect the final product. Lastly, stir the flour and sugar into the lemon mixture (forgot the picture of this step).
Now it’s time to whip your egg whites. Add a pinch of salt before you begin and again, since it’s such a small quantity, I just did it by hand. Two things: you have to whip egg whites in a glass or metal bowl. Plastic retains a oily film, which will prevent the whites from whipping. For the same reason, the whisk needs to be completely clean. It took some elbow grease, but probably less than five minutes to reach stiff peaks (peaks that stand up straight without slumping).
Gently fold the lemony mixture into the whipped egg whites. It likely won’t be completely smooth, but that’s okay. You don’t want to deflate the whole thing in attempt to make it smooth.
Pour the mixture into two ramekins that have been coated with non-stick spray. Place the ramekins in a casserole dish and add hot water around them. I used a tea kettle to heat water until it was steaming, but you could also use your microwave. Add enough water to reach half way up the outside of the ramekins.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Allow the cakes to sit for 10 minutes before eating.
YUM. Soft and fluffy on top, soft and gooey underneath!
Oh this was so good. Very light and lemony.
I didn’t have ramekins, so i made it in small pioneer woman casserole 6 x 4. Easy to make. since I don’t have anyone to share it with, I have to eat the whole thing myself.
Yum
Made these last night. Absolutely incredible. My husband wants me to make. Whole cake like this instead of little ramekins…thanks Beth for making good food easy and delicious!
Can they go in the fridge for a couple of days
I would say that this is a recipe that’s usually best when made/eaten fresh. But if you wanted to save them in the fridge, you probably could! The textures will definitely change some, but I don’t know exactly how to say whether or not it would be an unpleasant change. I’d suggest doing a test run in the fridge if you are planning to make them ahead for a special occasion. ~ Marion :)
I don’t have any ramekins…but I want to make this recipe so bad, it looks Amazing!! Is there any way to make a big batch of this and put it in a larger dish??
I’m sure there’s a way to do it, but baking can be rather finicky, so I’d need to test it before offering a suggestion.
I used GF all purpose flour and coconut sugar. It didn’t have that bright yellow color but the taste was a 10. This one’s a keeper!
These look delicious! Wondering if I can double this recipe and just put in one larger pan?
I haven’t tried that, so I’m not sure how it will turn out. My guess is that you may need to increase the baking time a little. :)
I have doubled all ingredients and put it in 4 ramekins instead of two and if worked just fine.
Just made this recipe. Turned out amazing! Top part was cake and then the custardy lemony goodness was just perfect!
Mine did not get a gooey bottom. The top should have been cooked less and below the top it tasted like a lemon flavored meringue.. I love the idea of a dessert for two, but I probably won’t make this again.
I love the dessert for two idea. And I love lemon. This tasted okay to me, but it wasn’t spectacular. Mine turned out about 90% cake and 10% pudding; I would have preferred the opposite ratio, or at least half and half. The pudding part was fantastic with a delicious lemon flavor, and the cake part disappointing with almost no lemon flavor. I did use gf flour and also might have overbaked it a little. I probably won’t make this again, but if I do, I’ll take it out of the oven before the top starts to get golden brown, and maybe try another commenter’s suggestion to use room temp water in the water bath.
Seemed pretty “finicky” for this beginning cook (separating eggs, separate bowls, etc), but the result made it more than worth it. A completely different class of dessert … light and lemony and likely to impress :)
I substituted all-purpose flower with Coconut flour, duck egg, Stevia instead of sugar and olive oil for butter to make this healthier.
How did it turn out MaryAnn?
Can I substitute non-dairy milk?
Unfortunately I’ve never tested any non-dairy milks with this recipe, so I’m not sure how they would perform.
What size ramekins should be used? I only have 2 two cupramekins. Will these work?
Thanks!
These are one cup ramekins. If you have 2 cup ramekins that may change the baking time since the batter will be spread out more thinly.
Was looking for a small recipe of Lemon Lava Cake and found your page..
This seems to be just what I want… Thank you for posting this… :O)
Lemon + desserts = the best. I can’t wait to try this out. This is the most helpful cooking site I’ve ever stumbled across – thank you for making healthy, cost effective recipes so accessible, esp. to people who aren’t cooking for an entire family. You rock.
just wanted to check, do you only use the juice of half a lemon in this recipe? thanks! :)
Yep! Just the juice from half of it.
Can you sub lemon juice for lemons?
You definitely want to use fresh lemon for this one because the lemon zest is where a lot of the lemony flavor comes from.
I just made these! Fun, easy and yummy dessert for two!! Awesome! I’m going to reduce the sugar a bit next time. A touch too sweet for me. Otherwise, perfect!
After reading Stella’s comment, I reduced the sugar amount. That made this perfect for our tastes.. :O)
This looks amazing! I was wondering- could I prepare this the night before and then just slip it into the oven the next day when I’m ready to bake it? Thank you for the recipe!!
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t think this one will work that way because of the whipped egg whites. They’ll probably deflate over night in the refrigerator. I think they need to be baked right away to get that nice two layer effect.
So good! I accidentally misread the amount of butter as 2T, and didn’t get the water bath particularly hot (I’d say just warm), but these turned out fantastic!
I made these last night, I gave up on getting the eggs to form stiff peaks (I was using a metal whisk and a glass bowl, but I’m lazy and my arm started hurting — we don’t have an electronic mixer), and they still turned out just fine. Very, very good. I love lemony sweets and these really hit the spot. We ate them warm, but I imagine served cold they would be a refreshing summertime treat.
I can confirm, whipping egg whites in a plastic bowl does not work (saw your note after the fact). Bake it anyway and it looked like the picture and tasted great.
I have made this many times, it’s so good! I was wondering, how could this be made with chocolate instead?
Hmm, I’m not sure! Cocoa powder or actual chocolate would change the textures quite a bit. That would take a lot of experimenting to figure out.
Hi Beth —
For chocolate, do you think someone could sub out some of the liquid and use chocolate syrup instead? Perhaps in lieu of the lemon juice? What do you think?
Hmmm, honestly I’m really not sure. Those two ingredients are quite different, so it may have other unintended effects.
Beth, this looks delicious. I can’t wait to try. I was wondering if you’ve ever tried making limoncello cake? I’ve been looking for a recipe but they seem so complicated. I would love to see your version if you by chance have one.
I’ll have to look that one up! I love anything lemon flavored. :)
Stumbled over your blog, and am loving it!!
For more pudding-y, lower the water temp in the bath. Old Granny’s tip. Hot water for custards, room temp for pudding cakes.
so i made this last night as well, it came out good, I was nervous at first, but it was so easy to make, and it didnt take too long. I topped it with some strawberries more of a garnish! It was sweet but not too sweet, and I loved the fact that it was for 2 people. I will make this again!!
I made this with vanilla soy milk and lime, looks the same except greener and tastes delicious
Love how the instructions is so detailed. Made it so easy to follow and make. Tasted wonderful. Not a piece was left after my party.
Anon – Yeah, it’s actually teaspoons, so about 2/3 of a tablespoon. The reason the measurement is strange is because I scaled down the original recipe from Food & Wine. Otherwise, I probably would have rounded it up to one tablespoon (and I’m sure you could without negative effects).
Is that supposed to be 2 TB of butter? Or is it really TSP? From the picture, maybe tsp, but just wanted to check since butter measurements are usually in TB. Thanks!
Egg whites will whip higher/better at room temp, not cold. Other than that, looks great! I’ll have to give it a shot.
I like your lemon pudding cakes recipe. This looks amazing in the pictures. I will try to make it soon.
Mmmm yum yum this looks sooooooooooo dilicious.
Thank you for posting this. I love a good dessert for two, and I am allergic to chocolate, so a lot of the options out there just won’t do. This looks perfect and will be in my belly by weeks’ end :D
Just tried this. Turned out perfectly and was AMAZINGLY delicious. I love that it is a recipe for only two servings as well.
Thank you for the share- I think I have found my new favorite dessert.
If you don’t have ramekins, use coffee mugs! I did, and they turned out great! They’re taller than ramekins, so make sure your casserole dish is deep enough to accommodate enough water.
Worked out fine, even though it was lumpy there for a while! Just got worried I didn’t do it right… But the end result was yummy – I even made it with lactose-free milk and gluten-free flour and the result was beautiful.
Made this for dessert tonight, yum! I picked some fresh raspberries from our patch and they added some nice sweetness to balance out the tartness of the lemon. I think next time I’ll use a tad less lemon juice bc it was a bit sour for my taste, but my husband thought it was perfect and I still thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks! :)
Gwen – Mine was lumpy too and it still turned out great! I hope you didn’t give up!
Anonymous – The muffin tin might work if you can find a dish that it will fit in so that you can still do the hot water bath around the muffin tin. Maybe if you have a large enough casserole dish!
Can’t get the butter to mix with the milk! Throughly annoying – any tips?
Hmm what if we don’t have any ramekins? Does this hold up enough to bake in a muffin tin and then remove afterwards?
Looks great btw!
I’ve got this in the oven right now. I hope it turns out, because mine was a lumpy mess! Haha! This was the first time in AGES i hand whipped egg whites and lemme tell ya- it’s for the birds!
Would you believe I just picked up a bag of 4 lemons on the sale rack at the store? $.25 piece and they look perfect. What serendipity
Looks sooooo delicious!
Neba – OOh, thanks for pointing that out! I DID use a pinch of salt in the egg whites, I just forgot to type that in! I’ll fix it now. Thanks again!
I noticed that your version of the recipe omits the salt in the egg whites. Is that because you used salted butter instead of unsalted?
Wow. These look delicious.
Nikerbocker – I would just top it with the strawberries after it bakes… I think it’s too delicate to hold up to chunky strawberries while it cooks. The original recipe suggests topping it with fresh berries :)
I don’t have a lemon, but I have a lime…so hmmm…..I think I might just try it this weekend.
i love this!
do you think it would still be ok if i say added some diced strawberries?
~Alexandra
ARGGGGG I just got back from the store….must go back. I ADORE lemon as well. Thanks for the recipe.
So simple! I’ll have to try it this weekend :)