This Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake is phenomenal! Light-as-air spongey cake melts into a lemony custard-like pudding. Bursting with lemon, this pudding cake is a lemon lovers dream come true. Serves 6 in about an hour.
I’m officially sick and tired of cold weather and snow. I miss green grass, cropped jeans and flip flops. I want windows open, to grill out doors and go fishing with Pat on the lake. And we’re inching toward spring at a snails pace.
When I’m feeling blah about the weather I like to bake. It’s theraputic, relaxing and of course there’s the whole eating the finished product and all.
Today I baked up a little sunshine in the form of a meyer lemon pudding cake. I haven’t made this in years, but it definitely cures my winter blues and lemon cravings.Who would guess that these simple ingredients can turn into such a decadent dessert?
To Make This Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake You Will Need:
- unbleached all-purpose flour – Gives structure to the cake layer.
- granulated sugar (white) – For sweetening and flavor.
- fine salt – Use either sea salt or pink himalayan.
- eggs (room temperature) – Set out 30 minutes before using or let sit in a bowl of lukewarm water.
- unsalted butter (melted and cooled) – Lends flavor and richness.
- meyer lemon zest & juice– Lends citrusy flavor.
- whole milk – Lends flavor and aids in yielding a tender cake.
What’s the difference between Meyer Lemons and Regular Lemons?
Meyer lemons have a similar shape as regular lemons but its rind is smooth and more golden than yellow. It’s flavor is said to be a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange. To me it’s all the flavor of a lemon minus the cloying sour taste.
Start by measuring and adding 1/2 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set this off to the side for a moment.
Then separate four egg yolks from the whites. Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and the egg whites in a medium sized bowl.
To the egg yolks, add in a tablespoon of melted (cooled) butter and 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest. Whisk until combined and creamy.
Squeeze a couple Meyer lemons and strain the juice, to catch any seeds, until you get 1/3 cup of the Meyer lemon juice.
Pour while whisking it into the egg/butter mixture.
So sunny!
Lastly, alternate with a third of the flour mixture and a third of the (1-1/2 cups) milk.
Whisking after each addition until the mixture is light yellow and all ingredients are combined.
Set this bowl off to the side for a moment.
Add the egg whites to a large bowl.
Whisk (preferably with a electric mixer with a whisk attachment) until the egg whites are thick and leave a stiff peak when tested.
Next add the whipped egg whites into the bowl with egg/butter mixture. Use a spatula to gently fold them into the batter. Stirring too hard will deflate those fluffy egg whites, so go slow and gentle.
You want the batter to be light and foamy.
Pour the lemony batter into an un-greased 3-1/2 quart baking dish. Set the baking dish into a larger pan and fill the larger pan with hot water until it comes up 1/3 of the way up on the outside of baking dish.
Carefully slide the Meyer lemon pudding cake onto the middle rack (or lower third for a smaller oven) in your preheated 350° for 40-45 minutes.
The top of it should be golden and your kitchen should be smelling all sorts of amazing right now! Using oven mitts, carefully remove it from the oven and then remove the Meyer lemon pudding cake from the water bath.
Allow the cake to cool slightly before eating. It doesn’t have to cool completely, but give it about 15 minutes or so.
Dust with powdered sugar, top with either blueberries, strawberries or raspberries. Or eat it as is! It’s lemon pudding cake so it will still be delicious.
On top is a spongey cake and is easily the softest, loftiest and moistest cake I’ve ever tasted. And it melts into a lemon custardy pudding and holy cow is that good. You must make this as soon as humanly possible. Whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary, engagement or job promotion…or heck even a job loss (it cures everything)! DO IT!
How to store and freeze pudding cake:
I fully believe pudding cake is best enjoyed the day of making. However here is how to store, freeze and reheat pudding cake.
- To store: Once cooled down, pudding cake can be stored in the refrigerator, for 1 week. The cake is best enjoyed warm, so definitely reheat it.
- To freeze: Place cake in a freezer safe container, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
- To reheat: Either reheat the cake in the microwave (20 to 30 second spurts until warm) or in a low preheated oven. The cake will be extra moist, as most of the pudding has been soaked up. Once it is warm, some may seep out.
CLICK HERE AND CHECK OUT MY OTHER PUDDING CAKE RECIPES!
Enjoy! And if you give this Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon meyer lemon zest
- 1/3 cup meyer lemon juice
- 1½ cups whole milk
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Combine sugar, flour and salt in a small bowl, whisk together and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, butter and zest. Then pour the lemon juice while whisking until blended. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the milk, stirring after each addition until combined.
- Whip egg whites until stiff and fold them in gently with the lemon mixture. Pour into either an 3-1/2 quart baking dish or 6 to 8 individual ramekins.
- Set the baking dish into larger roasting pan and fill the large pan with hot water so it comes up 1/3 of the way on the baking dish.
- Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool for about 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with fresh berries if desired.
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THANK YOU in advance for your support!
Omg GET in my belly!
I second Heather!
Wow! Beautiful!
p.s. blogger's hand sucks!
yum!!! I love this lemon pudding!! I'd eat like 5 ramekins of this 🙂 I definitely have bloggers hand and nerd hands (I'm a web developer so I'm on the mouse all day) haha I have to sit on my hands like every half hour to warm them up!
HA Julie! Nerd hand!! <3 You're too funny!
Want! I love lemon cake and I love lemon pudding so combining them seems like a genius idea.
looks perfect! light, fresh, spring-like…and delish!
Oh WOW! Looks so good! And I thought it was just my cold house by the window that caused the cold mouse hand thing.
This looks delicious! My mom would make a lemon pudding cake from a cake mix, but I'm so excited to try one from scratch!
You'll love it Crystal!!
Looks delicious and easy!! Where's the chocolate, though? 😉
Haha, I'm totally cracking up about the Bloggers Hand thing! Sometimes I chase the kids around the house with my cold hands. I'm such an evil mom, hah!
Your cakes look amazing! I love the pic of the one half gone. I love lemon desserts and this looks sooo good – like the best of both worlds, cake and pudding 😀
This looks amazing! I bet it is so fresh and delicious!! Love the bright color!
I love your blog (the photos, the idea of always cooking from scratch) and this cake looks amazing! I have only seen Meyer lemons in once store around here (Costco). They seem to be difficult to find. If I find some, I've bookmarked this recipe so I can use them.
I actually giggled out loud at the Blogger's Hand description, mostly because it's been known to happen to me once or twice (or umm.. a dozen times).
I think my BF will be overjoyed to discover that there's finally a cure… and such a delicious once at that! 🙂
Mmmm lemon is on of my favorites to bake with! Just made lemon scones the other day for breakfast… should have had this for dessert that night!
I had it for dessert, then had more for breakfast! It’s not overly sweet so I found it impossible to resist pretty much any time I walked in the kitchen!
My general rule with egg whites is 2 or less I do by hand. Any more than that go in the mixer. That looks so good!
So fluffy! I could eat the whole thign!
Hmmm…my hubby recently lost his job. Maybe I should try it!! LOL It certainly looks good enough to try!
Hoooly yum! 🙂 That looks absolutely to die for, and such an elegant presentation, too!
I like that you use ramekins to bake this cake. It looks delicious!
This looks too good to be true. Yum!!
Oh..those food bloggers never rest.. 🙂
Really great pudding cake! I'm saving the recipe 🙂 thanks
this cake and pudding looks so droolable…can i use normal lemons for this..
So refreshing. It's rare that we get Meyer lemons around here and I found some 2 weeks ago finally. I can not wait to try this one out.
This is a wonderfully, delicious dessert…not only does each bite have awesome flavor…but the smooth, creamy, AND crumbly cake textures dances in your mouth!!!! Kudos to you, Laurie
sounds new and healthy too and looking delicious..u have a nice space vth awesoem pics..keep it up…
Maha
I have the same Blogger's Hand condition! Thanks for giving it a name. This lemon pudding cake looks so, so good. It is definitely my to-do list especially since I just bought a bunch of meyer lemons.
Being a Floridian, you'd think it's easy for me to find meyer lemons, right?
Wrong!
I want to make this as soon as I get my hands on some. Soon, I hope 🙂
And I agree with you about the extensive use of mouse. So not good.
I'm inspired to try this for one of the baby showers I'll be hosting this summer. Thanks for the idea! Cheers – Cullen
http://www.AndTopherToo.blogspot.com
Perfect comfort food, this is gorgeous! And yes, my poor husband wishes "Blogger Hand" was not such a regular ailment too 🙂
The yellow coloring in your photos is absolutely gorgeous!
This looks like a really lovely dessert and we all LOVE lemony treats! Can't wait to try these. Thanks for the recipe!
Wow…. these look amazing. I am totally going to have to make these right away.
I've gone weak in the knees. BTW, will this work with regular lemons?
I should know better than to come look at your site when I am already hungry!
I love Meyer lemons and this recipe is amazing! So light and refreshing. I wish I had a ramekin of this delicious dessert now! A definite must try!
Bloggers hand = crappy. Meyer lemon pudding cake = happy, happy, happy! 😀
YUM! I just got my first ever bag of meyer lemons, I think I need to try this!
Is it just me, or do I see two different sizes of ramekins in the shot with the water in the pan? Are 4-6 oz ramekins OK to use?
LOVE your site!! I tried this recipe last night, followed it exactly, but had issues 🙁 The cake was much too spongey and not moist (like an angel food cake that was stale) and it wasn't lemony enough. What do you think I could change? Will increasing the zest and juice throw things off?
Did you zest and squeeze lemons right before using them? And weigh the flour and sugar? I would describe mine as the best angel food cake ever, and delicious pudding on the bottom. Did you use room temp eggs and have firm peeks? I just made this a 2nd time and am worried I didn’t quite get the peeks firm enough this time… we’ll see how it turns out!
Velvet J… Sorry to hear yours didn't turn out! It's so hard to say, so many factors play into baking. I always recommend checking your oven temp, freshness of ingredients and sometimes {I'm totally guilty of this} possibly a incorrect measure or wrong ingredient {i.e. bread flour instead of all purpose}. Thanks so much for stopping and commenting, I hope you try it again and it
I, too, had issues — the top had more of a meringue texture than a cake — did I whip the egg whites too much? First time whipping egg whites… Still, VERY yummy! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
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I made this last night with regular lemons (couldn’t find Meyer). I used 1:2 orange juice to lemon juice as a substitution. Mine did not have much of the pudding texture, but I think it was because I didn’t use enough water in the pan. Delicious nonetheless!
I can’t wait to see how these turn out, I just put them in the oven but used blood oranges.
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I “just” made these using regular oranges instead of lemons and they were AMAZING! thank you for sharing the recipe!
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@Simply Scratch – can you tell me if this recipe would work w/o citrus? Is it possible to make a similar type of pudding cake that is just vanilla? Do you have a recipe for something similar? Thank you!!
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Please provide a measure for the whole milk.
Hi Kathie! The milk measurement is provided, you can find it in the recipe printable at the bottom of the post. 🙂
I am an experienced baker. While I was waiting for my Myer Lemon Pudding cake to finish baking, I decided to read the comment section; Which was quite annoying to read so many comments on Bloggers Hand and only a few that actually made your desert. The ones that actually made it…it didn’t turn out or they didn’t like it. I made this and I won’t make again. It didn’t taste like cake on the top layer or pudding in the middle as you described and hopefully you will lay off on the bloggers hand and write a true recipe. Not worth the time or waste of money…disappointed!
Hi Tina! This recipe was first posted back in 2012. Back then, food bloggers showed their support by commenting on others post – something that really doesn’t happen much these days. I wrote about my frozen “bloggers hand” but since updating this recipe removed that anecdote – so I can see how that might not make sense when sifting through the comments. But I’d like to say that I’m sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out well for you. But I would like to note that this Meyer lemon pudding cake isn’t suppose to be like a traditional cake (more sponge like, similar to angel food cake in a way) and the pudding should be on the bottom – not the middle. The top spongey cake layer melts into pudding, to be exact. I’ve made this so many times with great results, which leads me to believe something must have gone wrong while it was being made. Unlike other pudding cakes, this one is a little more tedious with beating the egg whites and also the water bath. Or perhaps maybe it was over baked? Hard to say without being in the kitchen with you, but I’m certain even the most experience bakers can have off days. Oh and just a little fyi, since this post I’ve written hundreds of TRUE recipes and even published a cookbook! Thanks for stopping by and again, I really wish this recipe worked for you. It’s incredible!
Tina- Wow! So, you basically only commented so you could be snarky and rude? Get a life! Maybe these comments should be reviewed first so that ones like you posted don’t get published.
I made this last night and it came together so quickly! It baked while I cooked dinner and cooled while we ate. My husband and I loved it! This was the first time I’ve ever found Meyer lemons and I was so glad to have found such a delicious recipe to use them in. Thanks very much!
To use the last lemon from my small tree, I wanted to make this dessert. I had some concern about the size dish for baking. 3 1/2 quart seemed large, so I found similar recipes and used a 1 1/2 quart dish. It worked fine and the dessert is delicious with fresh strawberries.
Now I’m hooked on pudding cakes! Great flavor from the Meyer lemons. I topped with strawberries and blueberries. Delicious!
The only issue I had was finding a 3.5qt baking dish, so I used ramekins and put the rest in a 1.5-2qt dish. I’m shocked how wildly the recipes for Meyer lemon pudding cake vary. How did I get lucky enough to try the best & easiest one first? I’ve always feared recipes with eggs whites or water baths, but for some reason, this one seemed manageable, not intimidating. Total success! It was DELICIOUS! I literally ate it all myself (over 2 or 3 days) except 1 ramekin my bf ate. Was hesitant to refrigerate it, so I just put saran wrap on the dishes and left them on the counter. Surprisingly they barely lost any volume and definitely tasted amazing until the last bite. I used a hand mixer on low instead of hand whisking wet and dry ingredients together, and used whisk attachment for egg whites. A tip I read that might help – zest and squeeze lemons right before you’ll use them because otherwise they’ll lose flavor, even in the fridge.
Can’t wait to make this but what is the butter used for?
Hi Patty! It adds moisture to the recipe and flavor. Enjoy!
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