Lemon Pudding Cake
Lemon pudding cake, a divine confection, embodies the essence of sunshine captured in a dessert. This delicate creation features two distinct layers: a luscious, tangy lemon pudding on the bottom and a feather-light, golden sponge cake on top.
Ingredients
• ▢1 cup white granulated sugar separated
• ▢1 tbsp lemon zest
• ▢4 large eggs whites separated
• ▢4 tbsp unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
• ▢⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ▢½ tsp kosher salt
• ▢¼ cup lemon juice
• ▢1 ¼ cups whole milk
• ▢powdered sugar (optional)
• ▢toasted sliced almonds (optional)
Instructions
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×13 baking dish and set it aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the sugar (reserving 1 tbsp) and lemon zest. Work the zest into the sugar until it becomes sandy and fragrant, 1 minute. Add the egg yolks to the sugar and whisk until they are pale yellow and thick, 2-3 minutes.
• Whisk in the melted butter, flour, salt, lemon juice, and milk until it is smooth.
• Separately, whip the egg whites. Whip the whites until they are foamy, and slowly pour in the reserved 1 tbsp of sugar until fluffy and hold a stiff peak. Add ⅓ of the whipped egg whites to the batter and whisk until combined. Then add the remaining ⅔ whipped egg whites and fold gently until no lumps remain.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven until the cake is golden and set but jiggles from the pudding underneath, 25-30 minutes.
• Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before sprinkling it with powdered sugar and toasted almonds, if desired.
Notes
• Mixing the sugar with the lemon zest before adding the other ingredients makes a big difference when it comes to adding even more flavor impact to the recipe. The action of working the lemon zest into the sugar allows the essential oils in the zest to be released, greatly increasing their potency.
• Do not be fearful if the batter is very wet in texture before it is baked. This is exactly what this pudding cake’s batter should look like before it goes into the oven.
• Make sure to only add about ⅓ of the whipped egg whites to the batter when beginning to mix everything together. If the entire egg white mixture is added at once, it defeats the purpose of the whipping, as the whites will be deflated by the heaviness of the batter. Instead, adding a portion to begin with lightens the batter. This first amount can be whisked into the batter more forcefully. The remaining 2/3 should be folded in lightly to retain some of the air that was created by the whipping
