Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake
Updated January 18, 2021
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Pin ItMy good friend, Becky, recently joined me for an afternoon in the kitchen. Becky brought a bag of beautiful Meyer lemons for us to bake with. I was thrilled she wanted to share her gorgeous lemons-I love lemon everything, especially desserts. We tossed around a few ideas, but finally decided to make a Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake. It was the perfect dessert to make with the Meyer lemons.
Meyer lemons are dark yellow, smooth-skinned, and sweeter than regular lemons. They have a pleasant fragrant floral aroma that will fill your kitchen as you make this divine cake. Meyer lemons are in season right now, so make sure you add them to your grocery list. You don’t want to miss out on these lovely lemons.
If you haven’t had a lemon pudding cake before, you are in for a real treat. The cake is light, refreshing, and not overly sweet. The top part of the cake is soft and fluffy, similar to a soufflé. When you break into the cake with a spoon, you will discover a creamy and smooth lemon layer at the bottom. The two textures combine to create a heavenly lemon dessert. We dusted the cakes with powdered sugar before serving. You can also add berries or whipped cream, but I liked the cake plain and simple.
Thanks again to Becky for sharing her Meyer lemons so we could create this fabulous Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake. We had a fun day baking, catching up, and enjoying this luscious lemon dessert. And don’t worry, I shared with Josh…he came home and couldn’t stop begging for a bite:)
If you like this lemon cake, you might also like:
Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 3 large eggs at room temperature, separated
- 1/3 cup Meyer lemon juice or ¼ cup regular lemon juice
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 1-quart soufflé dish. (You can use smaller dishes or ramekins, if you want individual servings).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and lemon zest and beat until combined. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add half the lemon juice, half the flour and half the sour cream and beat until smooth; repeat with remaining lemon juice, flour and sour cream.
- Beat the egg whites at medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to medium-high, add the salt, and beat to stiff peaks. Add one-quarter of the whites to the lemon mixture and gently fold in. Continue to fold in whites one-quarter at a time. Transfer it to the prepared soufflé dish or dishes. Place the dish or dishes in a larger pan and carefully pour boiling water around it to a depth of 1 inch.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until slightly golden brown and the center is just set. The cake should spring back when gently touched. Do not open the oven door while the cake is baking. Remove from the water bath immediately and cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes.
- Lightly dust with powdered sugar. Serve warm.
- Notes-if you can’t find Meyer lemons you can use regular lemons. Just use ¼ cup of lemon juice. And if you use smaller dishes or ramekins decrease baking time to 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Just watch the cakes to be safe.
Have you tried this recipe?
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Can the Meyer lemon pudding cake recipe be doubled?
Sure, just use a larger pan and the baking time might be a little different.
Have made this twice in the past two years, and it has been delicious both times, the only thing is I could not get my egg whites to whip up so I added a couple teaspoons of meringue powder to them and it worked out fine. Going to double the recipe this weekend and put it in a 9×13 pan to take to an Easter dinner.
Made it twice years ago. Loved it so much. So velvety …served it with homemade strawberry ice cream. Lost your recipe, but thankfully found it again. I could have settled for a similar recipe but I wanted to make sure that I used yours.
If I double this recipe…how long do I bake it….Thanks
Beautiful and absolutely delicious was a complete success!
Love Meyer lemons and this was the perfect recipe!!
Just made this and waiting for it to cool! It looks incredible. But I’m wondering, what’s the best way to keep it and how long will it last? (As much as I’d love to devour it all tonight with my husband, I’m sure we should save some for later!)
Keep it?! It’ll be gone in the first sitting!
(Otherwise, I covered a tiny portion in plastic wrap and it was just as good cold the next day.)
How many people does this recipe serve?
This is absolutely amazing!! I was able to make 6 individual servings in ramekins. It took 45 minutes for them to bake. I finished it off with a berry compote. This is a new favorite! Thank you!
This is absolutely amazing!! I was able to make 6 individual servings in ramekins. It took 45 minutes for them to bake. I finished it off with a berry compote. This is a new favorite! Thank you!
Thank you. I was wondering if I could do that
What size ramekin? Ounces??
Wish I could post a picture! It came out great and was the desert for our St Patrick’s Day dinner. I got rave reviews from everyone there. It was amazingly easy to make and so delicious to eat!
This turned out amazing! We served it with blueberry puree.
Mine came out more as a soufflé with no sauce beneath. What did I do wrong. It was delicious but still a disappointment.
can you make it with plain yogurt in place of sour cream?
Yes, that is fine.
Looks lovely, have made it before & we can’t wait for it to cool a bit.
Everything I make from Maria comes out great,no need to go elsewhere!
Can you freeze this?
Amazing! I used one more egg yolk ( due to a double yolk egg) and substituted sour cream for plan Greek yogurt. This was gone quickly! Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Can you make this without a stand mixer? With a hand mixer specifically?
Sure! Enjoy!
Marlo, I made mine entirely by hand – no machines – and it came out just fine.
Can you make this with a whole meyer lemon crushed in a food processor with seeds removed instead of just the zest and juice? I made a meyer lemon cake this way and it was good!
The pith (white part of the lemon) will add some bitterness, which is why it is not included in most recipes.
Can this be made in an 8×8 inch pan? If so, how long to bake?
I thought this dessert had a strange texture & too salty. I do feel that I erred on the egg whites though. Make sure mixer is clean when you do the egg whites. Mine never got really stiff like they were supposed to. I find lemon cake recipes temperamental, if you will. If you want a lemony dessert but more fail safe, I would recommend rather lemon bars, creams & pies.
Delicious! My family and I really enjoyed this. We will be making it again soon. They loved it straight from the oven and after it had spent the night in the refrigerator. Would be a lovely dessert when hosting dinner.
Making this right now! Great way to use the Meyer lemons I got off the clearance fruit/veggie rack yesterday! Looking forward to it as a Superbowl treat 🙂
The bottom part of the pudding cake came out uncooked after baking for 60 minutes. The water bath was a bad idea. The top part (without the water bath part) was cooked and tasted fine like a regular cake. But after you took out the top layer, the rest of the cake looks like a soft batter and uncooked. I cooked for another 40 minutes, but the texture still soft. I tried many soufflé and pudding cake recipes before. This one is neither soufflé nor pudding cake texture. Very disappointed!!!
Lovely recipe, thank you so much! I’ve already shared it with several lemon-loving friends, including an Arizonian with her own lemon tree, and a Greek whose father and uncle owned a restaurant decades ago (he puts fresh lemon on everything). I’d suggest adding a sentence describing the expected consistency of the batter before folding in the egg whites.
I made this tonight. What a lovely and light dessert! It was a bit tart, so you may need to add more sugar, depending on the sweetness/tartness of the Meyer lemons.
I’ve made this recipe several times. Each time the pudding part is runny, the top is brownish and springs back so I thought it was cooked. Should I try again and lower the temp to 325 or 300? How do you test for doneness if you can’t open the oven?
Just put the souffle cake in the oven! Looks and smells divine already!!!!
I have made this about 6 times now and i seem to love it more every time. I look forward to the Meyer lemon season very much now.
This was a big hit with my guests. I will make this again
I tested mine and it sprung back and was golden on top, let it cool, mush inside minus a very thin layer of a more cake like texture. It was mostly an uncooked mess and I did 60 min. I put it back in after taking a scoop out sooo not sure how it’ll come out lol. What could I have done wrong?? It’s not supposed to be that mushy right?
Just came out of the oven. Can you smell it? Will get back…..( oh, there’s a twist)
Ok,
So I used full fat yogurt, 1/2 cane sugar, 1/2 coconut sugar and used 3 tablespoons of olive oil, (instead of butter). Used 1 1/2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon zest. THE BEST! YUM! Thank goodness for you and your sharing! YAY!
The smell and flavor on this is delicious. I had a hard time with the texture.
This was so simple to make and so so yummy.
Absolutely wonderful. My daughter’s favorite breakfast!
I have been making Lemon Pudding Cake my whole life. It was one of my family’s favorites when I was growing up, and now my sisters and I all make it as well as our daughters. This year a third generation was added when my niece’s 2 young children tried their hand. Family Legacy. My husband and daughter call it “The Lemon Thing”
Our recipe uses milk instead of sour cream but I may try this sour cream version.
I have made it in a flat casserole dish and in a souffle dish. With the flat dish, you get equal layers of cake and custard. With the deep dish it actually becomes a souffle!
Can’t wait to make it. But can I make it the morning and serve it at dinner time?
Thank you!
Yes, that should be fine.
Fantastic recipe, I made this twice in one week.
Scaled up by 1 & 2/3rds for a party (used a recipe scaler), ended up cooking the larger version for 1h40 to get the centre set (temp probe came out at 190/200f), its very forgiving. Served with plain cream, was a hit.
Glad the recipe was a hit!
Omg this recipe is brilliant. I can’t believe I could make a cake with a creamy lemon filling with 1/3 cup of flour. Best lemon anything I’ve ever made. I had some whipping crème I needed to whip up so we had a bit of that with the cake. Totally divine!
One of my favorites. Creamy and rich and redolent of fragrant Meyer lemons. I bake mine in an oval baking dish. I serve it with just a dusting of powdered sugar. Everyone loves it. Thanks so much for the recipe.