Friday, February 29, 2008

Lemon Pudding Cakes


You know, I was a strange child... Well, I guess not much has changed...! What I'm referring to is the fact that I've always loved lemons. Lemon flavored anything and I was all over it. So what's weird about that? I was so lemon obsessed that I would take slices of raw lemon and eat them. No salt, no sugar, no nothing. I'd even walk around sucking on lemon slices at our family friends' houses. Man, those aunties gave me some weird looks!! I still love lemons, but have managed to restrain myself from sucking on them (well, for the most part, anyway!).

So, when Coffee announced that this months JFI was for lemons and limes, I thought this is going to be a piece of cake! Turns out, it wasn't! I thought of lemon desserts and wanted to try something new. I've been indecisive on what to make for so long until I finally settled on this lemon pudding cake recipe from my Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking book.

I'd never had pudding cake before, but the description sounded really great. "A lemony cake rises to the top, leaving a delicious sauce on the bottom," is the preface to the recipe. Now, that was an offer too good to refuse!! Sure enough, the result was a delicious, spongy cake on top with a lemony pudding on the bottom (sort of like lemon curd). The taste was light, refreshing, and delectable! The bonus? This dessert is actually LOW FAT and relatively low-cal!! I decided to make these in individual ramekins and they're so cute!!

awww!!

Ingredients:

Eggs - 3, separated
Milk - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice (fresh squeezed!) - 1/4 cup
Lemon zest - 1 tsp (about the zest from 1 medium lemon)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1/8 tsp

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease four 6 oz ramekins and keep aside.

2. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks. Stir in milk, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

3. Add the sugar, flour, and salt. Now, beat this until it's smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, use clean beaters and beat the egg whites until you have stiff peaks. Don't over-beat the egg whites until they dry out!

5. Fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Don't worry about getting everything perfectly mixed. Let there be bits of white color running through the yellow. If you over-mix, you'll just deflate the air you've already beaten into the egg whites!

6. Now, pour the batter into the greased ramekins and place the ramekins in a 9x13 pan.

7. Pour boiling water in the 13x9 pan around the ramekins so that it comes up to a depth of 1 inch.

8. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, until light golden brown.

Tastes great warm, but good cold, too!

A bite for you!

25 comments:

Lavanya Raj said...

cute cake there..

you are defineatly a strange child!!

sra said...

"A lemony cake rises to the top, leaving a delicious sauce on the bottom," is the preface to the recipe. - This was the first sentence that struck me when I was skimming your post - I too read this somewhere and I think I even made it once - only, I don't remember anything so glorious happening! :D It wasn't the Pillsbury book, though. Anyway, I was never very good at baking.

Uma said...

Hi Kalai,

What a lovely cake! Wonderful entry.

I have tagged you for a meme. Please visit my blog for details.

Unknown said...

looks yummy..nice tea time cake...

Finla said...

I love the pudding.
I love lime too, used to eat them dipped in sugar when i was at home

Bharathy said...

Nice,cute recipe,Kalai!..I too made lemon pudding (no baking)for JFI :)

Kalai said...

Thanks, Lavanya! My poor parents! :)

Sra, sorry you had a bad experience! This came out great. Hope you try this one out! :)

Uma, thanks! Am thinking about the meme. :)

Sowmya, would be perfect for tea time or as a light dessert! :)

Happy cook, thanks! Eating limes dipped in sugar seems a little more normal than my antics!! *laugh*

Bharathy, thanks! Loved your lemon pudding, too! :)

Deeba PAB said...

Hey Kalai, Love the idea...a 2-in-1...pudding cum cake! Also love the idea of individual desserts; so much more complete. Nice entry! My next post is alos gonna be lemon for IWD!! Loads of lemon on blogs these days! Cheers

Namratha said...

I'm grabbing that bite now...yummy!

Dhivya said...

kalakal cake kalai....lavanya sonna mari"cooking princess"nu name a mathi vetchukonga:))))

Cham said...

Cute little indivual part. I love lemon in any dish :)

Jayashree said...

I like your idea of making these little cakes in ramekins....

Kalai said...

Deeba, welcome to my blog! Thanks for the sweet words! Am looking forward to your next post!! :)

Namratha, hurry before someone else takes it! *laugh* :)

Dhivya, nanri, nanri, nanri. Enna neenga? Rendu peyar sendhu pattam kodukkurengal?! Vaazhthukkalukku romba romba magizhchi! :)

Cham, great minds think alike! :)

Thanks, Jayashree! So cute to have individual portions! :)

Mansi said...

that looks perfect Kalai! I was going to make cookies for Coffee's event and then just lazed out:) maybe next week:D

thanks for the bite:)

Mansi said...

that looks perfect Kalai! I was going to make cookies for Coffee's event and then just lazed out:) maybe next week:D

thanks for the bite:)

Kalai said...

My pleasure, Mansi!! :)

KayKat said...

Hey, I don't blame you! Lemons slices totally rock :)

And I love the idea of making little cupcakes rather than a giant sponge cake.

Sig said...

That is a lovely cake Kalai... You used to eat the lemon slices as such, just thinking about that is giving me a toothache... :)

Laavanya said...

My daughter does that sucking on lemon things! Oh this looks like a lovely dessert - like a souffle? it's risen so well - bookmarking to try sometime... Thanks.

Seena said...

Lemon girl ?? :D Can't imagine eating it in raw form.. :)
Nice cake..!!

Anonymous said...

Hey great recipe.You know even I used to suck lemons bcos someone told me that I'll lose weight if I did that :) Stupid me !!! But I love anything sour....so having the lemons raw was no big deal.

Shah cooks said...

i bet u don't go around sucking on lemons now..:0 the hindi movies have made that synonmous with preg.:)
lemon pudding sounds just light and tart.

Kalai said...

Thanks, KayKat! :)

Sig, I freely admit my weirdness! :)

Laavanya, really?? Your daughter does it too, huh? Not sure what what says abt her future... Just kidding! Yes, the texture was like a souffle with a pudding just below it! :)

Kalai said...

Seena, thanks!

Homecooked, thanks! I love sour stuff, too!

Shaheen, yes, I sure made sure not to that in front of the elders anymore!! Tamil movies, too, have that association! Perfect description of the dessert, too! :)

Pravs said...

Thats really a cute little cake. i have not tried pudding cake..plus with low cal and fat, this is def something to try.