News was good on those days I ventured from my after-school stupor into the kitchen and learned that fish was on the menu. This was not because I liked fish. My grandma raised a family during the era when you cooked fish as you did meat, until everything about it was dead. Nonetheless, fish for dinner was good news because it often meant lemon pudding cake for dessert. Thence emanated my thrill.

The following is my grandmother’s recipe, although I made it a bit richer by substituting heavy cream for the milk. Otherwise, when you make this you enjoy it in all of its simple, old-fashioned glory. You’ll find the Lemon Cake Pudding experience to be more ethereal than our pudding cakes (chocolate and pumpkin), i.e. its consumption is akin to eating lemon-scented clouds. Depending on who you are and what you like, you might enjoy serving it with a spoonful of freshly whipped cream. And grandma was right, it’s delicious and light as an end to any meal featuring fish. 

Lemon Cake Pudding

Three eggs, separated
1 cup sugar minus 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup heavy cream
Zest and juice of one lemon

Scant 1/8 teaspoon (or large pinch) table salt, optional

Heat oven to 325°. Lightly grease a 6 x 91/2” square pan. (You can also prepare this in individual dishes and bake for 35 to 40 minutes instead of 45. Or, you can make one large cake pudding and one small one that you don’t tell anyone about and you eat while sitting on the back porch and watching the birds.)

Use a hand held electric mixer to whisk the egg whites until lifting the beater from the bowl leaves stiff little peaks. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks until they are thick and turned to a light yellow color. Add sugar, flour, cream, lemon zest, juice, and (optional) salt. Mix well with hand beater. Then fold together with egg whites.

Lightly scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Add a half inch of water to an otherwise empty 13 x 9” pan. Place the prepared pan inside the 13 x 9” pan, being careful not to let any water inside of that prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Be very careful when you remove it from the oven that the water doesn’t splash and spill on you. We let ours cool for a bit still in the water bath to prevent burns.

We find the cake pudding tastes most delicious while it is still slightly warm.