Pudding Cakes

[Chris Amirault]

In her loving search to find me the lemony-est dessert on the planet, my wife grabbed this recipe from epicurious (originally Bon Appetit) for lemon pudding cake. It's delicious, a very light dessert with a meringue top and a cakey-custardy base.

But, since neither of us have ever had "pudding cake" before, we don't really know what the genre is. What do you think the prototype is? Good recipes? If they're like this, well, I'm in.

[kayb]

Earlier this week, I made what was designated a "cherry cake pudding," which was a basic yellow cake with tart canned cherries and chopped walnuts stirred in and baked in a 9 x 9 pan. The syrup from the cherries was cooked with sugar, flour and almond extract, and finished with butter, and poured over the cake. It was a delightful dessert that did sort of have the consistency of bread pudding....

But the lemony-est dessert on the planet? Easy. Lemon icebox pie. 1 1/2 cans condensed milk. 3/4 cup lemon juice. 2 eggs. Beat and pour into a graham cracker crumb pie crust. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool completely. Top with slightly sweetened whipped cream into which you've stirred a lemon or two's worth of zest. Garnish with a candied lemon peel.

Edited January 30, 2011 by kayb (log)

[Chris Amirault]

I'm confused: aren't bread pudding and pudding cakes different?

[janeer]

It is hard to tell from the photo what this was like, but the recipe reads a little like a "lemon cake pie," a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. A pudding cake generally means something that cooks up into a soft cake and a SAUCE. Did it? Chocolate pudding cake was very popular many years ago; I think you can even buy a prepared mix for it now.

[kayb]

They are, indeed. It's just that this one reminded me of bread pudding as far as its consistency.

[Chris Amirault]

It is hard to tell from the photo what this was like, but the recipe reads a little like a "lemon cake pie," a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. A pudding cake generally means something that cooks up into a soft cake and a SAUCE. Did it? Chocolate pudding cake was very popular many years ago; I think you can even buy a prepared mix for it now.

A soft meringue-y cake of sorts, and a thick pudding. Call it a sauce, if you like your sauces mayonnaise-style.

Edited January 30, 2011 by Chris Amirault
Add quotation -- CA (log)

[nakji]

My husband loves puds like these. I favour chocolate ones served with Nestle canned cream like my mum used to make for Sunday dinner, but hy husband likes caramel or lemon. Those he used to make out of boxed mixes, but I'm sure I have the chocolate one on a card in Canada somewhere.

[Chris Amirault]

Erin, what does "like these" mean? What the heck are they?

[David Ross]

My Mother made what she called "pudding cake." She mixed a box of Jello Chocolate Pudding mix into a boxed Devil's food cake mix and added the required eggs, oil and water. The pudding apparently made the cake more moist. I don't really remember much about her "pudding cakes" and if they actually tasted more moist than a regular cake.

[baroness]

Chris, HERE is a recipe for a chocolate/brownie 'pudding cake'.

David, your mother's cake could be called a 'pudding-enriched cake'. There are many variations on that type; they do not separate into different subtances ('sauce'/meringue/cake) as a 'pudding cake' does.

[Chris Amirault]

So the definition of a pudding cake is not a cake that's pudding-y, but a two-layer cake & pudding dish. Yes?

[nakji]

When I think "pudding cake" I don't think of a cake baked with pudding mix. I think of a simple cake baked in a square or rectangular pan that is cakey on top, and forms a rich, thick sauce on the bottom. Almost like a molten choc pudding, but together in a pan. And lemon flavour.

[natasha1270]

Other popular self-saucing cakes are Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake & Hot Fudge Cake.

[Kerry Beal]

It is hard to tell from the photo what this was like, but the recipe reads a little like a "lemon cake pie," a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. A pudding cake generally means something that cooks up into a soft cake and a SAUCE. Did it? Chocolate pudding cake was very popular many years ago; I think you can even buy a prepared mix for it now.

A soft meringue-y cake of sorts, and a thick pudding. Call it a sauce, if you like your sauces mayonnaise-style.

That's the same design as the 'Lemon Pudding Cake' that I made when I did my blog a couple of years back on eG. It was one of the most requested recipes and the nidus for Supreme eG Pastry and Baking Challenge.

I've probably got more than half a dozen recipes for different pudding cakes - the lemon one is the only one that uses the beaten egg whites, most just make a batter, sprinkle it with the sugar etc, pour over boiling water and bake. One of my favourites is the rhubarb one.

[Chocolot]

Pudding cake to me is a "Floating Island" type of dessert. A meringue type of cake floating on a sauce, be it lemon, caramel or chocolate. The chocolate one is also called a Hot fudge cake around here:-)

[maggiethecat]

How odd: I've made three of these in the last two weeks. The lemon pudding you describe, Denver Chocolate Pudding and the French-Canadian Pouding Chomeur. The link is that in all cases a liquid is poured over the cake batter before it's baked, then settles into a sauce on the bottom.

[janeer]

When I think "pudding cake" I don't think of a cake baked with pudding mix. I think of a simple cake baked in a square or rectangular pan that is cakey on top, and forms a rich, thick sauce on the bottom. Almost like a molten choc pudding, but together in a pan. And lemon flavour.

Exactly. The recipe is designed to form a cake and a thick sauce. A very popular homemaker cake.

[Katie Meadow]

When I think "pudding cake" I don't think of a cake baked with pudding mix. I think of a simple cake baked in a square or rectangular pan that is cakey on top, and forms a rich, thick sauce on the bottom. Almost like a molten choc pudding, but together in a pan. And lemon flavour.

Exactly. The recipe is designed to form a cake and a thick sauce. A very popular homemaker cake.

Agree. The lemon pudding cakes I have made have nothing to do with a two-step process or with pudding mix. It's a one-batter mix that performs a magic trick in the oven, separating into two somewhat distinct layers. I've never made a molten chocolate cake. I thought the molten chocolate was a pool in the middle and not exactly a layer.

It's possible that the description of "pudding cake" is somewhat corrupted; many people often refer to semi puddingy cakes like clafouti as a pudding cakes, but these are more a description of a baked good that's fairly eggy and is somewhere in between pudding and cake--not the same as the cakes that form a pudding layer on the bottom and a light cakey layer on the top. The one I've made is very tart and very lemony.

[djyee100]

My ancient copy of Joy of Cooking, dating from 1970s, calls this dessert "Sponge Custard." A short blurb about sponge custards from the cookbook, available on Googlebooks, pages 736-737. Scroll up.

http://books.google.com/books?id=C4_5MCUd6ucC&pg=PA737&lpg=PA737&dq=pineapple+sponge+custard&source=bl&ots=2cdWIBmyPR&sig=CyQ1_9X3YIsOb3v6riHFODzGu4k&hl=en&ei=Be5ETc25DZK8sAO4_YT6Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=pineapple%20sponge%20custard&f=false

I've also seen it named "lemon dainty." A old-time dessert, dating from at least the 1930s. See the note underneath the recipe title here:

http://acooksca.com/2009/12/30/lemon-dainty/

I've made this recipe for "Baked Lemon Pudding." It's a pudding cake, very good and citrusy. On Googlebooks, Page 346.

http://books.google.com/books?id=K97kvceIypUC&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&dq=baked+lemon+pudding+bauer&source=bl&ots=_K4BJesDmB&sig=LUa-LAp7NNPDY08JuZXzOVi_eC8&hl=en&ei=nehETfKsEI66sQOx2MG_Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Any food historians out there who can enlighten us as to the history of this dessert, which is pushing one hundred years old?

ETA:

Shaker Your Plate, by Sister Frances A. Carr, gives a Shaker recipe for Lemon Cake Pudding, noting: "Cake mixture will be at top and sauce at bottom of pudding." That recipe was based on another recipe in an older Shaker cookbook by Mary Whitcher. Sister Carr did not give the name of the cookbook. However, Mary Whitcher did write a Shaker cookbook, Mary Whitcher's Shaker house-keeper, which was published in Boston, 1882.

That dessert is olllllddd.....

Edited January 30, 2011 by djyee100 (log)

[runwestierun]

It is hard to tell from the photo what this was like, but the recipe reads a little like a "lemon cake pie," a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. A pudding cake generally means something that cooks up into a soft cake and a SAUCE. Did it? Chocolate pudding cake was very popular many years ago; I think you can even buy a prepared mix for it now.

A soft meringue-y cake of sorts, and a thick pudding. Call it a sauce, if you like your sauces mayonnaise-style.

That's the same design as the 'Lemon Pudding Cake' that I made when I did my blog a couple of years back on eG. It was one of the most requested recipes and the nidus for Supreme eG Pastry and Baking Challenge.

I've probably got more than half a dozen recipes for different pudding cakes - the lemon one is the only one that uses the beaten egg whites, most just make a batter, sprinkle it with the sugar etc, pour over boiling water and bake. One of my favourites is the rhubarb one.

Ooooo, Kerry, RHUBARB! Any chance you'd share the recipe? That sounds soo good!

Linda

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Not that it really helps much, but in Australia we also call these lemon pudding-cakes "Lemon Delicious Pudding", I think we get it from the Brits?

[judiu]

Chocolate pudding cake, a real blast from the past for me! I used to BEG my grandma to make it! There was a mix for it, maybe by Dromidary; the box seemed to be similar in size to a Jiffy mix... Yum!

[helenjp]

I've always thought that this type of pudding/cake is particularly popular in Australia and New Zealand. They are usually called Something Delicious or Something Self-Saucing Pudding.

Here a few examples - a high liquid ratio is best, otherwise they can get very stodgy:

Lemon delicious

butterscotch self-saucing pudding

chocolate hazelnut self-saucing pudding

Chocolate Ginger Self-Saucing Pudding

Not to mention chocolate & pear, chocolate peppermint, chocolate pumpkin...

Blueberry SS pudding

Banana SS pudding

[Kerry Beal]

It is hard to tell from the photo what this was like, but the recipe reads a little like a "lemon cake pie," a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. A pudding cake generally means something that cooks up into a soft cake and a SAUCE. Did it? Chocolate pudding cake was very popular many years ago; I think you can even buy a prepared mix for it now.

A soft meringue-y cake of sorts, and a thick pudding. Call it a sauce, if you like your sauces mayonnaise-style.

That's the same design as the 'Lemon Pudding Cake' that I made when I did my blog a couple of years back on eG. It was one of the most requested recipes and the nidus for Supreme eG Pastry and Baking Challenge.

I've probably got more than half a dozen recipes for different pudding cakes - the lemon one is the only one that uses the beaten egg whites, most just make a batter, sprinkle it with the sugar etc, pour over boiling water and bake. One of my favourites is the rhubarb one.

Ooooo, Kerry, RHUBARB! Any chance you'd share the recipe? That sounds soo good!

Linda

Here you go - I think this one has made it to the rhubarb thread once before.

Amish Rhubarb Pudding

1 large egg

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

4 cups chopped rhubarb (or mixture of rhubarb and strawberries)

2 ½ cups boiling water

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ cups white sugar

3 drops red food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9 X13 X2 inch glass pan.

2. Slightly beat egg. add 1 cup sugar and combine. Add flour, baking powder, nutmeg, vanilla, salt and milk. Pour batter into the pan. Mix fruit with brown and white sugar and food colouring. Sprinkle over the batter. Pour over the boiling water and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Top should be springy. Serve with custard or ice cream.

12 servings

[nakji]

Every year I ask my mum to freeze me some rhubarb for when I get home in July, since I miss it otherwise. Kerry, do you think this would work with frozen rhubarb, or would it be too watery?