An intensely flavoured self saucing lemon pudding that magically separates into two delicious layers – one cake, one sauce. Make it with only 5 main ingredients – no eggs needed!
Amazing lemons!
It’s not uncommon here in Australia to see bags of lemons sitting on driveways with a sign in front: ‘Free lemons’. Which I love!
But if you’re going to take those lemons, you really need to think of something to make with them. And relatively fast before they turn into green powder in your fruit bowl.
I love how versatile lemons are. I have some favourite savoury recipes that include lemons, like this incredible and easy Greek lemon chicken and potatoes.
I also have other go-to lemon dessert recipes, like this lemon mascarpone cake, and these lemon bakewell bars.
How to make a self-saucing lemon pudding
You might have seen something like this magic lemon pudding called self-saucing lemon pudding, or even lemon delicious pudding (here in Australia!).
You mix together:
- flour
- sugar
- lemon zest
- milk
- and butter
then you pour over lemon juice, sugar and water and bake. While in the oven, the dish ‘magically’ separates into a cake layer and a lemon sauce layer.
Add ice cream and eat. Hopefully you’ve fooled guests into thinking you’ve slaved away over this magic lemon pudding, when really it only took you 5 minutes to throw together. Massive win.
In the past, I haven’t had much success making anything that has ‘magic’ in its name. A chocolate self-saucing pudding ended up with hardly any sauce and a magic apple cake tasted divine but didn’t have the 3 clearly defined magic layers it was supposed to.
Love this recipe? Or hate it?
This recipe tends to divide a room. We have made it many times and love it, but it does receive mixed reviews.
Pro tip: The key to success is to leave the lemon pudding to cool slightly for ten to fifteen minutes after it comes out of the oven. The sauce might look a bit runny at first but if you let it stand it thickens up nicely.
This is what people say about this recipe:
Caro said: “ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a lemon lovers dream! Tangy, warm, soft, not too sweet, I loved loved loved it.”
Juanita said: “Loved this! So easy and so yummy. We made it two days in a row!”
But CA Cook said: “I tried to make this and it was a disaster. The liquid stood on top of the cake and after 45 minutes there were still several inches of liquid. It didn’t taste lemony at all. The texture of the cake was really weird. I looked up other recipes for this kind of pudding and they call for eggs. Maybe this needs eggs.“
Nope. The recipe doesn’t ‘need’ eggs. I have tried to figure out why some people don’t like this recipe but can’t.
All I can suggest is to:
- make sure the oven is properly heated before putting the pudding in.
- Make sure you use self raising flour and not plain flour.
- Leave the pudding for 10 to 15 minutes before eating to let the sauce thicken and cool a little.
- Then eat it immediately. We find it tastes lovely the next day, but some of the sauce soaks into the pudding.
The only other advice I have is to try it for yourself… and make your own decision about whether you’re a quick and easy lemon pudding without eggs lover or hater!
I hope you enjoy this. It perhaps won’t ever win any beauty contests, but we think it’s a delicious ‘got-to-have-dessert-right-now’ recipe!
This is the kind of baking dish I use for this pudding:
Update: The original magic lemon pudding recipe I adapted had very mixed reviews, and so does this one! If you give this a go and like it, would you consider popping back and leaving a review? Thank you!
Like this recipe? You’ll enjoy my chocolate self saucing pudding too!
I worked on the ‘little sister’ of my lemon pudding aka a 6-ingredient chocolate self saucing pudding, also with no eggs, for a long time before publishing it.
I wanted to get it ‘just right’. I hope you agree it was worth the wait! There are plenty of chocolate self saucing puddings out there already, but what sets this one apart is that:
- it’s surprisingly low in sugar
- it’s egg free, just like the lemon pudding, in case you can’t get any or you can’t eat eggs
- it’s got plenty of sauce (mmmm… )
More really easy desserts
- 5-minute chocolate banana ice cream (healthy nice cream!)
- 6-ingredient gooey Swedish chocolate cake (you’ve got to try this!)
- Addictive peanut butter Cheerio bars
- No bowl chocolate pecan bars (magic bars!)
- 5-minute chocolate pots (only 4 ingredients!)
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Easy lemon magic pudding (5 ingredients)
Equipment (affiliate links)
Ingredients (UK/Australia? Click below for grams/ml)
for the cake batter
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 lemon zest only (use the juice in the sauce)
- ½ cup milk warmed
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted and mixed in with the warm milk)
for the sauce
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 cup water boiling
- ½ cup lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)
to serve (optional)
- icing / confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling
- vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 355F / 180C and grease a medium sized high-sided baking dish with butter.
- Mix together the flour, sugar and lemon zest in a medium bowl.
- Pour the milk / butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
- Empty the batter into the baking dish.
- Mix the sauce ingredients together, then carefully pour over the batter in the baking dish. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the sauce starting to bubble around the sides.
- Take out of the oven, then leave for 10 to 15 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken slightly before serving.
- Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve immediately with vanilla ice cream (if you like).
Brian says
As others have commented, the syrup is runny, (perhaps I should have left it a little more than 15 minutes) but it is a fantastic, quick pudding for vegans and lovers of lemon. Better still, vegan lemon lovers. I will eat the other half cold tomorrow by which time the syrup will have definitely ‘set’. When I was a ‘veggie’ I used to make an upside down lemon pudding that required eggs, this is easily as good, probably better.
Helen says
Hi Brian! I really appreciate the feedback – thank you! I think the sauce turned out exactly as it’s supposed to for you. Yes, just leave it a few minutes longer for a slightly thicker sauce. I like that this dessert is easily made vegan. so glad you enjoyed it, and very encouraging that you liked it as much as your old upside down cake!
Andrew says
Tried this with the family, increasing it for 6 people and also trying Jason’s suggestions to reduce sweetness (double lemon juice, half sugar). Worked OK (especially the cake part), was very tasty and was very easy but the two adjustments meant a large amount of lemons (I gave up after seven…are UK lemons smaller than those in Australia?) and the sauce, even after resting for 15-20 mins, was very liquid (I did remember to reduce water)…could this be because the sugar quantity was reduced and therefore will create less of a syrup? Cooking time was just over an hour.
I will try again but will keep the ratio of sugar to lemon/water.
Helen says
Hi Andrew! Thanks for the feedback on trying the suggestion to reduce sugar. Many of my newer recipes contain minimal amounts of sugar but I’ve never played around with the amounts in this recipe because I think a self saucing pudding really does depend on fairly precise measurements to get the ‘magic’ sauce separating from the cake effect. So yes, definitely do try the recipe again with the higher amount of sugar! Having said that, I did recently publish a chocolate version of the recipe with far less sugar in it, so maybe you’d like to try that some time too? The recipe is here in case you’re interested: https://scrummylane.com/chocolate-self-saucing-pudding-low-sugar-no-eggs/
P.S. Yes I think Australian lemons probably are generally larger than the ones found in UK supermarkets! I rarely buy lemons here because either relatives give them to me from their trees or neighbours leave boxes of them outside their houses for you to help yourself to for free!
Janiika says
We made this once, and then told everyone we knew about it, – it was that good! Making it again tonight!
Helen says
Aw thank you, Janiika! Love this comment! It is pretty wonderful, isn’t it? Have you tried the chocolate version?
Jason says
Quick and easy recipe. A bit too sweet for me. Suggest half the sugar in the sauce and double the lemon juice. Reduce the water amount to compensate. Overall very tasty.
Helen says
Hi Jason! Yes, I agree that this is pretty sweet! You’ll find that many of my newer dessert recipes contain far less sugar (you have to try the 30-minute healthy chocolate cake!). Have you tried making it the way you describe, with less sugar?
Eva says
Wow! I admit I was pretty sceptical as I put this sloppy liquid into the oven, but it transformed completely! Such a moist sponge and the tangy sauce is perfect with it. Would be great served with some cream….hit the spot perfectly, thank you! X
Helen says
Hello Eva! So happy you like it! It is hard to believe this actually works, isn’t it? I have a chocolate version on the site which you may like too 🙂
emma says
It was exactly the same for me, but it turned out amazing! I seperated my batter in three small bowls and to my suprise it worked out perfectly as well! Delicious!
Helen says
Hi Emma! Thank you so much for the feedback. It’s very helpful to hear that the mini versions worked. I have to try that too!