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Home » sweet things » Quick and easy desserts » Easy magic lemon pudding (5 ingredients, no eggs)

Easy magic lemon pudding (5 ingredients, no eggs)

19 Aug 17

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Last Updated on 21 Aug 19

An intensely flavoured lemon pudding that magically separates into two delicious layers – one cake, one sauce. Make it with only 5 main ingredients – no eggs needed!

Easy 'magic' lemon pudding (only 5 ingredients)

It’s not uncommon here in Australia to see bags of lemons sitting on driveways with a sign in front: ‘Free lemons’.

Nice!

Lemon mascarpone layer cake - it's quick and easy cake perfection!

Another fabulous lemon dessert!

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.

You might have seen something like this magic lemon pudding called self-saucing lemon pudding, or even lemon delicious pudding. 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.

Easy magic lemon pudding

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.

Easy magic lemon pudding (only 5 ingredients!)

And to be totally honest, this recipe tends to divide a room. We have made it several times and love it, but it does receive mixed reviews.

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.

Easy magic lemon pudding

But then eat it immediately. We found this tasted really nice re-heated the next day but some of the sauce had sunken into the cake.

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 used 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!

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!)

Print
3.98 from 73 votes

Easy lemon magic pudding (5 ingredients)

A quick and easy lemon pudding that separates impressively into 2 layers - a cake layer and a sauce layer. Magic!
Course Dessert
Cuisine English
Keyword egg free, lemon dessert, lemons, pudding
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4 people
Calories 341kcal
Author Helen

Ingredients (UK/Australia? Click button below for grams & ml)

for the cake batter

  • 1 cup self-raising flour
  • 0.5 cup sugar
  • 1 lemon zest only (use the juice in the sauce)
  • 0.5 cup milk warmed
  • 2 tablespoons butter (melted and mixed in with the warm milk)

for the sauce

  • 0.25 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water boiling
  • 0.5 cup lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)

to serve (optional)

  • icing / confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling
  • vanilla ice cream
US Customary - Metric

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).

Notes

A note on the appearance!

Know before you make it that this dessert is DELICIOUS but it's probably never going to win any beauty contests! It might be one to reserve for you and your family rather than serving it to guests you're wanting to impress 😉
A note on the consistency
Some readers have reported this dessert to be 'too runny'. There IS a lot of sauce, and when you first take it out of the oven it's bubbling and runny looking.
Leave it for about 15 minutes however and it should thicken up nicely, leaving the equally as delicious cake on the top.

A note on the flour

The self raising flour in this recipe is crucial for it to work, so make sure you don't use plain flour instead.
If you don't have any self raising flour, simply add 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and half a teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda for every cup of flour.

Nutrition

Calories: 341kcal | Carbohydrates: 66g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 68mg | Potassium: 140mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 40g | Vitamin A: 225IU | Vitamin C: 26.2mg | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 0.5mg
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Easy lemon magic pudding

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By Helen all recipes, cakes, popular posts, Quick and easy desserts, sweet things

Comments

  1. col says

    10 Nov 19 at 9:41 pm

    Hmm, not sure why it didn’t have eggs in the recipe. (First time I tried this recipe so I followed it exactly apart from a longer bake because i wanted the top to brown). To me it tasted gluey. The sauce was also quite watery so I’ll add less water next time.
    I think with a traditional sponge recipe it’ll be great.
    Thanks very much.

    Reply
    • Helen says

      11 Nov 19 at 7:21 am

      Hi Col, that’s OK – thanks for leaving your feedback anyway. I think there are similar versions to this online that include eggs, so maybe one of those will suit you better. This is one of my older recipes. It’s still very popular in general, but it’s definitely a love it or hate it kind of recipe! Hope you find something you like better!

      Reply
  2. Karin Bringezu says

    10 Sep 19 at 7:24 pm

    5 stars
    Can’t believe so many people had disasters – if there’s a disaster to be had then I’m your girl! But no disaster here! I cooked it about 45 mins because it refused to brown for reasons known only to itself but it tasted delicious 🙂 Plus it was so easy to make – even for disastrous me! I managed to whip it together while simultaneously cooking lemon chicken, lemon & garlic pak choy (sensing a theme here?!) plus pasta – usually attempting to do more than one thing at a time spells doom for all of them but not this time 🙂 Plenty of sauce, nice fluffy pudding – YAY!
    Will definitely be making this again & again (til I run out of lemons!) Thank you!

    Reply
    • Helen says

      11 Sep 19 at 9:01 am

      Hi Karin! Thank you so much for your beautiful review! Its’ so great to know that even someone who’s prone to disasters didn’t have a disaster with this! Also, the description of the rest of your meal made me drool. We have a glut of lemons at the moment too – I must follow your lead and make a lovely lemony meal like this! 😉

      Reply
  3. Caro says

    28 Aug 19 at 2:07 pm

    5 stars
    ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a lemon lovers dream! Tangy, warm, soft, not too sweet, I loved loved loved it, Ive this week become a sexagenarian- yes and people think aging is boring! I celebrated by making this to have with friends. I put blueberries in the batter, just cos lemon and blueberry work better than most marriages I know. SO YUM Thank you for this awesome recipe,

    Reply
    • Helen says

      30 Aug 19 at 2:04 pm

      Hi Caro! Sooo glad you enjoyed it! I LOVE your idea of adding blueberries and am going to try it next time. Thank you!

      Reply
  4. Rebecca says

    27 Aug 19 at 8:56 am

    Can’t wait to try this! Loads of lemons that will only end up turning into “green powder ” in fruit bowl, lol 😂 I am mostly dairy free however (can manage a little butter) will this work with coconut milk? Guessing canned variety will be too heavy and too intensely flavoured but refrigerated variety could work?? Or perhaps almond milk?

    Reply
    • Helen says

      27 Aug 19 at 9:00 am

      Hi Rebecca! I think this recipe will work just fine with non dairy milk! I often sub dairy for non dairy myself these days and never have problems. Do let me know how you get on! Good luck!

      Reply
  5. Linda says

    18 Aug 19 at 5:44 pm

    5 stars
    It’s amazingly good and so easy to make!! It browned nicely and sauce thickened up very nicely. The pudding itself was nice and surprisingly spongy. Will definitely make this again and it’s absolutely not ugly. Thank you for the recipe!!

    Reply
    • Helen says

      19 Aug 19 at 1:54 pm

      So good to hear this, Linda! THANK YOU for letting me know you enjoyed it. Let’s say it’s ‘rustic’ and not ugly… lol!

      Reply
  6. Amanda Mandzij says

    04 Aug 19 at 7:38 pm

    This was amazing! A deliciously tangy desert. Such a quick easy recipe too. My husband & I reeeally enjoyed it. Thanks Helen!!

    Reply
    • Helen says

      05 Aug 19 at 9:51 am

      So glad this was such a hit, Amanda! Thank you so much for leaving a review! You’re making me crave it for breakfast now… 😉

      Reply
  7. Gail says

    15 Jul 19 at 9:37 pm

    I was dubious before I put this dessert into the oven. It didn’t work for me. The bottom of it was a strange looking pale and thin liquid, while the top browned up nicely after I left it in for longer than the required time. I had doubled everything in the recipe as I had people staying, but that shouldn’t make things any different.

    I left it for the sauce to thicken, but wanted to serve it warm. The sauce still hadn’t thickened at that time, and the texture of the cake was strange. I’ll use eggs and a more traditional recipe next time. But was worth a try!

    Reply
    • Helen says

      16 Jul 19 at 4:54 pm

      Disappointed to hear this, Gail, but thanks for leaving your honest feedback. Unfortunately this recipe isn’t everyone’s cup of tea!

      Reply
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  1. 25 Delicious Eggless Cake Recipes - A Baking Journey says:
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  2. Easy apple cake (torta di mele) - Scrummy Lane says:
    25 Apr 19 at 4:56 pm

    […] easy magic lemon pudding can divide a room, but it’s an old favourite of mine. Make it with just 5 ingredients (and no […]

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