Warm lemon pudding cakes…doesn’t that sound simply divine? Like an inviting pool of lemony goodness that you just want to dive right into. Jump on in, friends, the water’s warm!
Lemon is such a classic spring flavor and the possibilities are endless. I have so many wonderful lemon dessert recipe that readers love, like Keto Lemon Poppyseed Cake and Keto Lemon Cream Pie. And my sugar-free lemon curd is always a fave!
But while spring is on its way, it’s still a little chilly here in the Pacific Northwest. So my cravings lean toward warm and comforting.
Warm Lemon Pudding Cake to the rescue! Delightfully lemony but with that comfort food feeling you can only get with something warm out of the oven. A little sprinkling of powdered sweetener and maybe a few fresh berries are all the accompaniment it needs.
Why you will love this recipe
- Light but rich: The texture of these little lemon cakes is wonderful. They have an airy quality, but also a bit of a gooeyness to them.
- Bright citrus flavor: I love using lemon zest, in addition to juice, to bring out that lemony zing.
- Small batch: I have so many keto dessert recipes that serve 12 to 16. But sometimes just don’t need a lot of dessert hanging around.
- Low carb: Each serving has only 3.5g total carbs.
Reader’s Thoughts
“This was a home run. It came out EXACTLY like the one I used to make pre-keto. I couldn’t be happier and I got rave reviews – I made this for mother’s day and my mom said “THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY!”. THANK YOU for all of your amazing recipes. It’s so lovely to be able to carry on the traditions that I’ve created through my cooking.” — Linda
Ingredient Notes
- Sweetener: You want a granular sweetener to help whip air bubbles into the butter. See Tips for Success for more information.
- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter, just be sure it is super soft prior to mixing.
- Eggs: Separate the eggs into whites and yolks before starting.
- Almond flour: Just a little almond flour gives these cakes a bit more structure. I have not tried this recipe with coconut flour.
- Lemon: This recipe uses freshly grated lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Heavy cream: This is helps achieved a pudding-like texture.
- Cream of tartar: Cream of tartar is a useful baking ingredient that helps stabilize beaten egg whites. It’s inexpensive and it lasts quite a long time!
Step by Step Directions
- Combine the first 8 ingredients: Beat the sweetener and butter together until well combined. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then beat in the almond flour, lemon zest, and salt. Stir in the lemon juice and cream. Set this mixture aside.
- Beat the egg whites: In another large bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they hold very stiff peaks.
- Fold together: Gently fold the two mixtures together, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.
- Prepare the ramekins: Lightly grease 4 (four) 8-ounce ramekins. Set the ramekins in a larger baking dish. Divide the batter between the prepared ramekins and fill the baking dish with hot water until it reaches about halfway up the ramekins.
- Bake. Bake until the cakes are puffed up and light golden brown but still have a little bit of jiggle in the center. Remove the ramekins from the baking dish immediately and let cool 15 minutes, then dust with powdered sweetener and enjoy warm.
Tips for Success
Soften your butter more than usual. This lemon pudding cake recipe has a high sweetener to butter ratio, which makes it hard to beat together. Your butter needs to be softer than room temperature, but not melted.
Use a bain marie. This is simply the fancy baking term for a water bath. Cooking soft cakes and custards in a bain marie allows them to heat up more slowly and cook more gently.
Separate your eggs. The light and fluffy quality of these Lemon Pudding Cakes relies on beaten egg whites so be sure to beat your whites until they hold stiff peaks.
Gently fold the egg whites and lemon mixture. “Folding” refers to the process of carefully mixing something fluffy, like egg whites or whipped cream, into something heavier. Mixing vigorously will deflated your egg whites so use a rubber spatula to gently lift from the bottom and turn, until you see no streaks of egg white remaining.
Sweetener Options: I recommend an erythritol based sweetener, as allulose will cause the cakes to darken a lot more during baking. That said, allulose should work fine other than that, if you prefer to use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
These little individual keto desserts are not really pudding and they aren’t really cake either. They are more along the lines of a soufflé that’s taken out early and allowed to fall. What you end up with is a light, airy concoction that is still a soft and slightly liquid inside. The top is slightly crusty and browned but as you dip your spoon in, you meet soft pudding-like perfection.
This keto lemon pudding cake recipe has 3.5g of carbs and 0.7g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.8g net carbs per cake.
You can store any leftover cakes in the fridge, tightly covered, for up to 4 days. Re-heat them gently in the oven or the microwave.
Other recipes you may enjoy
Warm Lemon Pudding Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (36.67 g) granulated sweetener
- 2 tbsp butter, well-softened
- 2 large eggs, divided
- 3 tbsp (21.3 g) almond flour
- 2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup (78.86 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 cup (78.86 ml) heavy cream
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- Powdered sweetener, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and lightly grease 4 (four) 8-ounce ramekins. Set the ramekins in a larger baking dish.
- In a large bowl, beat the sweetener and butter together until well combined. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then beat in the almond flour, lemon zest, and salt.
- Stir in the lemon juice and cream. Set this mixture aside.
- In another large bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they hold very stiff peaks.
- Gently fold the two mixtures together, taking care not to deflate the egg whites. Divide between the prepared ramekins and fill the baking dish with hot water until it reaches about halfway up the ramekins.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the cakes are puffed up and light golden brown but still have a little bit of jiggle in the center.
- Remove the ramekins from the baking dish immediately and let cool 15 minutes, then dust with powdered sweetener and enjoy warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Do you think I could use all purpose flour inplace of almond flour? My GI has been broken ever since I was on Keto a year ago and has not been the same since.
I honestly don’t know. I would look up some conventional pudding cakes and then try to modify for sugar-free, following my recipe.
Can I use powdered sweetener instead of granulated? Would that help to blend together the butter and sweetener? I don’t have a microwave to soften the butter.
Put your butter in a warm oven for a few minutes to really soften it. But you can use powdered here too.
Sadly, no recipe here. And the Pete & Gerry’s egg site I can’t find the Nutritional Info ie: Total Carbs / net carbs ect.
The nutritional information is here, RIGHT under the link to the recipe. 🙂
I so want to make this dessert this weekend for guests. The link isn’t working. Neither did the option offered in one of the comments.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Marsha
My suggestion is to try a different browser or another device because I can click through just fine.
Carolyn, what did you use for sweetener or sweeteners on this one? And do you think leftovers would refrigerate? Just one of me but this is right up my alley…
I used half Swerve and half Bocha Sweet. yes, they refrigerate well… no longer ‘warm” but you can warm them gently again.
Carolyn,
Just curious as to why you used 2 different sweeteners – did you find the finished dessert better than with just swerve?
Thanks,
Linda
Swerve can tend to recrystallize a bit too much in a recipe like this.
I’m sure they’re scrumptious warm but I actually intentionally served them cold and they were amazing and refreshing – topped with keto chantilly cream and fresh raspberries.
I was wondering if you could bake it in an 8″ round silicone cake pan? And if so, would you still put it in a water bath?
I am not entirely sure but I think yes you can bake it that way. Definitely still do the water bath… I tried a recipe without one recently. It was custard and I did 3 of them in the water and one out. It was HILARIOUS the way the one outside of the water puffed up like mad and then fell upon cooling. A very different texture too.
Would you recommend almond milk as the HWC sub (or another suggestion?) for those who are looking to limit dairy intake?
I think you would be better off with something a little higher in fat so maybe canned coconut milk?
Carolyn,
You have MADE my year! I have been missing my conventional lemon pudding cake:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12363-lemon-pudding-cake?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page®ion=lemon%20pudding&rank=0
so you have fixed that for me. CANNOT wait to try this, and since I was looking for something special for mom for Mother’s Day (she loves your lemon curd so I was on the hunt for something with lemon), you have solved my problem!
Best,
Linda
Hooray! When I was researching how to do this recipe, I did see the NY Times one and got some ideas from it.
Carolyn,
This was a home run. It came out EXACTLY like the one I used to make pre-keto. I couldn’t be happier and I got rave reviews – I made this for mother’s day and my mom said “THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY!”. THANK YOU for all of your amazing recipes. It’s so lovely to be able to carry on the traditions that I’ve created through my cooking.
Warm regards,
Linda
Ohhh, this cake is right up my alley, Carolyn! I’m having trouble though with the link taking me to the recipe.
Hmmm, I had no issue and clicked right through. Try here: https://www.peteandgerrys.com/egg-recipes/lemon-pudding-cakes
This link worked. Thank you!
Thank you for this link!
I also couldn’t click on the link!