Lemon Delicious

Ingredients

80 grams butter, softened
3 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
110g caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
35g self-raising flour (this might seem absurd, but it’s correct, the sponge really is LIGHT!)
400 ml milk
90 ml lemon juice
2 teaspoons icing sugar

Summary

A super light sponge floats gently above a shallow pool of lemon sauce – here is an example of utterly apt naming, it’s Lemon, and it’s Delicious. We prefer eating this pudding warm (not piping hot), but it’s also tremendous cold from the fridge – a boxing day breakfast tradition for some!

Being an Australian classic, we adopted elements from recipes by Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, Woman’s Weekly and the exciting next-gen Julia Busuttil Nishimura for this version.

Adding cream isn’t mandatory, but it is recommended.

Lemon Delicious

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 1.5-litre ovenproof baking dish (better to go shallow and wide rather than deep and narrow). Note, you need to choose a dish that will fit inside another dish as this pudding bakes in a water bath (bain-marie).
Beat butter, rind and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until thick and creamy. Whisk in flour, milk and juice until well combined.
Beat egg whites in a clean bowl until firm peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into lemon mixture, in two batches, until combined – don’t overwork it here, the lightest sponges come from the fewest gentle movements.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish. Place the dish onto a deep baking tray and fill the tray with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish.

Bake pudding for 30-40 minutes or until the top of the pudding is light golden and bounces back when lightly pressed with your finger.
Serve warm, dusted with sifted icing sugar. Drizzle with a little pouring cream or ice cream, or BOTH.