High Altitude Lemon Pudding Poke Cake
This cool and creamy dessert starts with a fluffy vanilla cake, lightly soaked with milk, then topped with homemade lemon pudding and swirls of whipped cream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 9x13 Baking Dish
- Stand Mixer with Paddle and Whisk Attachments
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake
- 1 recipe Vanilla Sheet Cake
- ½ cup whole milk (reserved for brushing over the baked cake)
Lemon Pudding
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2-3 large lemons)
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 drops lemon yellow gel food coloring, optional
Whipped Cream
- 4 oz cold block style cream cheese
- 6 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups cold heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Vanilla Cake
- Bake the Vanilla Cake as instructed, in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
- Let the cake cool for about 30 minutes, then use the end of a chopstick or wooden skewer and prick the cake all over. Brush or drizzle the reserved 1/2 cup of milk over the cake.
- While the cake is baking, go ahead and make the lemon pudding, so that it's ready to spread over the cake at this point.
Lemon Pudding
- Measure the sugar into a bowl, then zest the lemons over the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar.
- Cut the lemons and juice them into a glass measuring cup to get 1/2 cup of juice.
- In a medium sized saucepan, whisk together the lemon sugar with the corn starch. Whisk in the lemon juice until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks.
- Add the milk and the cream (and the yellow food coloring, if using), and whisk until combined.
- Place the saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Use a silicone spatula to stir the mixture constantly, while gently cooking the pudding. Cook until the pudding starts to thicken enough to coat the spatula, and is just beginning to bubble, but do not let the pudding start boiling hard. This should take about 15 minutes of cooking for the pudding to thicken. Remove from the heat.
- Set a mesh strainer over a bowl, and press the pudding through the strainer to remove the zest.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, with the plastic resting right against the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- At this point, the cake should have cooled for 30 minutes, and you've already poked the cake full of holes and brushed it with the reserved 1/2 cup of milk.
- Set aside 1/2 cup of the lemon pudding, then pour the rest of the warm pudding all over the cake, and spread it out into an even layer.
- Set the cake and the reserved 1/2 cup of pudding in the refrigerator to chill for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, until the cake is cool and the pudding is set.
Whipped Cream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand-held electric mixer), beat the cold cream cheese with the powdered sugar for about 1 minute on medium speed, until smooth.
- Scrape the bowl down, then add the vanilla and about 1/4 cup of the cream. Beat on medium speed for 30-60 seconds to smooth out any lumps of cream cheese.
- Add the remainder of the cream, and switch to the whisk attachment. (You can also continue to use the paddle attachment, but it will take a few minutes longer).
- Whip the cream on medium high speed for several minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down once or twice, until thick fluffy peaks form that hold their shape.
- Spread the whipped cream over the lemon pudding, using a spoon or offset icing spatula to make some pretty swirls. Then dollop the reserved 1/2 cup lemon pudding on top of the whipped cream, and gently swirl it in.
Notes
Store the leftover cake in the refrigerator, with the pan covered with plastic wrap, or individual pieces stored in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
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