By Christian Reynoso
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 40 minutes
- Rating
- 4(287)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Studded with jammy strawberries, this pudding cake requires just one easy batter but yields three pretty, textured layers: crisp golden topping, tender cake and a saucy, pudding-like layer. It’s like a (delicious) science-class experiment: As it bakes, cake batter rises above a surface of hot, syrupy liquid to brown and create a crust, while that liquid forms a custardy sauce below. Every oven is a little different, so baking time is an approximation, making it important to consider doneness by looks, too — overbaking this will result in a firmer, bread pudding-like texture. This cake is best enjoyed within a couple hours of baking. Though this dessert begs to be eaten directly out of the skillet, served warm, family-style, with a handful of spoons, it’s also delicious in a bowl with whipped cream.
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 4tablespoons/57 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the skillet
- 1lemon
- 12ounces fresh strawberries (preferably small to medium), hulled and cut into halves or quarters
- ¾cup/151 grams granulated sugar
- Fine sea salt
- ¾cup/96 grams all-purpose flour
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters whole milk
- 1¼cups/300 milliliters boiling water
- Confectioners’ sugar or sweetened whipped cream, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
386 calories; 13 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 67 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 44 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 653 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter a 9- to 10-inch skillet, about 2 inches deep (preferably cast iron).
Step
2
From the lemon, finely grate 2 teaspoons zest into the melted butter and set aside. Squeeze 1 tablespoon lemon juice into a medium bowl and add strawberries, ¼ cup granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt; toss until the sugar has started to become syrupy, coating the berries. (Using a hand to toss here helps the sugar melt faster.) Set aside.
Step
3
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, remaining ½ cup granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix the milk into the melted butter. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients while stirring with a spatula or spoon until just combined. The batter will be thick but spreadable.
Step
4
Transfer batter to the buttered skillet and spread in an even layer. Arrange the strawberries in the batter, cut sides down, pressing them slightly. Pour their syrup over the top, then carefully pour the boiling water over the top.
Step
5
Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the cake is golden brown and a warm, pudding-like sauce has formed below the strawberries, 25 to 27 minutes.
Step
6
Dust with confectioners’ sugar or serve with sweetened whipped cream, if desired. Serve warm. As the pudding cake sits, the pudding will eventually soak into the cake, so is best enjoyed sooner rather than later. (To reheat, heat at 300 degrees, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.)
Tip
- With a convection fan-equipped oven, this cake can also achieve a crisp and browned topping in a round or square glass baking dish at 400 degrees. Baking time will most likely be a little less than in Step 4, so look for the visual cues for doneness.
Ratings
4
out of 5
287
user ratings
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
mb
as strawberry season is over many places, if using frozen should they be thawed/drained or straight from freezer?
Genine
I have a raised bed full of raspberries. Can strawberries be substituted with raspberries?
Jo
So delicious and easy! I loved watching the cake rise above the bubbling liquid like some sort of pre-historic scene. I used a nine inch steel pan and it worked
Caryn
Will this work with a non-dairy milk?
christian
Hey there! Also a great question. This pudding cake loves loves loves high heat + air circulation. It makes the cake rise and brown quicker and even helps some of the strawberries stay firmly in the cake for some extra visual appeal.So, your counter-top oven convection fan should be good. If a skillet doesn't fit, you can use a glass baking dish. See the "tip" about this below step 5 :)
Alissa
Followed the recipe exactly and it came out too salty. I love sweet and salty, but this was just too much, family concurred. I would reduce the salt probably by half if I make it again.
Wendy A
No - I've used cast iron skillets for most everything - it's also the pan of choice for great pineapple upside-down cakes (also acidic).
Munson
Hi! Can this be made with sour cherries instead of strawberries?
christian
Hi mb! Great question. I recommend doing just (fully thawing and draining excess liquid) if you're going to try this with frozen fruit. I haven't tested it, but I would imagine frozen fruit would slow down the cooking process here and make this extra liquidy. :)
Christian
Hey Munson, that sounds so delicious. I haven't tested this, so I cannot say for sure. But, with any fruit substitution here I'd say you want to keep the sugar and water content in mind. E.g you may want to use more of the fruit if they're less watery than strawberries and if they are less sugary than strawberries you want toss with a little more sugar in step 1. Good luck! It sounds like a fun substitution.
Vicky
Just made it and it is a good, easy, recipe. I did it just as is and baked it in a buttered, glass Pyrex at 400 F in a hot air oven for 20 minutes. The baking was perfect. Next time, I will make it with a bit less salt, it wasn’t salty, but almost. I will also reduced the boiled water from 300 ml to 250 ml as it was a too liquid.
christian
Wow I wish I was your neighbor! This sounds delicious and I'm personally going to try this out in the next week! I think raspberries have a little water in them than strawberries, so my only recommendation is that you may want to add a few extra ounces to get the same amount of pudding layer as you would with strawberries :)
polly
Regarding the substitution of rhubarb, I don’t see why you couldn’t. But I would slice it and macerate in 1/3 C. dark brown sugar for 15 minutes. Probably leave the resulting juice behind when adding to the batter.
Janice
This was delicious. Although I am genetically predisposed to change all recipes, I followed this one exactly. Oh who am I kidding. I didn’t have a lemon so I used lime and I had some spelt flour lying around so I subbed that for about 1/3 of the flour. Small changes. I’m sure the recipe as written would be equally as yummy.
JtMichaels
Such good questions in the notes! Here's mine: Can the cake be baked in a combo toaster/convection oven - air fryer/broiler? (My very old oven doesn't heat past 325.)
Elisabeth
Definitely too much water. It didn’t look right when I added it. Will reduce by 1/2 next time. “Pudding” didn’t set.
Josee
Very easy strawberry dessert when running out of time. It was delicious. I baked in a convection oven but felt that the 20 minutes mentioned for that method was not enough as the centre of the cake was still uncooked. I continued baking for an extra 10 minutes, it came out golden and perfect.
alex
this ruled.
Eraney
This was awful. The dough had too much salt and it wasn’t a crisp or a shortbread. It was not much of anything
Judy
My mother made this recipe she called "Cherry Pudding" over 60 years ago. I've continued the tradition using frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and fresh peaches. At a summer house, I've used pancake mix and Bisquick in a pinch to make the cake batter, just adjust the amount of milk to get the right thick texture. It's a very forgiving recipe, always wonderful.
Tiipiloo
The fruity version of the upside down chocolate cake! Easy and fun for kids to make. If someone served this to me in a small cast-iron skillet with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream at a fancy restaurant, I'd think it was the best thing I ever had.
Sue
I prepared this today exactly as written. It was so, so good. We tried it with a little high quality vanilla ice cream and that was amazing, but it was wonderful straight out of the pan with nothing added, too. I did not find it too salty at all. We felt the lemon and salt complemented and balanced the sweetness perfectly.
Kevin
This recipe confirms that I don't care for cooked strawberries. I'd much rather make my own shortcakes and serve them with fresh strawberries. Nonetheless if you're determined to make this then substitute table salt for sea salt by cutting the quantities in half (⅛ t in the berries and ¼ t in the cake). Don't fuss with how the berries look on top of the batter because they sink below the cake. 1 cup of boiling water is plenty.
Jo Ann
This was good, easy to bake using my cast iron pan, and it turned out as pictured. For my own taste, I would reduce the amount of sugar in future baking.For the commenter who said it came out too salty, are you sure you used baking powder, as opposed to baking soda? I made that mistake once in a recipe, and the result was inedible! I triple check that now in recipes as a matter of habit :)
Mary Beth
This is very similar to "Essie's cobbler," a family favorite 1950s recipe that my mom made. I've made it using blueberries, sour cherries and many other types of fruit. My mom added a shot of bourbon, especially with blueberries.
KGrewal
I am confused by the recipe and the photo. Is the batter put on the bottom with the strawberries on top, or the strawberries on the bottom with cake on top -- like a crisp?
Christian
Hey there! It's actually not like a crisp. Here, the cake batter is placed first, then strawberries on top of the cake batter and then hot water over everything. As it bakes, the cake batter rises above the hot water and strawberries (which form the pudding layer below)Hope that helps!
EC
I followed the recipe exactly as written and it was delicious. All my guests liked it. Easy to make and something a little different.
Patti
Made this with blueberries and strawberries for an Independence Day barbecue. Even though it had been baked several hours earlier and all the pudding had resorbed, everone raved about it. My only problem was that my melted butter, even though allowed to cool, curdled the milk. Absolutely delicious!
blobby
For those that are noting that this is too salty, it could be the type of salt you are using. Some (ie Morton’s) is more dense than say, diamond crystal therefore resulting in a stronger saltiness.
a cook from Toronto
12 ounces by weight or volume?
Euphemia Thompson
weight. rarely if ever measure fruit by volume... :-(
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