Few dessert flavors evoke summer freshness like lemon. To be fair, a lemon dessert is also a great break from winter spices and chocolate. Lucky for us, lemons are available year-round, so let’s embrace the lemon once again with a tangy dessert that’s full of surprises. Whether it’s summer, winter or any time in between, try this lemon pudding cake meringue pie. 

What exactly is lemon pudding cake? 

If I were to call this dessert one thing, then it’s a pie. There is a crust and a filling, so it is a pie. It just so happens that the filling is my recipe for the Insta-worthy and TikTok-friendly lemon pudding cake. If you haven’t had lemon pudding cake yet, you are in for a treat. It’s what I believe the British call a self-saucing pudding—meaning, a cake that provides its own decadent sauce of sorts, in this case a lemon pudding. To clarify, specifically with this recipe, it’s one thin batter that’s leavened with egg whites and it bakes into two layers. The egg white layer rises and bakes into a cake that floats on top of a pudding-like layer. In this case it’s more like a lemon curd. It’s divine, and you can make it pie. 

How to flip it into a meringue pie

You could make lemon pudding cake as a large casserole, but here you get the addition of a lovely crust and fluffy toasted meringue topping. Besides, sometimes the occasion simply calls for pie.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The procedure for making the lemon pudding-cake filling is the same as in the original recipe linked above; the only changes are blind-baking the crust and making a simple meringue topping. (If you need a refresher on blind-baking, check here.)

Note that after blind-baking the crust gets “sealed” with a light brush of egg white. That’s because the pudding layer is liquid before it cooks. Swiping on a layer of egg white while the crust is hot out of the oven will create a transparent wall of cooked egg white. This will help prevent a soggy crust. I tried a graham cracker crust, which, as you might know, is risky. The results were mixed: some spots were dry and others were gooey, as you can see in the picture. That didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying the pie, however if you’re going for clean lines, I’d recommend an old-fashioned pie crust from the freezer aisle.

The resulting pie is best served chilled so the pudding can set, but with a freshly toasted meringue topping. Personally, I prefer this version of lemon pie to the classic Jersey-diner-style lemon meringue pie any day. Instead of assaulting you with a mouthful of gluey pudding and quickly deflating meringue, this pie has that middle layer of cake to help firm up the textures. You can save any leftovers in the fridge, but know that the meringue won’t be quite the same—which means you have license to finish it on your own. You know, for the sake of the pie’s reputation.

Lemon Pudding Cake Meringue Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

For the pie:

• 1 store-bought pie crust

• 3 eggs, separated

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

• ¾ cup flour

• ¼ cup sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup milk, room temperature

For the meringue topping:

• 2 egg whites

• ¼ cup sugar

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Blind bake the crust as needed depending on the crust you chose.

2. Meanwhile, separate your eggs for the filling, so you have three yolks in a large mixing bowl and three whites in another large bowl. Whisk the whites slightly just to break them up and put a teaspoon of the whites into a small bowl. Have a pastry brush ready to “seal” the crust.

3. When the hot crust comes out of the oven, immediately use the pastry brush to apply the teaspoon of egg white all around the bottom and walls of the pie crust. Pay attention to where the bottom meets the walls. Set the crust aside to cool.

4. Add the lemon zest, juice, and butter to the egg yolks and whisk them together thoroughly. In a smaller bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt together. Slowly pour in half of the dry mixture while whisking vigorously to break up any lumps. Alternate with half of the milk, and then finish by whisking in the rest of the dry mixture and the remaining milk. It will be very liquidy. 

5. Set up your pie crust in a large baking dish or, like I did, in a larger pie plate. Put a kettle of water on to boil so you can make a water bath when you’re ready to bake.

6. Whisk the three egg whites in the bowl until you have soft peaks and gently fold the whites into the batter. Put the pie shell inside of the larger baking dish, and into the oven. Carefully pour the just-boiled water into the outer dish until it comes halfway up the side of the inner pie dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is evenly tinged with brown and it jiggles slightly in the center when you move it, but is not watery. Remove the pie from the dish and let it cool. Cool it overnight in the fridge if you’re not in a rush. 

7. Make the meringue just before you’re ready to serve it. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Then add the cream of tartar. Begin whisking again and slowly add the sugar and the vanilla. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form but the meringue is still glossy. Slather it along the entire surface of the pie and toast it with a torch, or pop it into a 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes to toast the top. Serve immediately. 

Deadlifts are a great exercise for your back, butt, and legs, and they’re a key movement if you hope to get anywhere in powerlifting, strongman—or the king of all sports, helping a friend move furniture. But when you head to the gym to start doing them, you’ll realize deadlifts can be tricky to set up: the bar is on the ground, not on a rack, and you’ll be working with fairly heavy weights right away.

By the way, I have a whole article on loading, unloading, and handling weights at the gym. If you’re not sure how to carry plates around, or how to load them on squat or bench racks, read up—I’ve got you covered.

Anyway, let’s talk about deadlifts. In theory, loading is simple: just slide each plate onto the barbell. But there’s friction between the plate and the floor as you’re trying to slide it on (or off), so this is easier said than done. Here’s how to get the plates on and off like a pro.

Grab the plate and pull

The first thing you need to know is the basics of getting a single plate on or off the bar. For the first plate you load, you can actually stand it up on end and slide the bar into the plate. (Then attach the collar or clip so it won’t work its way loose as you do the rest.)

After that first plate, though, you’ll need to load the plates by pulling them on. The trick is to not hold the plate by its top, which you probably instinctively do. Instead, do it like so:

• Bring the plate to the end of the barbell, and line up the barbell with the hole in the center of the plate.

• Straddle the barbell, facing the plate.

• Grab the plate with two hands, right at 3 and 9 o’clock, and pull toward you.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

I was first taught this trick by a bro in the gym who saw me struggling, and I’m going to tell you how he offered his advice because he did it in a polite and respectful way. (When he first walked up, I thought he was going to just lift it up and shove the plates on for me, which is not helpful if a person has not asked you to do so.)

First, he hung back to see if I was going to figure it out myself. Then, when I didn’t, he asked if I would like a tip for loading the plates. I said yes, and then he showed me how, and after that I was able to do the other side on my own.

This 3-and-9-o’clock-pull is the way you get plates on the bar, and also the way you get them off. Simple enough, right? But there’s another problem: when you have multiple plates on the bar, it’s hard to slide just one of them off. That’s where we need either a deadlift jack, or a tiny plate. I’ll start with the tiny plate, because there’s always one at hand.

Use the tiny plate trick

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

This trick is easiest to understand when you’re unloading the bar: Place a small plate (like a 5-pounder) on the floor, and roll the barbell up onto it. Try to get it so that only the innermost plate is resting on the tiny plate. Now the rest of the plates are hovering a half inch off the floor, and you can slide them off easily. You can use the same trick for loading: once you’ve got the first big plate on, roll it up onto your tiny plate and load the rest.

Once you have everything loaded, roll the weights back onto the floor, kick the tiny plate aside, and do one more pull as above, giving the plates a good tug to make sure they are all snugged up against each other and the bar.

Use a deadlift jack or wedge

While the tiny plate trick is, in theory, all you need, the “proper” way to load a deadlift bar is to use a deadlift jack. Powerlifting gyms will pretty much always have at least one of these; in other types of gyms, they’re less common.

A deadlift jack is a long metal tool that has a part to hold the barbell, a part that rests on the floor, and a handle so you can lever the bar off the floor once those other two parts are in place. When you see one in action, it’s very obvious how it works. With a jack, even a tiny person can prop up a heavy deadlift bar to change the plates. Some jacks work on just one side of the bar at a time; the nicer ones can actually pick up the whole bar so a team of loaders—say, in a competition—can load both sides at once.

Here’s a basic one-side deadlift jack, if you’d like to get one for your home gym. Here’s the two-sided kind. And if you’d like something you can slip into your gym bag, try a deadlift wedge, which works on the same principle as the tiny plate trick, but is a little more specialized to the task. (I will also add, for the sake of completeness, that there are products out there that serve the purpose of a combination water bottle/deadlift jack. I cannot vouch for whether they work, or how well, but I have to say I am intrigued.)

Titan Fitness Full Deadlift Barbell Jack Stand

$129.99
at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$129.99
at Amazon

For RDLs: look for a place to prop up the bar

If you prefer to do Romanian deadlifts (RDLs), you’ll want to start from the top of the movement. Every now and then, you’ll find the holy grail of RDL preparation: a ledge, possibly attached to a power cage, where you can set the bar at about knee height and easily load and unload plates.