Luscious lemon pudding with summer berries

Method

• step 1

  Butter an ovenproof dish and heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Carefully weigh out the butter and sugar into a bowl.

• step 2

  Finely grate the zest from the lemons. For best results, grate, then turn the lemon a little and grate again, so you just take off the yellow skin rather than the pith below. Halve and squeeze the juice from the lemons – you need 100ml, so make up with a splash of water or more juice.

• step 3

  Separate the eggs (put the whites in a large, clean bowl), being careful not to get any yolk in with them. Whizz the butter, sugar and zest in a food processor until creamy. Add the juice, whizz again; then, with the motor still running, tip in the yolks, flour and milk to form a smooth batter.

• step 4

  Whisk the egg whites, preferably with an electric hand whisk, until firm but not stiff. Pour in the lemon batter, then gently fold the 2 mixtures together with a large metal spoon, being light-handed so that you don’t knock out all the air from the whites. Don’t worry if it looks a bit lumpy.

• step 5

  Pour the mixture into the buttered dish, then put it in a roasting tin. Pour in a kettle of hot water into the tin so it is half-filled (this is called a bain marie). Ask an adult to help you with this bit. Bake for 35 mins until the top is set and there is a saucy lemon curd below. Use oven gloves to remove it from the oven.

• step 6

  While the pudding is baking, pull or cut the hulls (the green tops) from the strawberries. Halve or slice them if large. Put in a bowl with the blueberries, then spoon over the cordial or sugar and mix together. Remove the pudding from the tin, dust with icing sugar through a sieve and serve warm or cold, with the berries.