Strawberry-Lemon Puddings

Do you ever sabotage yourself? I do it all the time, but I really did it with this recipe. For example, this should be a simple recipe! Tyler takes a store-bought pound cake, which is layered with a store-bought lemon curd and heavy cream. He combines them both with some strawberries and makes this cute little pudding. Tyler throws his little puddings together in no time flat.

Here's what I did to myself. I had a box mix for pound cake in my pantry. In an effort to clean out my pantry and freezer I decided to make my own pound cake. Would you know that darn pound cake took about an hour to bake?? Why didn't I think of that? Conveniently, I also forgot that the pound cake would be HOT for a long time!! I got angry with myself and sat the pound cake aside until the next day. I can never find store-bought lemon curd, so I decided to make it myself. Lemon curd is one of those time consuming recipes that consists of zesting quite a bit of lemons and then cooking over low heat for quite some time. I had made it once before with success, but this time it didn't turn out!! So, I made it again, but not until the next day. Do you see a recurring theme here?? (And by the way.....yes I know I have quite a temper, but I've learned when to walk away). The next day, the strawberries weren't looking so good and the pound cake was half gone. I really didn't want to go back in the kitchen and work on this, but I wanted to just get it finished. I found enough strawberries to make one little pudding and I ate it for breakfast. It was really good and would be even better if I had followed Tyler's directions and actually bought store-bought ingredients. Why do we do these things to ourselves??

Strawberry-Lemon Puddings, adapted from Tyler Florence, Dinner at My Place

2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
1 meyer lemon, juice only
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish
1/2 cup store-bought lemon curd
1 store-bought pound cake

Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoonsof powdered sugar in a small saucepan; place over medium heat. Cook and stir for 4 to 5 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Remove 4 strawberry halves from saucepan and reserve for garnish.

Whip heavy cream in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks form. Fold in the 1 cup owdered sugar and the lemon curd, a little at a time, until combined. Set aside in the refrigerator while you prepare the cake. Preheat oven to 350F. Cut pound cake into 1/4" thick slices. Use an inverted 6-ounce ramekin, carefully cut out 8 rounds. (The rounds should fit snugly inside of the ramekin itself). Break the remaining scraps of pound cake into coarse crumbs and toast on a baking sheet in the preheated oven about 5 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant.

To assemble, start with a layer of the lemon cream on the bottom of each of the four 6-ounce ramekins, followed by a cake round, some strawberries, and lemon cream. Add another layer of cake. Drizzle the final cake layers with syrup from the strawberries and then top with a swirl of lemon cream and some toasted pound cake crumbs. Garnish each pu dding with a reserved strawberry half and dust with powdered sugar.

My advice, should you decide to make this, take Tyler's word and buy store-bought. I think that guy knows a thing or two about cooking!!

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