Tangy homemade lemon curd and toasty almonds are a match made in heaven in this beautiful lemon curd almond butter cake!—Incredibly moist, buttery, and filled with rich lemon curd pockets.
Guys, this might be the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. No exaggeration or lie, even given the massive amount of cake we partake in around here.
You gotta pardon the humble appearance as well because it is DECEIVING.
And deceiving cakes tend to be ignored until they’re tried once and then all of a sudden you’ve eaten half the pan.
This humble little cake is honestly anything but subtle. Hard to be when you’re boasting tangy lemon curd swirled into a light, buttery almond cake with toasty almonds crowning the top.
Can I call this lemon curd almond butter cake breakfast? Probably not, but I’m sure as heck gonna eat it for breakfast anyways.
One of the things that makes this lemon curd almond butter cake SO incredibly good is unshockingly the homemade lemon curd.
Honestly, if you’re running short on time you can totally use premade lemon curd but if you have a few minutes? I would STRONGLY recommend you make it from scratch. It’s totally easier than it sounds and worth the extra minutes.
From there, it’s a fairly simple butter cake base. I used toasted + finely minced almonds in the batter along with almond extract and then more sliced almonds on top to really enhance the almondy flavors.
And hoooly heck, guys. Combine all of the above together into one simple little cake? It’s literal cake wizardry.
Obviously a little shake of powdered sugar all over errthing’ never hurt anyone, so I would encourage you to powder that stuff to your heart’s content.
And then gorge yourself with cake. Again, to your heart’s content.
Lemon Curd Almond Butter Cake
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Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
Cake
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds, finely minced
- Additional sliced almonds for topping
- Powdered sugar for serving
Instructions
Lemon Curd
- In the bottom pot of a double-boiler, bring a few inches of water to a boil, then reduce heat to low to keep water at a simmer. Whisk egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and zest into the top bowl of double boiler and place on top of bottom pot of simmering water.
- Whisk lemon curd continuously so the egg yolks don't curdle, Continue over simmering water until curd becomes smooth and thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Remove curd from heat and immediately add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time whisking well after each addition.
- Place plastic wrap directly on surface of lemon curd and set aside for a moment.
Almond Butter Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper OR lightly grease and flour and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat softened butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in almond extract and eggs until smooth. Fold in flour, baking powder, salt, and minced almonds until batter is smooth.
- Scrape batter into prepared pan. Drop lemon curd by the tablespoon on top of batter within 1-in of edges. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top.
- Bake cake at 350F 35-40 minutes until cake is a deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in cake part (not lemon curd) comes out clean. Cool cake completely on a wire cooling rack. Dust cake with powdered sugar and cut into squares. Enjoy!
marilyn hogan says
i made this yesterday for my family for dessert….i altered the recipe because i wanted a larger size..
.i doubled the lemon curd recipe and doubled the lemon zest…
for the cake i did one and a half times the recipe…
i used a square cake tin 11″ x 11″ by 3″ deep or 9 1/2 by 9 1/2 x 8cm deep. i also changed the recipe into metric because i live in australia.
i served it warm with whipped cream and it was absolutely beautiful….i too, recommend making your own lemon curd because this is what makes it a hit and gives a great depth of flavour.
Thank you for sharing
Sarah says
Thanks so much for sharing your modifications, Marilyn! So happy to hear the cake was a hit. 🙂
Krystle says
I was really excited about how my lemon curd turned out, just perfect! Then in the oven it quickly turned brown, should I have covered the cake in the oven?
Sarah says
Hey Krystle! That’s super strange to hear about your lemon curd turning brown! Were you baking the cake on the middle rack of the oven? You could definitely cover the cake with a layer of tin foil to prevent this from happening in the future!
MaryAnn says
I just made this cake for the first time including the homemade lemon curd. Both the top of the cake and the top of the curd dollops turned a beautiful golden brown. That makes sense to me from the baking. I am able to see inside of a couple of the dollops and they remained yellow inside the cake.
I also used double parchment crosswise in the pan and had no trouble with getting the cake out of the pan and when cooled off of the parchment to slide onto a platter. So far, so good!
Sarah says
Glad this cake was a success for you, MaryAnn! Happy holidays. 🙂
Jackie says
Hi – I’m a little puzzled. I expected ground almonds to be part of the cake and your instructions even reference it in step 2, but I don’t see it in the ingredients list. How much ground almond should be part of the cake? Excited to try, thank you!
Sarah says
Sorry for the confusion, Jackie! The instructions are referencing the toasted and minced almonds. I will update that in the instructions to make it more clear!
Jackie says
Oh I see thank you! Appreciate the quick response!
Ankie Niesing says
This looks delicious! Do you have perhaps the quantity of the lemon curd. I have two jars in my fridge that I would like to use. But your recipe is smaller than mine. I used 4 eggs.
Sarah says
Hi there! You will need about 1/2 cup lemon curd for this recipe. 🙂
Ankie says
Thanks, realized it would not be alot after I read the method:)
Roland says
Hello,
Before I try this recipe, have you tried to put the lemon curd in the centre of the cake instead of dollops on the top. Your thoughts before I try it.
Thanks.
Sarah says
Hi Roland – I think that would work fine for this cake! Just make sure to not accidentally put the toothpick through a pocket of lemon curd when testing cake for doneness.
Sally says
The cake looked very good in the picture, but it’s actually more like a bar about about an inch and a half high. The lemon curd volume is not sufficient to cover the cake. Overall kind of disappointing..
Sarah says
Hi Sally – thanks for sharing this feedback! I’m going to return this recipe to the test kitchen with your critiques in mind.