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
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 3 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 white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds, finely minced
- 2 tablespoons toasted 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 chill 30 minutes.
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 9-in cake pan 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 ground 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 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. Cut cake into wedges and serve with powdered sugar. Enjoy!
Favour U. says
Hi Sarah! It has been a long time I have not visited your site. I was sick all the while, But thank God I’m here today. I am a lover of cake and this cake look yummy. I so much like your blog because you share extraordinarily cooking and baking tips. Last time, it was stew with Cashew nuts and I was like how will the taste be?But trust me it was great when I tried it. Thank you sharing!
Kelly says
This tastes soooo good! I had one issue – the cake under the curd collapsed. Is it because I used AP flour instead of white whole wheat flour? I still love it, though! The flavor is amazing!
Sarah says
Hi Kelly! My cake had similar results when I baked it. I think because the lemon curd is a bit heavy that’s normal for the cake underneath it to sink a little bit. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed though!
Suzie says
The same thing happens to me every time I bake this cake, which is quite often. But now I’m wondering if an angel food cake pan with removable bottom would solve that problem. Has anyone tried it?
Sarah says
I have not tried that before, Suzie, but I will go ahead and test this cake again a few times to try and figure out why it keeps sinking – sorry for the inconvenience!
Alysa says
Can you sub with all purpose flour?
Sarah says
Yes, you can!