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Lemon Curd Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting – A mouth-watering cake with a touch of lemon, filled with lemon curd, and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.
A mouth-watering cake with a touch of lemon, filled with lemon curd, and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting. It makes a beautiful cake for a birthday, spring shower, or for your Easter table and I love to serve it with a scoop of citrus sorbet with Meyer lemons.
Now, I have to share with you that this cake tastes so much better than my sad photography skills could possibly convey. For some reason yesterday, my camera and I just weren’t in sync. Not that we are much any other day, but it was at it’s worst yesterday.
But the cake, well, it’s a slice of summertime.
Lemon Curd Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 1 lemon
- 2 cups lemon curd
- cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Butter and flour two 9" round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350º.
- Cream butter until fluffy.
- Add sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
- Add flour and baking powder alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with buttermilk.
- Add zest and juice of 1 lemon to batter and combine well.
- Pour into pans and bake until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. You can follow my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
- Remove from oven and place on cooling racks until fully cooled.
- Spread ¾ of lemon curd between two layers of cake.
- Mix remaining lemon curd into cream cheese frosting.and decorate cake.
Enjoy!
I want a slice:)
Where do you find lemon curd at the grocery??? Would LOVE to make this for a baby shower I am hosting in three weeks. 🙂
Hey Sharon, I make my own lemon curd but they do sell some delicious ones in stores. I’ll post the recipe for making lemon curd later this week for you. 🙂
I love all things lemon. This cake makes me smile. And don’t worry, Robyn. We all have days like that with those infernal machines.
Me too, Amber! I’ve been loving all things citrus lately. I think it must mean I’m ready for spring!!!
Yes, those machines drive me batty most days. 🙂
I absolutely LOVE lemon!!! I have Celiacs Disease, and have to have gluten free. However, you can believe I will be in the kitchen trying to test this with my gluten free mixes, so I can enjoy this treat!! Thanks for the recipe.
Oh Nikki, please let me know when you make it gluten free! I’d love to try making it that way sometime, too.
I just love a lemon cake! I can’t wait to try this one out!!
Mmm, I love lemon desserts! That citrus sorbet looks lovely too – yum!!
I am sooooooooooo ready for a spoonful of summertime!
Man oh man I could use a slice of summertime!!! It sounds absolutely wonderful… cant wait to make it! 🙂
I just love lemon curd! It’s a perfect flavor for the winter because it brightens things up a bit… I could use a slice of this cake right about now. 🙂
yes Robyn, that is a slice of summer and sunshine!!
Lemon curd, and lemon cream cheese frosting? Wow, this cake sounds amazing! I can never get enough lemon zing in my desserts and it sounds like this is full of it.
My mom is a lemon curd fanatic. She’d love this as her birthday cake, I’m sure!!
It makes a beautiful birthday cake. I actually made it for the University students here from Sweden for their birthdays. They LOVED it.
I love LOVE lemony desserts. And believe ya me – A few days back I was planning to make exactly this – A lemon curd cake with cream cheese, u must have read my mind.
I have had such a craving for lemon lately…it’s like you read my mind. The cream cheese frosting makes it just perfect!!
(no worries on the camera…I’ve had days like that too and I just want to cry)
Oh my gosh….that looks incredible! And why is it when I eat a dessert with lemon, I feel like I can eat MORE if it? I must make this!
I was lucky to receive some Meyer lemons from a friend who has a tree in her yard. That would be the ultimate addition to my landscape but our deep freezes in Colorado mean we don’t do citrus trees so it was a very special package for me.
I’ve made lemon bars and lemon dressing and just yesterday started a lemon meringue pie and now wish I just had a couple more cause I would make this cake. Oh heck…I’ll be finding a reason and opportunity soon; it sounds perfectly wonderful and a way to insert a bit of sunshine and spring into this cold tundra we have right now!
Looks great to me!
Oh my – you are super lucky to have a friend with a Meyer lemon tree. I asked my husband if he thought one would grow well for us. His look told me that I’d probably have it killed in no time flat.
I am going to make these into gluten free cupcakes for superbowl. OMG I simply love lemon curd more than anything. I’ve never made it myself so I am going to be looking for that recipe. I”ve made my kids love lemon curd too, especially with crepes!
Posting a recipe for lemon curd this week. It’s easier than it sounds.
You’re kidding me right? Why did I come over here today of all days? The day that I started my diet and there is nothing I want more than cake!!!
Ack! Sorry about that!
A slice of sunshine indeed! What a gorgeous cake, we are all lemon fans here so I’m totally going to keep this starred in my reader to have as a celebration cake for when I meet my next weight loss goal. It’s totally reasonable to celebrate loosing weight with cake, right…? Yes, I thought so:)))
This looks delicious! I have one question though….is the butter unsalted in the cake or salted. I don’t see salt in the recipe…..so salted butter??
Thanks so much!!
Hey Michelle,
I use salted butter for just about everything. LOL!
What can you use in replace of buttermilk?
I made your especially delicious chocolate cake and it turned out so yummy. I decided to make this lemon curd one for the top tier of a child’s birthday cake to give the adults something a little more sophisticated to enjoy. Your chocolate cake (with coffee) recipe was very easy to follow. This one didn’t say how much zest or juice to use, so I had to search a different recipe and ended up using 1/4 cup lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of zest. It turned out great! Thank you for posting these recipes!
I meant to give this recipe a 5 star! Oops.
Would you say this is a…light and fluffy cake bursting with lemon flavor or a dense bodied cake bursting with lemon flavor ?
Either bad direction, or bad recipe. Cake very dense, curd recipe or directions sketchy. Tried this two different times, same runny results. Have to keep cake in fridge so,top layer doesn’t slide off. Tried cooking longer second time, still runny. What is the thickening ingredient in the curd. Butter is soft when not,in fridge….
I had the same issues. Cake was very dense, like a pound cake, and the curd was too thin. I stirred and stirred and it never got really thick enough to coat the wooden spoon. So I refrigerated it hoping it would thicken. It did, but not enough. The cake tasted good, but the overall result just seemed off.
I’m sorry the cake was not as you wanted, Kris. It sounds like the lemon curd did not cook long enough. It should take about 10 minutes cooking time. If it takes longer than that and still not coating the back of a wooden spoon, you need to turn the heat up just a little so it will thicken. It will not thicken up as much as needed in the refrigerator.
what is estimated cooking time on the cakes?
Hi Stacy,
I’m sorry that wasn’t showing – thanks for letting me know. It is updated now to show the baking time. I hope you enjoy it! Lemon reminds me so much for springtime! Thanks so much!
How long would you bake this in a 10″ pan? I need to make this cake to serve 30 people, so I figured I could get more slices out of a wider cake?
Hi Sallie,
I’ve not baked this cake in that size pan so I can’t say exactly how long it will take to bake this size. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks!
First: I love your recipes. I’ve made your white cake and chocolate cake and they were a hit at my office. IN FACT, one coworker loved it so much they asked me to make their WEDDING CAKE (just for the bride and groom, thank goodness). Bride loves lemon cake, so I thought I would try this.
Do you think your buttercream frosting recipe would pair well? Do you know how I could make a lemony buttercream frosting? I want to stick as close to your white cake recipe as possible because so far it hasn’t failed me.
Thank you!
Hi Johanna!
I’m thrilled to hear that you and your friends love the cakes! How special that you are making a cake for your friend’s wedding!
I think the white cake would be awesome with lemon buttercream! For a lemon buttercream instead of my Vanilla Buttercream I use with my white cake, I’d replace the vanilla with lemon extract. If you are making this frosting fresh (like the day before), you could also add fresh lemon zest. I would not advise the zest if not serving it fresh. I suggest testing and tasting the frosting to make sure it is exactly how you want it before frosting the cake. I always suggest that when making something for the first time for a special event. 🙂
I hope you all enjoy it!
Thanks so much! xo
how many cupcakes would this make?
I soooo wanted to make this cake but ingredients don’t match diretions. #3 add sugar and cream —, Where is cream in ingredients? How much?, 1/2 and 1/2 or whipping cream? Thanx, am dying to try this.
Rita, in this recipe cream is not an ingredient; it is the baking technique of mixing the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. I hope this helps and hope you enjoy your cake!
My Bad! Reread directions for 20th time and they finally stuck in the old noggin. Of course –cream the sugar with the prior ingredients!!! Shows how confusing we can make something so simple. I’m going to go bake it now – and without any cream!
Hello, greetings from Ecuador.
I have made a couple of your recipes and love them, I intend to make this one, but is it possible to bake the whole batter in a single pan? If so, how many minutes and will the results be the same as if baked in 2?
Shirley, I haven’t made this cake in one pan. I think you should be able to make the cake in a 9×13 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. It won’t be the same since you can’t put the lemon curd between layers.