Revel in the tangy-sweet goodness of this simple lemon cake recipe made with lemon curd and streusel crumble. This easy single layer cake is bursting with bright lemon flavor, perfect for any occasion (like the upcoming weekend, babes).
There is nothing finer than starting the weekend off with a thick slice of cake for breakfast on Saturday morning. It’s a signal to our senses that the next few days can be different. Less structure, a slower pace, and for goodness sake more cake.
This is the weekend cake! This is the cake we’ll leave on the kitchen counter and sneak slices off as we pass. This is afternoon snacking cake and, if we do it right, we’ll share the last slice on Sunday night.
This is a simple cake with no cake layers to fuss with. Lemon desserts are my favorite so this easy vanilla cake is swirled with big spoonfuls of lemon curd which bakes up to extra jammy and concentrated. If lemon curd doesn’t appeal to you, any preserves you have in the pantry would be delicious.
I hope this brings a sparkle of sweetness to your weekend, friends!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy lemon cake recipe:
• all-purpose flour, or a gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum
• unsalted butter
• granulated sugar
• large eggs
• baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, ground coriander
• vanilla extract
• sour cream
• store-bought lemon curd (though you’re welcome to make your own lemon curd with lemon zest and lemon juice. Make a double batch – it’s delicious!)
• rolled oats
• powdered sugar
Let’s make our cake batter.
In the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand beater cream together room temperature butter and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until the butter is pale and aerated.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and powder, and ground coriander.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed for 1 minute each to fluff the batter. Add the vanilla extract, too.
For the wet ingredients, it’s just a single important dairy: sour cream. Sour cream will create the most delightfully tender crumb – it’s absolutely the magic ingredient.
BUT! In the absence of sour cream you can use whole milk yogurt or buttermilk.
Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed into a thick batter.
Let’s make an oat crumble for this cake! Oatmeal adds a little chew to the texture and makes the cake feel like a hearty, everyday cake.
Plus, the addition of oatmeal absolutely pushes this cake into the breakfast category.
Line the bottom of a greased 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper and lightly grease the paper as well. The cake batter will be thick. Spread half of that batter across the bottom of a pan.
Dollop with lemon curd and swirl it into the batter.
Top the first layer of lemon curd with oat crumble then spread the remaining cake batter across the cake, edge to edge. Top with crumble and swirl with the remaining lemon curd. It’s lovely, right?
Bake the cake in a 350 degrees F oven until puffed and golden around the edges. Test the cake with a toothpick to make sure the centermost part of the cake is baked through. She’s a thick lady. If the toothpick comes out with moist batter alongside the lemon curd, she needs a bit more time in the oven.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 inutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool or a platter to serve.
Slice into big wedges.
This cake is lovely with a simple dusting of powdered sugar but a lemon glaze is also nice. Lemon desserts are notoriously delicious with fresh berries and cream. There’s no wrong answer here, especially if there’s hot coffee too.
Enjoy your weekend cake, friends!
Print
Lemon Curd Crumb Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 1 9-inch cake, Serves 8-10 1x
- Category: cake
- Method: baking
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup (1 stick,113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 3/4 cup (184 grams) sour cream, at room temperature
- About 1 cup store-bought lemon curd (8–10 ounces jar would be perfect!)
For the Crumble:
- 1/2 cup (64 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (45 grams) old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup (100 grams0 granulated sugar
- large pinch of salt
- 4 tablespoons (56 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
- Powdered sugar for topping
Instructions
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan (or springform pan), line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper and grease the parchment paper as well. Lightly flour the pan and knock any extra flour from the pan.
- In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, coriander if using, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with electric hand beaters or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute per egg. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is mixed in well. Beat in the sour cream on medium speed.
- Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stop the mixer and finish incorporating the batter until well combined. The batter will be thick.
- To make the oat crumble, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sugar, and salt. Add the cold butter chunks and, using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. Quickly break the butter down into the mixture until well incorporated. Some butter bits will be the size of small peas and oat flakes.
- Spread half of the cake batter into the bottom of the prepared pan. An offset spatula is a great tool to spread the batter. Dollop with half of the lemon curd and sprinkle with just under half of the oat crumble. Lightly swirl the batter. Top with the remaining cake batter, spreading to the edges. Dollop with the remaining lemon curd and sprinkle with remaining crumble. Lightly swirl, leaving generous dollops of curd exposed on the top of the cake. They’ll bake to irresistibly jammy. Bake until deeply golden and the sides of the cake are pulling away from the pan. A toothpick inserted in the cake will come out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. This is a long bake cake at 45-55 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking. Remove cake from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes before trying to invert the cake.
- Run a knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen the cake from the pan. Place a flat plate over the pan and invert the cake. Peel the parchment round off the cake and gently invert the cake top side up.
- Serve warm or at room temperature lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Cake lasts, wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.
35 Responses
An absolutely wonderfull tasty cake. It was the hit of the party and I had to steal back a piece to take home for my own breakfast!
Hi, Your Lemon Curd Crumb Cake was sweet and perfectly balanced with the oatmeal crumbled. I make my own Lemon Curd using a recipe from Diana Sturgis from Rachael Ray’s magazine “Everyday Day 2012”. Thanks so much for adding this cake recipe to your website, it’s a winner for sure
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I made this with gf flour, dairy-free Greek yogurt, and homemade lemon curd, and it’s so springy and delightful!
You are the QUEEN OF HOUSE CAKES! This cake is stunning and so easy to throw together. I look forward to having it as an afternoon snack for the next few days and making it again in the future.
Made this today and it is fabulous! Has been on my radar for a bit. Great for Sunday coffee!
Have had this on my menu plan since I first saw the picture but have not been in a baking mood. Why did I wait!
So delicious! Great cake
Joy! You have done it again. I made this with homemade lemon curd and I am shook how good this cake is. Batter was THICK but she still rose up to make a light, moist cake. Will definitely be making again and again.
Made without oats because I didn’t have any, and light sour cream instead of regular. Added a little lemon zest to the crumble. Even with these changes, turned out moist and delicious!!
I was looking for a recipe that would use up some extra homemade lemon curd I had made and luckily I had just enough for this recipe. I followed this recipe exactly & it turned out amazing. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
I just pulled it out of the oven. Smells fantastic!
Absolutely the best! Made it for my Bible Study Brunch this morning, everyone liked it and wanted the recipe. I used Bob’s Red Mill GF flour for several that cannot have regular flour. To help my busy morning I had dry ingredients measured in a container, next time I will mix the butter into the crumb mixture and keep in the refrigerator. The finished cake was beautiful!
This is a winner! Slight changes I made to the written directions: used an 8” springform and it’s still not a tall cake. Placed rack in the center of the oven until the last 20 min when I moved to top third as called for (because I was afraid!?) Used cardamom instead of coriander because that’s what I had. I like a real lemony flavor so rubbed the zest of 1 lemon into the sugar in both batter and topping. Added the lemon juice from the zested lemon into the batter. It looks and smells beautiful and is very very delicious! Not a quick 1 bowl cake but certainly not technically hard at all. Will make again and again!
I should add my jar of lemon curd was 11.4 oz or something like that, I just used it all up. And, don’t be worried that it doesn’t look like a lot of batter. It works!
This recipe was truly fantastic! So easy to whip together–I already had most of the ingredients at home & Trader Joe’s had a great lemon curd jar that was easy to buy. I shared it with lots of friends, neighbors, and coworkers. They all thought I was an excellent baker (even though that is FAR from the truth). Thanks so much for a simple & yummy recipe, Joy! Will be making this again and again and again!
Hello
I can’t find lemon curd where I live. Do you have a recipe I can use please
Have a nice day
This was delicious! Can totally see this being my new summer cake. It was so light and fresh. I made exactly as written and pulled out of the oven at 50 minutes. Loved the sweetness of powdered sugar on top and fresh berries on the side!
My only wish is that all of the ingredients were listed by weight as well – seems odd to just have 3 ingredients with weight listed when sour cream and the main crumble ingredients could have weights, too. I’ll make this when those are added!! Can’t wait!
This is INSANELY good. I made the recipe precisely as written, just baked in a 8″ springform because I love a tall cake. It’s buttery, tender, tart perfection. Zero notes for improvement!
This makes me so glad Laura!
How much lemon curd is needed?
You’ll need 1 heaping cup of lemon curd. A 10 ounce jar is perfect!
Absolutely fabulous! I made this recipe as cupcakes for my daughter in law’s birthday. Baked them for 22 minutes. Perfection!
Getting ready to bake! Is it accurate to bake in the top third of the oven? For a long bake seems unusual.
This is delicious! I’ve been trying some lemon poppy seed cake recipes but this one tops them all! I wish I had pulled it out of the oven at 50 minutes as the lemon curd got a little burned but it was hard to tell if it was done. Maybe I should have covered it with foil for the last 5 minutes. In any case, I cut the burned parts off and it was a wonderful cake that I will make again!
Wow this was delicious – I used 75% fat vegetable baking spread in place of butter and thick natural yogurt in place of sour cream because that is what I had to hand
yes! my kind of cake, lemon curd, or really any kind of lemon flavored baked stuff I love (even pasta) and crumb cakes work well for me too, thank you!
My baking plans have just changed to include this.
Questions – what do you think about whole fat greek vanilla yogurt in place of regular? I have some that is…not so great, and I’m trying to find a good use for it. Also – the lemon curd, do you have a weight on that in grams or ounces? Thanks,
Oh you could totally use that vanilla yogurt in this cake! I think this is a great use for it! For the lemon curd, you’ll want 8 ounces but most jars are in 10 ounce jars so you can just use that whole jar. :)
Thank you very much for responding. I wound up making so many mistakes making this (forgot how much salt I measured, dumped some extra sugar in, put the 2nd layer of curd on before the 2nd layer of batter, used extra large eggs without realizing it – I guess I was a bit overtired that night) and then, as a kicker, realized my lemon curd was not good anymore (best by date – 2016!) and had to run out to the store to get some more. Even with all that, the cake is still unbelievably delicious. I am going to think about trying it with some other jams I have in the cabinet before they are completely unusable too (ask who the manufacturers aim for with their pretty jars and packaging – why, yes, that’s me!).
I keep seeing references to coriander in the written text, but I don’t see it in the ingredients list. Am I going crazy? Lol. Thanks ?
That should have been a smiley face emoji not a question mark! No snark.
It’s added in step 2 of the cake.
Oh yum! I love the idea of a weekend cake. ?
Made this tonight! (One of the only times I have made a recipe same day as seeing it online). I loved your description of how to eat it across the weekend. The only change I might make is having the first piece Friday night vs Saturday breakfast because it seems a shame not to taste it before bed!
lemon bars are one of my faaavorite things – making them is not. this is a perfect compromise! adding lemon curd to this week’s grocery list!