Lemon Curd Recipe
If you like lemon, you are going to LOVE this easy and delicious homemade Lemon Curd for your cakes and cupcakes!
It has a wonderful silky smooth consistency and flavor with just the PERFECT amount of lemony tartness.
This delicious lemon curd is our favorite lemon filling for cakes and cupcakes, and it is so simple to make! We have several variations including orange curd and lime curd!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There are so many reasons to love this lemon curd recipe! Here are just a few:
- Easy to Make with just a few simple ingredients
- Delicious lemon flavor
- Works as a great cake or cupcake filling
- Perfect filling for citrus or white cakes, including orange cake, white velvet cake, lemon cupcakes and more!
How to Make Lemon Curd
*Find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post!
Curd fillings for cakes and cupcakes are so easy to make and they taste amazing! This luscious lemon curd filling has so much flavor! It all starts with a saucepan and a few simple ingredients.
- First, combine the sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil (3-4 minutes).
- Next, continue stirring as it boils for one minute more. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Spoon about a half cup of the hot mixture into a small bowl with egg yolks and stir quickly until combined. Continue stirring, while pouring the egg mixture back into the saucepan. The egg yolks are what give the curd its lovely yellow color.
- Finally, return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the curd is thickened and lemon colored (1-2 min). Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
Let the lemon curd cool, then press plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerate. The plastic wrap will prevent a skin from forming on the top. The lemon curd will thicken a bit as it cools.
What Cake Flavors go with Lemon Curd?
Lemon curd pairs wonderfully with White Cake, Yellow Cake, and Coconut Cake , but my FAVORITE is with our homemade Lemon Cake!
I just love lemon desserts, and everything about this filling is heavenly.
This lemon curd has a delightful silky smooth consistency, and you'll love how easily this light and flavorful lemon filling comes together!
Delicious Lemon Cakes
If you love lemon cakes, look no further! We have so many delicious lemon recipes to share with you.
You can find the full roundup here: Best Lemon Cakes, Fillings, & Frostings. Some of our most popular are Lemon Cake from Scratch, Lemon Velvet Cake, and Lemon Cupcakes!
Thanks for stopping by! If you give this recipe a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below.
You can find our full collection of favorite recipes and free cake decorating tutorials in our Cake Recipes & Tutorials Section!
FAQs
Lemon Curd Recipe
This easy, silky smooth lemon curd recipe tastes amazing and makes a wonderful filling for cakes and cupcakes!
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (150g) sugar
- ¼ cup (30g) cornstarch
- 1 cup (236g) water
- 2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) butter
- 1 Tablespooon grated lemon zest
- 4 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil (3-4 minutes).
- Boil, stirring, for 1 minute more.. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Spoon about ½ cup of the hot mixture into a small bowl with egg yolks and stir quickly until combined. Continue stirring, while pouring the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
- Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the curd is thickened and lemon colored (1-2 min). Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest.-- Let the lemon curd cool, then press plastic wrap onto the surface, this will prevent a skin from forming on the top. Refrigerate.
- This will fill a 2-3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake with some leftover. The recipe can be halved.
- I have refrigerated the lemon curd for a week and it was fine....I'm not sure how long it will keep beyond that
- Makes 1 ¼ cups
Hi Bebe,
I just made the lemon curd and it is cooling now. I made it to use as a filling layer in a birthday cake for tomorrow. Once it’s cooled and I place it between my layers (with a frosting dam I read) will I need to refrigerate my finished cake because of the lemon curd or will it be fine at room temperature?
Hi Stephanie, The lemon curd is perishable so the cake will need refrigeration. Take it out of the refrigerator 1 to 2 hours before serving so the chill will be off the cake.
Could I substitute milk for water in this recipe? I would like this filling to be a bit more custardy if that makes sense. I am not a fan of that “watery” custard taste I have tasted in the UK.
Thank you very much in advance for your advice?????
Hi Emmie, We have not tried using milk so I'm not sure of the outcome. Please let us know if you give it a try.
I made the curd and put it in the fridge. How do I warm it up so I can spread it to fill my cake? It is really thick and it’s not spreadable right out of the fridge
Hi Corinna, You should be able to leave in out of the refrigerator maybe 10 minutes, then put some on the cake layer and spread out using a spatula or the back of a spoon. Don't microwave to warm it. Hope you like it.
Mine ended up quickly becoming a thick goop before I even mixed it with the egg yolks. The yolks and the butter/lemon/zest mixture combined together smoothly, but even out of the fridge it's more of a ... it's not spreadable... you can break it into chunks like a jelly.. more like cranberry sauce when it's cold. What did I do wrong?
I made this today to put in my vanilla cake. So far it turned out great, taste and consistency. I can't wait to fill my cake with it.
I would like to make this curd, but am confused about the weight of the butter. When I weigh two tablespoons it is not 18 grams...it is 28 grams. Which should I go with...18 grams or 28? Thank you.
Hi Pat, The gram weight is 28. I must have made a typo years ago when the recipe was posted. We have had lots of positive comments on the post so the weight the butter must not be that vital to success of this recipe. I do want it to be correct so thank you for letting us know.
Thank you for your quick reply, Bebe. I actually ended up making this for the lemon cake from this website. I used 28 grams, but I agree, no one has ever mentioned the discrepancy before, so it must not make a huge difference in the outcome. I used the curd in the lemon cake from this website and it was absolutely delicious. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Thank you so much for your nice comment on the recipe, Pat!
Can this recipe be doubled to frost the entire cake, layers and outside?
Hi Linda, I don't see a problem with doubling the recipe but I wouldn't recommend lemon curd as a frosting. It's really not a good consistency for frosting.
We have lemon buttercream frosting and lemon cream cheese frosting in our recipes section if you'd like to try those! (Some people even use a bit of lemon curd in their buttercream recipes like our Classic Vanilla Buttercream (in place of most of the liquid the recipe) but we still prefer to use lemon extract in flavor for the strongest lemon flavor without adding a lot of additional liquid.