This Triple Lemon Cake is Ridiculously Delicious

It tastes like sunshine.
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Lemon Crumb Cake

Christine GallarySenior Recipe Editor

Tina Ujlaki

published yesterday

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[Lemon crumb cake squares topped with icing and crumbled topping, arranged in a grid pattern.]

Credit: Photo: Alex Lepe; Food Styling: Janette Zepeda

This buttery crumb cake gets a triple dose of lemon flavor. It tastes like sunshine!

Serves9 to 12

Prep40 minutes

Cook35 minutes to 40 minutes

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[Lemon crumb cake squares topped with icing and crumbled topping, arranged in a grid pattern.]

Credit: Photo: Alex Lepe; Food Styling: Janette Zepeda

Why You’ll Love It

• There’s a triple dose of lemon flavor. Each layer of the cake is bursting with lemon flavor. The cake has lemon curd, the crumb topping has lemon zest, and the drizzle on top is made with lemon juice.

• Crumb-lovers, rejoice! It’s pretty much an equal ratio of buttery crumb topping to cake here.

It’s pretty hard to resist a buttery crumb cake, whether it’s made with chocolate and bananas, pear and cinnamon, or even pumpkin. But the version I’ve come to love the most, and the one most requested by my daughter, is this lemon crumb cake. The Cook’s Illustrated recipe for crumb cake is one of my favorites, so I started with that as the base recipe and then packed it to the max with lemon. All the sunshine-y bright flavors from lemon are loaded into every bite of this tender, moist cake — from the cake to the crumbs to the icing drizzle. But one of the best parts? The layer of buttery crumbs is as tall as the layer of cake (as it should be!).

Credit: Photo: Alex Lepe; Food Styling: Janette Zepeda

Straight from Our Recipe Tester

“We loved this crumb cake! Who doesn’t love a crumb cake topped with a glaze? The cake itself has a lovely, fine crumb, and the topping isn’t too sweet.” —Tina, February 2026

Key Ingredients in Lemon Crumb Cake

• Cake flour: Use an unbleached cake flour like Softasilk or Swan’s Down for the plushest cake texture.

• Lemon: The zest from the lemon goes into the crumbs, and some of the juice is used in the icing.

• Lemon curd: This sweet-tart, rich spread gets swirled throughout the cake. Store-bought lemon curd works great, or you can make an easy homemade lemon curd instead.

How to Make Lemon Crumb Cake

• Make the crumbs. Stir cake flour, melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, lemon zest, and salt together to form a thick dough.

• Make the cake. Beat cake flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together. Beat in softened butter, then beat in the yogurt, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Fold in lemon curd until there are large streaks in the batter.

• Assemble and bake the cake. Transfer the batter to the baking pan. Break the topping into crumbs and scatter on top before baking until the cake is set.

• Ice the cake. Once cooled, drizzle the cake with an icing made from powdered sugar and lemon juice. Let the icing set before serving.

Helpful Swaps

• 1/3 cup buttermilk can be substituted for the yogurt.

• All-purpose flour can be substituted for cake flour. Use 1 2/3 cups in the crumb topping and 1 1/4 cups in the cake. The texture of the final cake will not be as fine or tender.

Comments

Lemon Crumb Cake Recipe

This buttery crumb cake gets a triple dose of lemon flavor. It tastes like sunshine!

Prep time 40 minutes

Cook time 35 minutes to 40 minutes

Serves 9 to 12

Nutritional Info

• Calories 399
• Fat 17.0 g (21.8%)
• Saturated 9.5 g (40.7%)
• Carbs 58.5 g (20.0%)
• Fiber 1.2 g (3.1%)
• Sugars 30.1 g
• Protein 4.3 g (3.6%)
• Sodium 121.6 mg (8.1%)

Ingredients

For the crumb topping

Cooking spray

• 8 tablespoons

(1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm

• 1/3 cup

granulated sugar

• 1/3 cup

packed dark or light brown sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon

• 1/4 teaspoon

kosher salt

• 1 3/4 cups

cake flour, preferably unbleached

For the cake

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

cut into 6 pieces and at room temperature

• 1 1/4 cups

cake flour, preferably unbleached

• 1/2 cup

granulated sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon

baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon

kosher salt

• 1/3 cup

plain yogurt (not fat-free)

• 1

large egg

• 1

large egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon

vanilla extract

• 1/3 cup

store-bought or homemade lemon curd

For the icing and garnish

• 1 cup

powdered sugar

• 1 tablespoon

plus 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 medium lemon), plus more as needed

Finely grated lemon zest, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Make the crumb topping

Arrange a rack in the top third of the oven and heat the oven to 325ºF. Fold a roughly 18-inch-long sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil lengthwise so that it is 8 inches wide. Line the bottom and two opposite sides of a metal 8-inch square baking dish with the sheet so that it extends over the sides to form a sling. Coat the pan and sheet with cooking spray.

Whisk 1 stick melted unsalted butter, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, the finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt together in a medium bowl until the butter is incorporated.

Stir and smash in 1 3/4 cups cake flour with a flexible spatula until no loose flour remains and a thick dough forms.

Make the cake

Beat 1 1/4 cups cake flour, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt together in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed until combined.

With the mixer still running, add 6 tablespoons room-temperature unsalted butter one piece at a time, waiting until the butter is no larger than a pea before adding the next. Continue beating until the mixture is evenly textured (it will still be loose and floury), 1 to 2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add 1/3 cup plain yogurt, 1 large egg, 1 large egg yolk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed, stopping and scraping the bowl halfway through, until thick and creamy, about 1 minute total.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Dollop 1/3 cup lemon curd evenly over the batter. Using a flexible spatula, fold the lemon curd into the batter in about 5 strokes so that there are still big streaks of curd running throughout the batter; do not overmix.

Transfer the batter to the baking pan and spread into an even layer with an offset spatula. Break the crumb topping up with your hands into pieces no bigger than a blueberry and scatter evenly over the batter.

Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (it will not brown much), 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes. Grasping the excess parchment, lift the cake out of the pan and place on a wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 hour more.

Make the icing

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