These lemon curd muffins are deliciously light and fluffy with a refreshing zing of lemon hidden in the centre.
Lemon curd muffins are a delicious treat if you like lemon muffins, but want a bit of extra zing with the lovely lemon filling. If you love lemon drizzle cake, and lemon poppyseed muffins, these lemon muffins filled with lemon curd are sure to be right up your street.
I wasn’t sure how the lemon curd would turn out being cooked in the muffins, but they stayed perfectly oozy and added a nice soft element in the middle of the muffins. Its a trick you could use with other flavours, but for these lemon muffins the lemon curd does the job!
This recipe for muffins uses no yoghurt so only ingredients you are likely to have in your store-cupboard. And getting the delicious oozy lemon curd centre is easier than you might think.
How can kids help make lemon curd muffins?
These are really easy muffins to make, so are a fun bake that kids will enjoy. Like most simple bakes, they can measure and mix the ingredients together and also have a chance to practice their pouring skills.
The bicarbonate of soda / baking soda reacts with the lemon juice so watching the texture change and the bubbles form is a fun lesson in science.
My kids also enjoyed squeezing the lemons. They both turned a little competitive and tried to get more juice out than the other! I didn’t mind as it meant we got extra lemony muffins!
If your kids don’t have the attention span to make a whole recipe, perhaps just get them to help you spoon the muffin batter into the cases. My youngest enjoyed being in charge of adding the lemon curd into each muffin case, while I did the muffin batter.
How do you store lemon curd muffins?
Once cooled you can store these muffins in an air tight container for a few days. If you want to store them for longer, you can freeze them for up to three months. Make sure you wrap them and pop them in a freezer bag, and then defrost them fully before you serve them.
What else can I make with lemon curd?
If you’ve got a jar of lemon curd this recipe won’t finish it, so what else can you make with the leftover lemon curd? Our lemon curd tarts are deliciously zingy and a great way of using up lemon curd. Belgian buns are similar to cinnamon rolls but with a lemon curd filling are another tasty way of using up your lemon curd.
Other lemony bakes?
If you liked these lemon curd muffins, you might like some of our other lemon flavoured recipes. If you have lemons left over you can use some up in these easy recipes:
Mary Berry lemon drizzle cake
Lemon biscuits
Lemon blueberry loaf
Lemon cupcakes
Lemon cheesecake
Mary Berry’s lemon meringue pie
Lemon drizzle cupcakes
Lemon blueberry muffins
Lemon meringue cheesecake
Other easy muffin recipes for kids
If you and your kids like making muffins you’ll love these other easy muffin recipes:
Blueberry and apple muffins
Cheese muffins
Blueberry muffins
Apple cinnamon muffins
Triple chocolate muffins
Raspberry and white chocolate muffins
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these lemon curd muffins
Digital scales
Lemon juicer
Lemon zester
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoons
Measuring cup
Measuring jug
Muffin tin
Cupcake cases
Wire rack
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Ingredients
2 lemons
275g (2 1/4 cups) self raising flour
100g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
½ tsp baking soda / bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
150ml (2/3 cup) milk
90ml (1/3 cup) sunflower oil
1 egg
4 tbsp lemon curd
icing sugar (approx 100g/ 1 cup) (Optional)
How to make lemon curd muffins
Preheat your oven to 190C / 170C Fan / 375F and line a muffin tray with cases.
Juice and zest the lemons
Get your kids to zest the lemons. Only do this if they are old enough to do it safely and not grate their own fingers.
Then let them juice one of the lemons. We normally pop ours in the microwave for 10 seconds or so before we juice them as it makes the juice a little easier to get out.
We’ve got a lemon juicer that my kids find quite easy to use. They can do most of the juicing themselves and then I might just finish off the lemons to make sure we’ve got all the juice out. If you don’t have a juicer, once you’ve cut the lemon in half get your kids to squeeze each half or put a tea spoon in it to force some of the juice bits out.
Set the juice aside for now, but put your zest in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Get your kids to measure out the flour and sugar and add them to your large mixing bowl.
Using a measuring teaspoon, measure out the baking soda/ bicarbonate of soda. Your kids could either do this all themselves or help you by levelling off the top with their finger. Add it to your mixing bowl.
Do the same with the salt.
Mix the wet ingredients together
Now get your kids to measure out the milk, either into a measuring jug, or if you have them use the ml setting on your digital scales.
Do the same with the oil. If you’re using digital scales you can simply reset them to zero and add the oil. Alternatively, decant the milk into something else and use your measuring jug to measure the oil.
Once you’ve measuring the oil and milk out, put them together and add the egg. If your kids are cracking the egg get them to do into a small bowl first in case there is rogue shell before adding it to your mixture. If/when shell does go in the bowl, simply fish it out with a larger piece of shell or a teaspoon. It’ll stick to those more easily and less messily than it will your finger.
Whisk everything together.
Add the wet ingredients into the dry ones
Get your kids to pour the wet ingredients from your measuring jug as well as the previously squeezed lemon juice into your mixing bowl. Stir everything together with some wooden spoons or a spatula.
Stir everything together until it has just combined. We found the texture of these muffins at this point looked a bit unusual. Don’t worry, it’s just the lemon juice and the baking soda/bicarb reacting. This reaction is what will make the muffins nice and light and fluffy once they’re baked and is quite a fun science lesson for your kids!
Bake the lemon curd muffins
Give your kids a spoon and get them to spoon some muffin batter into each muffin case until they are about half full.
Using a teaspoon, spoon a dollop of lemon curd into the middle of each muffin case, then cover with another spoon of the lemon curd batter.
Pop your muffins in the oven and bake them for around 20-25 minutes.
They’re ready when they have risen and turned a nice shade of golden brown.
Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes in the tin before removing them from the tin and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Decorate the lemon muffins
Start by squeezing your second lemon. In a small bowl add the icing sugar. As every lemon gives a different amount of juice, don’t add all the icing sugar at once. Add a little at a time, stirring all the time. Keep adding the icing sugar until the icing is thick enough that it wont run off the muffins but is still thin enough to drizzle on top. You may need a little more/less than the 100g depending on how juicy your lemon is.
Once your lemon muffins are cool, drizzle the lemon icing over the top using a small spoon.
If you want to do it even more neatly you can add the icing to a small freezer/zip lock bag. Snip a tiny hole in a corner then pipe on nice lines.
Alternatively sprinkle the lemon curd muffins with some icing sugar before popping them on your serving plate.
Serve and enjoy.
Lemon curd muffins
These lemon curd muffins are deliciously light and fluffy with a refreshing zing of lemon hidden in the centre.
Ingredients
- 2 lemons
- 275 g (2 1/4 cups) self raising flour
- 100 g ( 1/4 cup) caster sugar
- ½ tsp baking soda / bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) milk
- 90 ml (1/3 cup) sunflower oil
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp lemon curd
- icing sugar approx 100g/ 1 cup
Instructions
Juice and zest the lemons
Zest the lemons with a zester or the small side of a grater.
Juice one of the lemons. I you pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so before you juice it, it makes the juice a little easier to get out.
Set the juice aside for now, but put your zest in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Measure out the flour and sugar and add them to your large mixing bowl.
Using a measuring teaspoon, measure out the baking soda/ bicarbonate of soda. Add it to your mixing bowl.
Do the same with the salt
Mix the wet ingredients together
Measure out the milk, either into a measuring jug, or if you have them use the ml setting on your digital scales. Do the same with the oil, and then add the egg.
Finally add the lemon juice (from 1 lemon) to your measuring jug.
Whisk everything together
Add the wet ingredients into the dry ones
Pour the wet ingredients into your mixing bowl. Stir everything together with some wooden spoons or a spatula.
Stir everything together until it has just combined. We found the texture of these muffins at this point looked a bit unusual. Don’t worry, it’s just the lemon juice and the baking soda/bicarb reacting. This reaction is what will make the muffins nice and light and fluffy once they’re baked and is quite a fun science lesson for your kids!
Bake the lemon curd muffins
Spoon some muffin batter into each muffin case until they are about half full.
Using a teaspoon, spoon a dollop of lemon curd into the middle of each muffin case, then cover with another spoon of the lemon curd batter.
Pop your muffins in the oven and bake them for around 20-25 minutes.
They’re ready when they have risen and turned a nice shade of golden brown. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes in the tin before removing them from the tin and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Decorate the lemon muffins
Start by squeezing your second lemon. In a small bowl add the icing sugar. As every lemon gives a different amount of juice, don’t add all the icing sugar at once. Add a little at a time, stirring all the time. Keep adding the icing sugar until the icing is thick enough that it wont run off the muffins but is still thin enough to drizzle on top. You may need a little more/less than the 100g depending on how juicy your lemon is.
- Once your lemon muffins are cool, drizzle the lemon icing over the top using a small spoon.If you want to do it even more neatly you can add the icing to a small freezer/zip lock bag. Snip a tiny hole in a corner then pipe on nice lines.
Alternatively, sprinkle the muffins with a dusting of icing sugar before serving them.
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Similar recipes
If you liked these lemon curd muffins, you’ll like our lemon curd filled Belgian buns, our other muffin recipes as well as our other easy bakes for kids.
This recipe was first published in June 2020, and updated with new pictures in December 2024.
