If you make a lot of meringue-based buttercreams, or even a lot of white cakes, you’ll eventually have a day that you have a lot of extra egg yolks.

If you have any sense of not wasting materials, which translates into not wasting money, you’ll probably try to think of something to do with those yolks.

You could make ice cream, but that can get fattening if you do it too often.

Not that it stops me, but I have to say it.

(For an article about fixing a broken meringue buttercream, click here)

You could make citrus curds with your extra yolks.

Curds can be made with either yolks alone or a combination of yolks and whole eggs.

Using only yolks will make a curd that can be spread like preserves, but isn’t thick like buttercream.

Thin layers of it in torted cakes will give them a nice bright citrus flavor.

You can also use citrus curds as a flavoring for meringue buttercreams, or on cookies or in tarts.

For a recipe for frosting with no butter, click here.

Lemon Curd

A tangy, sweet filling for cakes. It can also be used to flavor buttercream icing, or used with other desserts.

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Ingredients

4 Egg Yolks
3 ounces Lemon Juice
1/2 + 1/8 cups Sugar
4 Tbsp Butter

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients in a pan over medium to high heat until they thicken, stirring constantly to prevent hot spots at the bottom of the pan.
Heat just to the boiling point, then remove from the heat and strain into a small container.
Store the curd in the fridge until you need to use it. It will thicken when it cools off, but the all-yolks version stays relatively soft.
To make lime or orange curd, substitute lime or reduced orange juice for the lemon, and decrease the sugar to ½ cup.

For an article about what happens if you don’t get all of the yolk out of the egg whites, click here.