I’m trying to build out the frosting section on Sally’s Baking Addiction with some of my basic frosting faves and a few fun ones like creamy strawberry frosting and rainbow chip frosting (holy heck, that one!). My latest success is lemon buttercream frosting. This is a tricky one to master because lemon juice + zest can produce a curdled-looking buttercream, quite the opposite of anyone’s agenda. Have you ever tasted curdled fros… I can’t even finish that question. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.
(Note: I used Wilton 8B for today’s frosting!)
To overcome that curdled situation, you have to make sure you have enough confectioners’ sugar to battle the additional liquid. And, most notably, you want to stick to fresh lemon instead of artificial lemon flavoring. Lemon extract is wonderful and all, but it doesn’t even compare to fresh lemons in both the aroma and flavor categories.
But here’s the common dilemma! Adding extra confectioners’ sugar is an easy solution and all, but you can add *too* much. Overly sweet and artificial frosting follows, which is everything you were hoping against.
We want REAL lemon flavor. And:
- Tangy + creamy, sweet but not overly so.
- Easy to pipe, fresh, and silky.
- NOT curdled.
Tall orders when it comes to lemon buttercream, but I cracked that code. The secret is in the balance of confectioners’ sugar to liquid. With the precise recipe below, you’ll enter lemon frosting nirvana where you have the texture and consistency of vanilla buttercream, with fresh lemon flavor.
Besides adding enough confectioners’ sugar, my secret is the ratio of lemon juice to heavy cream. I used to skip the heavy cream completely and only use lemon juice as the liquid. Hence the curdling situation. Cream ensures a CREAMY and THICK (hey, who woulda thunk?) consistency. I don’t suggest subbing it out!
The pictured cupcakes are my lemon cupcakes. If lemon is your soul sista, this frosting and the lemon cupcakes are a combo you’ve gotta try. But it’s equally as delicious on white chocolate strawberry cupcakes, lemon blueberry cupcakes, and even vanilla cupcakes, as an alternative filling and frosting for a 6 inch citrus cake or lemon cake, or swiped on top of lemon shortbread cookies.
Print
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2.5 cups
- Category: Frosting
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Lemon buttercream frosting is tangy, sweet, and creamy. It tastes delicious on everything and is so easy to make!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 and 1/2 cups (540g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 and 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- pinch salt, to taste
Instructions
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy—about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, heavy cream, and zest with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Taste and add salt as needed. Add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.
- Cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. After freezing or refrigerating, thaw in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature then beat the frosting for a few seconds so it’s creamy again. You may need to add a little milk or heavy cream if it’s still too stiff.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Citrus Juicer | Zester | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Quantity: This recipe is enough to frost 12-16 cupcakes or one 9×13 quarter sheet cake.
Reader Comments and Reviews
i love this recipe ,but i want to know sally can i and cream cheese?
Hi Jane! See our lemon layer cake post for a deliciously creamy lemon cream cheese buttercream recipe!
Absolut perfect consistency and the frosting was delicious!! Made with your lemon cake recipe. Thank you Sally !!!
Could I substitute the lemon juice and zest for raspberry extract to make raspberry buttercream?
Hi Linh, a few options for you — you can use the raspberry buttercream from these cupcakes, or you can use our strawberry frosting recipe and replace the freeze dried strawberries with freeze dried raspberries instead. Or, you could simply use our vanilla buttercream and add raspberry extract.
Hi Sally, I made this lemon buttercream to go along with your recipe for Lemon Cupcakes, and I loved it! The cupcakes were amazingly light, fluffy, and lemony and the frosting was a perfect accompaniment. Thank you so much for all your recipes!
Absolutely amazing! I made lemon cupcakes and used this icing for my friend’s birthday today. Nothing but compliments from everyone! I’m adding this to my cupcake rotation. Delicious!
I used Myer lemons instead of the regular lemons. Found I needed to add just a tiny bit more of the juice (lighter/ different lemon flavor). It was absolutely delicious!I could *almost* eat this straight!
I love this recipe so much. We made it for my moms birthday with your vanilla frosting and it was amazing. Huge success.
I loved this recipe so much
So this recipe calls for lemon juice and lemon zest. I feel that i wont like the lemon zest texture in the buttercream. I looked up on google what to substitute lemon zest with and it said lemon extract. but would lemon juice and lemon extract be too much liquid? Or instead would i just put more juice and leave out the zest and use no extract. Let me know as soon as you can!! ☺️ Ty
Hi Abby! For frostings, we find that fresh juice and zest are much better than extracts in both aroma and flavor. If you were to try extract instead, we’d recommend starting with about a 1/2 teaspoon in addition to the lemon juice, then tasting and adjusting as you’d like.
Hi, Can I substitute fresh juice with store bought for the buttercream?
Shouldn’t be a problem!
Is this frosting safe to use under fondant? I plan on making a white cake with blueberry jam filling and thought the lemon frosting would help cut the sweetness a bit.
Hi Tania, This buttercream should be just fine under fondant. Enjoy!
What do you think about adding a few drops of lemon OIL to enhance the lemon flavor?
Hi Milly, you can certainly give it a try — we’d recommend starting small so that the oil flavor doesn’t become overpowering and it doesn’t impact the texture of the buttercream too much. Let us know how it goes!
I love lemon anything & found this recipe & decided to give it a try & it is absolutely delicious. I just add a little bit more lemon juice & sugar to get a little stronger lemon taste. But absolutely fantastic, thanks for the recipe!!
Is this a good frosting to ice cakes with?
And can I sub the heavy cream for almond milk?
Hi Sophia, absolutely, this recipe is great for frosting cakes. You can use almond milk in a pinch, but the frosting won’t be nearly as rich and creamy.
Hello, Sally! Is it ok if I half the recipe for a lesser yield? I mean, I know who wants less frosting, right?! But I end up with so much extra frosting than I usually need.
Hi Joey, absolutely — simply halve all the ingredients. Enjoy!
Is this easily spreadable for a naked sponge cake? I am a novice and making my own wedding cake so I need something easy to work with!
Hi Lacey! Yes, definitely. You can always play with the ratios of sugar and cream to reach the perfect consistency (add a tiny bit more cream for a looser frosting if needed). Happy baking!
supper delicious cupcakes
I’m working on a b-day cake for a friend, lemon blueberry cake with lemon frosting, but wants a galaxy theme. Will this frosting hold up well with the addition of food coloring?
Hi Amanda, Yes you can add food coloring to this frosting. We use and recommend gel food colors as you don’t have to add as much to get brighter colors.
Thank you so much, I look forward to trying this, I love your recipes!
Can I substitute the lemon zest with more lemon juice? If so, how much?
Hi Nakmi, Adding extra lemon juice would result in a thinner frosting. It’s possible, but just know the consistency will be different. You can add just enough until you are happy with both the taste and the consistency.
It was extremely sweet even though I already added less sugar than it says in the recipe. Otherwise the taste was good and the consistency perfect, but just way too sweet, so I wouldn’t make it again.
Hi can I use vegitable oil instead and cake four ?
Hi Racheal, we don’t recommend vegetable oil here — it will not cream together with the confectioners’ sugar like butter does. We also do not recommend cake flour in place of the confectioners’ sugar.
I made this recipe and it turned out absolutely delicious thank you so much for sharing
This sounds delicious! I don’t have heavy cream, so how much Greek Yogurt and Milk should I use instead?
Hi Lux, the frosting will be slightly less fluffy with milk but will work in a pinch! (No need to add Greek yogurt)
Hello Sally,
Can I use lemon extract instead fresh lemon juice and how much of lemon extract should I put for this recipe?
Hi Dorota, for frostings we find that fresh juice and zest are much better than extracts in both aroma and flavor. If you were to use extract instead, we’d recommend starting with about a teaspoon, then tasting and adjusting as you’d like. You’ll need much less than the lemon juice and zest called for.
How long will this frosting keep in the fridge? I need to make it 4 days ahead of cake day.
Hi Jeanne, Cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
I made this following the recipe exactly. (Well, I only had salted butter, so I used that) Came out so delicious ! Everyone loved it! Thank you!
This is fantastic! Loved, loved, loved it!!! Made per instructions and I’m a “happy camper”. Sent my sister a snapshot and now she’s going to make it, too.
Question: Does my cake need to be refrigerated or can I leave it out at room temperature?
Hi Rosalind, After decorating anything with buttercream or cream cheese frosting, it’s fine for 1 day at room temperature. After that, it’s best to refrigerate it. As always, use your best judgment and whatever you are comfortable with.
Fantastic recipe! I followed it exactly and it turned out perfectly, no need for any deviations! Thank you for creating this blog and giving me this go-to recipe so I don’t have to listen to random people on the internet, am so grateful.
This is delicious! The consistency was wonderful. I didn’t have heavy cream so I left it out. I beat the butter with the lemon juice together for 8 minutes, then added the powdered sugar and no curdling! I also didn’t add the zest as I don’t like that texture in frosting so I upped the lemon taste with lemon paste. I used some to frost a cake and some to fill French macaroons.
Sally, if I wanted to make an orange buttercream to pair with a chai-spiced cupcake, could I sub in orange zest and juice to this recipe, do you think?
Absolutely!