Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

What Makes this Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting the BEST?

• Easy to Make. This is an American style cream cheese buttercream, so it’s super easy to make and only uses 4 ingredients.
• 4 Ingredients. And ones you probably already have on hand – butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon. Sometimes I add a little vanilla extract just for funsies.
• Easily adaptable for different desserts. You can easily adjust the consistency of this lemon cream cheese frosting. Add a little extra powdered sugar to thicken it up a bit for piping onto cupcakes, or add a little extra lemon juice (or heavy cream) to thin it out to spread onto sheet cakes or cookie bars.
• Can make ahead to save time. You can prep the frosting a day or two before you want to serve it and keep it covered in the fridge. Then, when ready to serve, just let it come to room temp for an hour or two and use your mixer to whip it back to the perfect silky texture.
• Real lemon. This frosting uses fresh lemon zest and fresh lemon juice to really bring the lemon flavor through.

Ingredients

• Butter. There is very few ingredients in frosting and it’s not cooked at all, so the quality of ingredients you choose will really make a difference. I love using Kerrygold Salted Butter, but any European style butter, like Danish Creamery or Plugra will do the trick. You can use salted or unsalted butter – up to you. If you use unsalted, I’d recommend adding a pinch of salt to the frosting to help balance out the sweetness.
• Cream Cheese. Again, the quality of ingredients is important in make a delicious and also perfectly smooth frosting. I always reach for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese when baking and making frosting.
• Powdered Sugar. Nothing fancy here, any powdered sugar is fine. No need to sift or baby it. We will get our frosting smooth during the mixing process with a couple little tips!
• Lemon. Fresh lemon juice and zest!

How to Make Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

First, make sure your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature. This is super important if you want your frosting perfectly smooth. Let the butter and cream cheese sit at room temp for at least an hour before starting.

In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the room temperature butter and cream cheese for 10 minutes on medium high speed. Stop the mixer every 2-3 minutes to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is getting whipped evenly. After 10 minutes, the butter and cream cheese should be lightened in color, and fluffy – almost resembling frosting already.

Next, add the powdered sugar half at a time, mixing on the lowest speed for 3 minutes after each addition. Again, make sure to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. Finally, mix in the lemon zest and juice until smooth. For super smooth frosting, heat the lemon juice in the microwave for 5-7 seconds before adding it. You don’t want it to be hot, just ever so slightly warm.

To adjust the consistency you can thicken it by adding more powdered sugar and thin it by adding more lemon juice. You can also thin it with heavy cream if it’s lemony enough.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting FAQs

• Can I make the frosting ahead of time? Yes. You can make it up to a week in advance and keep it covered in the fridge. When ready to serve, just let the frosting come to room temp for an hour or two, then whip it back to the perfect consistency.
• Does the frosting have to be refrigerated? Yes and no. You can frost your dessert, and then let it sit at room temperature for up to 3 days. The high sugar to fat ratio makes the frosting shelf stable for at least that long. Any longer than that, I’d recommend refrigeration.
• Can I omit the cream cheese? Yes. If you want a regular Lemon American Buttercream without the cream cheese, just swap the cream cheese for an equal amount of butter, or cut the powdered sugar in half.

Tools & Equipment

• Stand Mixer. This recipe requires a lot of mixing to get the perfect consistency, so I always use my stand mixer. It’s definitely possible to use an electric hand mixer, but will just take some patience and a little elbow grease.
• Rubber Spatula. You’ll need to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl several times throughout the process of making frosting and the perfect tool for that is a long and sturdy rubber spatula, like this one.
• Piping Bags & Tips. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes or decorate a cake, you’ll need piping bags and tips. I like these disposable 18″ piping bags and this is a good starter set with lots of tips if you’re planning on decorating cakes. I also use a large round tip and a French star tip for cupcakes often!
• Offset Spatula. I use an offset spatula to spread frosting onto cakes and use different sizes depending on the size of the cake. I reach for this guy most often.
• Citrus Zester. For the fresh zest – I like this one.

Baking Inspiration with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

The world is your oyster because this frosting is truly good on everything, but these are the recipes I pair with it most often –