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Tart and sweet, this lemon buttercream frosting is dessert heaven! Because lemons make life better. You’d better hold on to your spoons because this frosting is honestly irresistible! If you are looking for a lemon glaze, try my Lemon Glaze recipe—it’s one of the most popular on this website!
How to Make Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients needed:
- 1 cup of salted butter
- 4 cups of icing sugar
- Two tablespoons of lemon zest
- Three tablespoons of lemon juice
- Two teaspoons cream
Directions:
- Whip your butter with the paddle attachment if you have one, or just a general beater with your mixer.
- Add your icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating continuously. Two tablespoons of lemon zest worked wonderfully for me. By the way, the zested peel should not be done on a regular grater. You need a smaller size, a zester grater, in fact. The size is perfect without being overwhelming in your cooking.
The three tablespoons of lemon juice were just perfect for my tastes. They were zingy and zippy, with a sweet background of pure sugar and butter. I then added the two teaspoons of cream to thin it out.
And THEN… then, I put it on my lemon blueberry coffee cake (recipe coming in the next couple of days). I took half to work, where the ladies promptly raved over the icing and demolished it all, and half to my son’s school for the teacher’s lunchroom.
Happy baking, everyone!
Make sure that you also get my recipe for vanilla Buttercream Frosting, or if you are looking for something zippier my Cream Cheese Icing is also amazing on red velvet, chocolate cake, you name it!
Karlynn
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup of salted butter
- 4 cups of icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons cream
Instructions
- Whip your butter with the paddle attachment if you have one, or just a general beater with your mixer.
- Add in your icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating continously. Now 2 tablespoons lemon zest worked wonderfully for me. Zested peel should not be done on a regular grater, by the way, you need a smaller size, a zester grater, in fact. The size is perfect without being overwhelming chunks in your cooking.
- The 3 tablespoons of lemon juice was just perfect for my tastes, zingy and zippy with a sweet background of pure sugar and butter. I then added the 2 teaspoons of cream to thin it out.
Notes
Nutrition
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Jennifer C says
I made this for my son’s birthday. Nothing but praises for the cake. Super moist and very lemony. Everyone devoured it. This was easy to make and it is a definite keeper for my recipe file!! I used a Bundt pan and glazed it with a lemon glaze icing
Madiha says
Did you use yellow food colouring for the frosting or it just turned out yellow? I want to make pink frosting, but if this frosting is yellow already, i won’t get a pink colour. Please advise.
Glorianne Naughton says
How many cupcakes does your recipe frost?
Carey says
Fantastic. Very simple. Used Meyer lemons Which were a perfect balance of citrus. I did find myself adding twice the amount of cream for a thinner frosting. Printing this recipe out for the future.
charlotte says
hi there,
when it said cream does it mean heavy whipping cream
Felicia Kelly says
Do you have a good lemon cupcake recipe
Krista says
Thank you for this recipe! Perfect parts lemony-sweet-buttery without over doing it. I’m not much of an icing person and I *may* have licked some off the beaters. I topped the cupcakes with a smidge more zest and dried pineapple wedges cut in half. Can’t wait to eat one later at my brother’s wedding!
Barbara O'Carroll says
“A pint is a pound the world around” was taught to my mother in HomeEc class almost 100 years ago. She taught me. Comes in handy to know though I often wonder if it is ALWAYS true.
So, 1 cup should be 8 oz and in fact works with butter.
A 1 pound package of butter has 4 sticks wrapped separately.
Each stick is 1/2 cup.
Hence 1 cup is 2 sticks And is also 1/2 the pound of butter or 8 ounces.
Sarah Kathryn Mann says
Hi Karlynn!
I love our website, especially your buttcream icing, which I make all the time! I recently tried your lemon version and it was fantastic! Just wondering if you have ever tried it with orange? I would assume I could use the same measurments…?