Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Make rich and creamy Lemon Buttercream Frosting flavored with fresh lemons for the brightest and best flavor. Use this easy homemade buttercream recipe to decorate cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. Just try to resist eating it by the spoonful!
Delicious Details
- Cuisine Inspiration: American
- Primary Cooking Method: No-bake
- Dietary Info: Gluten-free, Dairy-free option
- Skill Level: Easy
Whenever someone mentions lemons and spring baking, the first thing that comes to mind is one of my favorite movie characters of all time – Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. “Lemons? For spring? How original.” She was, in fact, speaking about florals, but you get my drift.
Original or not, nothing signals warmer weather better than fresh, zippy citrus. This is why I’m on a lemon kick lately, with my Gluten Free Lemon Bars, a classic Lemon Meringue Pie, and this easy homemade lemon buttercream frosting for all my spring cakes and cupcakes.
The Best Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Here’s why you’ll love it…
- So simple. Put simply, American buttercream frosting is frosting made with butter, powdered sugar, flavoring, and a liquid to achieve the right texture. This buttercream recipe only needs three main ingredients, and it always comes out smooth and creamy, with a delicious lemony punch.
- Incredible flavor. One of those ingredients is a few lemons, so you can use both the juice and the zest to make it so bright and fresh that every bite tastes like summertime. The first time I made this sunny lemon buttercream, half of me wanted to forget the cupcakes altogether and inhale the frosting with a spoon! So, yes, lemons for spring, summer, and beyond.
- Lots of uses. Of course, you can use lemon frosting for cake and cupcakes. But it’s also wonderful on cookies, shortbread, donuts, blondies, or even as a dip for vanilla wafers. Keep reading for more ideas!
Recipe Ingredient Notes
You need just 4 ingredients to make this basic lemon buttercream. The full ingredient amounts and recipe details can be found further down in the recipe card.
- Butter: I recommend using unsalted butter, but if you use salted, consider leaving out the added salt. Take your butter out of the fridge so that it can soften to room temperature beforehand.
- Powdered Sugar: You might also know it as icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar. This is a must for frosting that’s smooth and creamy, and not grainy.
- Lemon: You’ll need the fresh zest and juice from real lemons. Leave the bottled lemon juice in the pantry for this one!
- Salt
How to Make Lemon Buttercream
If you have an electric mixer and 10 minutes, you can make your very own bright and zesty lemon icing recipe. It’s so simple, and you’ll never want to buy the store-bought kind again. Here’s how to make it:
- Beat the Butter: Begin by beating the softened butter for a good 2-3 minutes to ensure you end up with light and fluffy lemon buttercream frosting.
- Combine: Slowly mix in powdered sugar, lemon zest, salt, and lemon juice, then up the speed and give the frosting a good whip until it’s smooth and creamy. You can adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar or lemon juice (to thicken or thin it out as needed).
- Frost: Transfer the lemon frosting to a piping bag, or spread it over your cooled cakes and cupcakes right away. When decorating cupcakes, there isn’t anything easier than using a disposable piping bag to pipe on a gorgeous swirl of buttercream using a star tip. For covering a cake, a small offset spatula is great for spreading the frosting, while a large offset spatula helps you get a nice, smooth finish over the entire cake. See below for more ideas on how to use your lemon frosting, along with how to store leftovers.
Tips for Success
This lemon buttercream is maybe the easiest frosting you’ll ever make! There are a few tricks to getting it perfect, though:
- Use room-temperature butter. Whether you’re making buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting, your ingredients will mix more smoothly if they’re at room temperature before you start. Remember to take your butter out of the fridge about 30 minutes ahead of time.
- If you don’t have fresh lemons, your next best bet for flavoring the frosting is to use a few drops of lemon extract. It will be far less tart than bottled lemon juice. Using lemon extract is also a good idea if you’re making this lemon frosting for kids, as the flavor tends to be milder.
- Add the ingredients a little at a time. I always go with the approach that you can always add more, but you can’t take it away. Incorporate the powdered sugar, zest, and lemon juice gradually, and adjust the flavor and consistency as you go.
- To thicken the frosting, add more powdered sugar. To thin it out, add more lemon juice one spoonful at a time.
- Store buttercream airtight. To prevent a crust from forming over the frosting while it sits out, make sure you cover it airtight. See below for detailed storage instructions.
- To make a vegan lemon frosting: Swap the butter for your preferred dairy-free vegan butter or margarine.
How to Store Homemade Buttercream
- Room temperature. Store any leftover frosting airtight on the counter for up to 2-3 days.
- Refrigerator. To keep it longer, you can put it in the fridge for up to one week. You’ll want to let it come back to room temperature again before you use it.
- Freezer. For even longer storage, this buttercream frosting can be stored frozen, airtight, for up to 3 months. Defrost the frosting in the fridge before using it.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting FAQs
This one! The zest and fresh juice give it real lemon flavor, and it’s stiff enough to pipe but smooth enough to spread. Frost your favorite lemon cake once it’s completely cooled. For extra lemon, spread a layer of lemon curd between the layers.
There are lots of things you can frost with lemon buttercream. It’s great on gluten free white cake or gluten free yellow cake, and it’s the frosting for my gluten free lemon cupcakes. You can also use it on sugar cookies and lemon shortbread, or pipe it between vanilla wafers for lemon sandwich cookies.
Fresh lemons give the brightest flavor, so I’d save the bottled lemon juice for something else. If you don’t have fresh lemons, a few drops of lemon extract is your next best bet. It’s much less tart, so it also works well if you’re frosting for kids. Check the label on your extract if you’re keeping things gluten free.
To thicken it, add more powdered sugar. To thin it, add more lemon juice a little at a time. Go slowly, since you can always add more, but you can’t take it back out
Many people use the words interchangeably, and this lemon buttercream is what most people are after when they search for a lemon icing recipe. Some people use “icing” for a thinner glaze. If that’s what you want, thin it with a little extra lemon juice
Yes. Swap the butter for your favorite dairy-free vegan butter or margarine.
Ways to Use Lemon Buttercream Frosting
The stiffness of buttercream frosting is ideal for piping beautiful frosting swirls and rosettes. It’s also smooth and creamy enough to spread. So if you’re not comfortable with a piping bag just yet, this frosting has you covered! Here are some ways to use it…
- Cupcakes to top with buttercream. I love this lemon icing for cupcakes, and it makes enough to frost two dozen. Double the citrus on my Gluten Free Lemon Cupcakes, add some spring flavor to Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes, or use your favorite homemade cupcakes.
- Best cakes for frosting. Sandwich some Lemon Curd between layers of Gluten Free White Cake or Gluten Free Yellow Cake, then cover it with lemon frosting. For double the lemon goodness, add a layer on top of Gluten Free Lemon Pound Cake.
- Cookies you can frost and sandwich. You can also use it to decorate Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies. You can also pipe a little in Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Cups or between store-bought or homemade vanilla wafers to make Lemon Sandwich Cookies.
- Bars to cover with icing. Spread it over a big batch of Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Bars or onto Gluten Free Lemon Shortbread to dress up this simple cookie.
More Easy Homemade Frosting Recipes
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar plus up to 1 additional cup if needed
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice plus up to 1 additional Tablespoon if needed
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, beat 1 cup unsalted butter with a hand mixer or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice. Starting on low speed, beat until everything is incorporated, then gradually increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth and creamy. Add additional lemon juice or powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency.
- Immediately frost a cooled cake or cupcakes, or store the frosting in an airtight container for later use. If stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, the frosting will keep for up to a week. Bring to room temperature before using. Frosting can also be stored at room temperature for 2 or 3 days.
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Absolutely delicious.!!😋
This was delicious! It is now saved for future cupcakes!
Absolutely delicious
Loved, loved, loved this recipe