Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

This lemon cream cheese frosting is a bright, easy way to dress up cakes, cookies, or sweet rolls. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and tangy and is ready in 10 minutes!

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Ingredient Notes

• Cream cheese: The full-fat block-style is the only one I recommend. Make sure to soften the cream cheese to room temperature. If it’s too cold, it won’t clump.
• Unsalted Butter: Again, make sure to soften the butter to room temp. If you only have salted butter that’s ok! You can omit the salt from the recipe.
• Powdered sugar: This works well in this recipe as it incorporates easily without leaving any granules. You can use more or less depending on how sweet you like your cream cheese lemon frosting.
• Lemon: I use both the zest and juice. You can use lemon extract if you don’t have any fresh lemons on hand.
• Vanilla extract: It enhances all the other flavors in the frosting.
• Salt: Adds balance to the sweetness.
• Yellow food coloring: This isn’t necessary, and you can leave it out if you prefer not to use it, but it does give you that beautiful vibrant yellow color.

How to Make Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

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Cream the butter and cream cheese first, on their own. This is the step people rush, and it’s the one that matters most. Give it a full two to three minutes until it’s genuinely light and fluffy, not just combined. A stand mixer makes it easy, but hand beaters work fine if you’re patient.

Next, in goes the powdered sugar, fresh lemon juice and zest, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. I add the sugar a cup at a time so it doesn’t puff up all over the kitchen. Mix just until creamy. Overbeating once the sugar is in can thin it out.

Taste and adjust the lemon. Lemons can vary a lot, so always taste before you trust it. Want it brighter? Add more zest, which gives you flavor without the extra liquid.

Now it’s time to spread it or pipe it. A knife and a swirl is all you need for a quick cake. If you want those tall bakery swirls, like the ones on my cupcakes, use a piping bag and chill the frosting for a few minutes first so it holds its shape.

Recipe Tips

• Sift the powdered sugar first. A quick sift or whisk before it goes in the bowl breaks up any lumps that formed in storage, so you don’t get little hard bits in a finished frosting that’s supposed to be silky.
• Adjust the consistency to the baked good. Too thick, add a small splash of milk. Too thin, beat in more powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time. For piping, you want it on the stiffer side.
• Know how far it goes. A batch pipes tall swirls on about 16 cupcakes, or spreads over roughly 24 cupcakes, a full 9×13″ cake, or an 8″ layer cake. Double it for a three-layer cake.
• Keep it cool while piping. Cream cheese frosting softens fast in a warm kitchen or warm hands. If it starts losing its shape, chill it for five to ten minutes and carry on.

Ways to Use Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• Spread it over a vanilla cake, chocolate cake, or lemon poke cake. L
• ayer it into my lemon blueberry cake.
• Pipe swirls onto lemon raspberry cupcakes.
• Swap it in for the cream cheese glaze on my glazed lemon cookies.
• Slather it on soft sugar cookies or lemon brownies.
• Use it in place of lemon curd in crepes or a fresh fruit tart.