Love everything lemony?? Then, this Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting is for you! It’s soft, smooth, creamy and loaded with fresh lemon flavour!
I simply LOVE Lemon flavour in my desserts. It brings such a refreshing change from the usual flavours we eat. This cream cheese frosting is for everyone who loves their desserts less sweet.
Since it’s a cream cheese frosting, the sweetness itself isn’t too intense. With the addition of lemon juice and fresh lemon zest, it brings surprisingly great tanginess and uplifts the whole frosting flavour.
The frosting can be paired with many desserts like cakes and cupcakes with base flavours of vanilla, lemon, banana, Blueberry, Raspberry, coconut and many more.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe?
- The Flavours: The sweet-sour combination is the best flavour combination. The refreshing lemony flavour is something so soothing and subtle that you would love to pair this frosting with various desserts.
- The Texture: It’s so velvety and creamy. You’ll love to use it as filling and frosting the cakes. It has piping consistency as well, so great for decorating cupcakes.
- Less Sweet: When it comes to buttercream, I generally find them overly sweet, especially American Buttercream. However, this cream cheese frosting isn’t too sugary and has a perfect balance between sweet and sour.
Important Ingredients Used In The Recipe
- Cream Cheese: Numerous brands and types of cream cheese are available in the market. Choose the right one. Do not use a cream cheese spread or cream cheese with a liquid consistency—only use cream cheese blocks.
- Unsalted Butter: It balances out the sourness that cream cheese brings along with itself. With the addition of unsalted butter, we get a more balanced flavour and also the aeration or fluffiness that we need.
- Lemon Juice and Zest: The hero ingredients of the frosting, lemon adds a great twist to the frosting, which is pleasant to the palate as well as the desserts we pair it with.
How To Make Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Preparation: Gather all ingredients and tools needed to make the frosting. Compete list of ingredients with their quantities is given in the recipe card below.
Mix Lemon Juice and Icing Sugar: In a bowl, mix icing sugar and lemon juice until the sugar dissolves completely. Keep this mixture aside.
Beat Butter: In a large mixing bowl, beat softened unsalted butter with an electric hand beater keeping the speed at a medium pace. Beat it until it’s fluffy.
Add Cream Cheese: Once the butter has increased in volume, add cream cheese and continue beating. Both should get combined well.
Add Sugar-Lemon Mixture: Next, gradually add the previously made mixture of icing sugar and lemon juice. Beat this into the buttercream until it blends well.
Add Lemon Zest: Now, add the freshly grated lemon zest to the buttercream. This will bring a lot of flavour as well as fragrance to the frosting.
Add Yellow Gel Color: Finally, the last step is to add a hint of yellow icing gel colour. Mix it well to get the right pop of colour.
Chef’s Tips For The Recipe
Do Not Overbeat The Frosting
We do not want unwanted air trapped in the buttercream as that would lead to mini bubbles which would pop when you would frost or pipe the cake. Hence to prevent this from happening, ensure you do not overbeat the frosting.
Tip for Lemon
When grating the skin of the lemon for the zest, grate only the yellow part. Below the yellow, there is a white-coloured skin layer as well, which is mostly bitter. Do not grate that, as that would make the frosting bitter in taste.
How To Store Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
It is always recommended to make a fresh batch of frosting when needed and use it immediately. If you have leftover frosting or you want to make it ahead of time, then store it in the refrigerator cling-wrapped in a bowl for 3 days. Thaw it first and beat it again before using it.
More Easy Recipes
You would love our other frostings as well. Try out-
