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Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Delicious lemon buttercream frosting, the perfect topping for any cake or cupcake.
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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!

lemon blueberry coffee cupcake topped with Lemon Buttercream Frosting and pink flower icing

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:

  1. Whip your butter with the paddle attachment if you have one, or just a general beater with your mixer.
  2. 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.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting and pink icing flower on top of lemon cupcake

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

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Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Delicious lemon buttercream frosting, the perfect topping for any cake or cupcake.
4.98 from 35 votes
Lemon Buttercream Frosting and pink icing flower on top of lemon cupcake
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
1 minute
Total Time
6 minutes
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
Frosting
Servings
18
Calories
196
Author
Karlynn Johnston

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.

Recipe Notes

This recipe will frost around 18 cupcakes, but that depends on how much icing you use on each cupcake! 
It will also frost one (( 2 layer) cake.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 196kcal, Carbohydrates: 26g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 27mg, Sodium: 90mg, Potassium: 5mg, Sugar: 26g, Vitamin A: 325IU, Vitamin C: 1.8mg, Calcium: 4mg

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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The BEST lemon buttercream frosting ever! One taste of this tart and sweet delight will have you in dessert heaven!

Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

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Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. 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 icing5 stars

  2. 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.

  3. Glorianne Naughton says

    How many cupcakes does your recipe frost?4 stars

  4. 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.5 stars

  5. charlotte says

    hi there,
    when it said cream does it mean heavy whipping cream

  6. 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!5 stars

  7. 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.

  8. 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…?5 stars

4.98 from 35 votes

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