Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
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Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting is light and creamy with fresh lemon flavor. It’s slightly tangy and not overly sweet. Perfect for piping or decorating cupcakes and cakes.
Cream cheese frosting is my absolute favorite, and I’m building up a collection of flavors. I’ve done original, chocolate, coconut and now lemon.
There’s nothing like bright spring flavors to get you out of a winter funk. Lemons are fresh, bright, and zesty. Their yellow color is so sunshiny and happy. They are sure to pucker up your mouth and your mood.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
This lemon cream cheese frosting is a variation from my BEST cream cheese frosting recipe with lemon zest, extract, and juice to bring out that bright, fresh flavor.
Pair this frosting with homemade lemon cupcakes or my lemon sugar cookies and you will be in citrus heaven.
This recipe has a good ratio of cream cheese to butter (2:1) for stability, and very little powdered sugar so the cream cheese and lemon flavors come through.
Lemon pairs well with any berry (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry) so switch up the flavors of cake or use this frosting on something as simple as vanilla cupcakes. You’re going to love it!
More Cream Cheese Frostings:
- The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 ounces brick cream cheese, cold
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp pure lemon extract
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Place cream cheese in a large mixing bowl.
- Use an electric hand mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- Gradually add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until smooth and well blended.
- Add the lemon zest, extract, juice, and powdered sugar all at once. Blend until combined and smooth. Spread or pipe over cakes/cupcakes.
Notes
- Yield: 1 1/2 cups frosting, which will frost about 12-15 cupcakes.
- I typically use Neufchatel cream cheese for this frosting. And yes, I use it COLD, straight from the fridge, to keep the frosting stiff.
- You may use salted or unsalted butter, depending on your preference.
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Welcome!
Hi, I’m Amber! I am a culinary graduate and dessert lover! This is where I share my favorite sweet and savory recipes alongside my knowledge and skills as a culinary graduate. I hope you find something you like!
8 Comments on “Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting”
Will well drained crushed pineapple work to add to this frosting or would it be best to add it to the best cream cheese recipe.
Also, when using as frosting on a cake, does it have to be refrigerated or can it sit in cake dome at cool, room temperature? Can’t wait to try adding pineapple.
Hi Wanda,
I’ve never tried this frosting with crushed pineapple. I worry that the juice from the pineapple would make it runny. And as tempting as it would be to add more powdered sugar to a runny frosting, that only makes creamy cheese frosting more stringy and soupy.
You could potentially try pineapple preserves. I have used strawberry preserves to make a strawberry version of this frosting. You can see that recipe here:
https://www.dessertnowdinnerlater.com/strawberry-cream-cheese-frosting/
Hope this helps!
We made this as written, with one exception. I like a lighter frosting so I added 2 tablespoons of heavy cream and whipped it for a few extra minutes.
This was not runny. Not even a little. Tried with and without the lemon extract and both ways had a delightful citrus finish! Will make this again.
I’m so glad to hear that Jesseca! Thanks for sharing your alterations as well.
I stuck to the recipe and unfortunately, this was extremely runny to the point I couldn’t use it. Which was frustrating, because I thought this could be made quickly to pipe onto some cupcakes. I added more powdered sugar and some corns starch but that barely made any difference.
Hi Juliane. I’m sorry to hear that you had a hard time with this recipe. There is a possibility that the frosting was over-mixed. And unfortunately, cream cheese frosting isn’t like buttercream, where you can add more powdered sugar/cornstarch to firm it up. That actually makes it more stringy and soft.
Some tips would be to do most of the mixing when it’s just the cream cheese and butter. It is vital to use COLD (straight from the fridge) cream cheese as well. A lot of people overlook that. Just the butter should be room temperature. Once the flavorings and powdered sugar is added, you should only mix it until it’s incorporated. If it is still soft at this point, you can always throw it into the fridge to firm it up, but if you started with cold cream cheese it should be fine and ready to pipe immediately as shown in my photos.
With that said, this recipe can be slightly softer than my other cream cheese frostings, since it has two teaspoons of liquid flavoring in it vs. one teaspoon of vanilla in my other variations. But I found it tastes better with both extract and juice and can still work for piping if made properly. Hope this helps!
I made this frosting for a 2 layer cake. I followed the recipe & wondered why is was so thin. I read the directions again and realized the recipe was meant to frost cupcakes and so it did not have to be stiff enough to keep the top layer of cake from sliding off. I did have to increase the powdered sugar to 1.5 – 2 cups to get it to the consistency where it would hold my cake layers together and I put the bottom layer in the fridge for 15 mins. and the taste & consistency was fine. I should have done a better job reading the recipe and maybe I would have noticed that it was intended for frosting 15 cupcakes & not an 2 layer cake. That said,at said, the recipe is very DELICIOUS and simple to make. Any lemon fan will love it! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Ellen, I’m so sorry you had troubles with this recipe. I’m wondering if you used cold cream cheese? That is very important to keeping the frosting a solid consistency for spreading and piping. I’ve used this recipe and other variations (plain, chocolate, coconut, etc.) in multiple applications without having to add extra powdered sugar. Regardless, I’m glad you were able to make it work for you with your alterations and that you still found the flavor good.