If there ever was a season for lemon flavored things, I think it would be Spring. Suddenly the days are sunnier and the daffodils are blooming and the world just seems a little brighter – a perfect match for the light, refreshing flavor of lemon. While I have a few different variations of lemon cake I wanted to share a lemon buttercream recipe that I love so that you can get creative with adding it to your cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and any dessert that calls for a burst of citrus magic.
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This lemon frosting is an American buttercream, meaning it has a butter base and is stabilized with powdered sugar. It’s the perfect consistency for cake decorating, piping onto cupcakes, and filling macarons. It’s my go-to because it’s so easy to throw together in under 10 minutes with super simple ingredients.
Fresh Lemon Juice vs. Lemon Extract
There are a few ways to capture the beautiful citrus flavor of lemon in this buttercream recipe. The recipe below lists fresh lemon juice as my chosen method because lemons are so easily accessible. The lemon juice will do a few things to this buttercream recipe: add flavor and liquid content, which is important for making the frosting the perfect consistency.
That said, using lemon extract is another wonderful method to create lemon flavor in a buttercream recipe. It’s made from the zest, which is the most flavorful part of a lemon, and you don’t need to use nearly as much as if you were adding fresh lemon juice. This means you’ll need to slightly alter the recipe to compensate for the lack of liquid content, and if you’d like to use lemon extract I recommend starting with this vanilla buttercream recipe as a base, but omit the vanilla and add ½ tsp of lemon extract instead.
Cake Flavors to Pair with Lemon Buttercream
This lemon buttercream will complement so many cake and cupcake flavors, but here are a few of my favorites to pair it with:
- Vanilla Cake (or Vanilla Cupcakes)
- Lemon Cake (or Lemon Cupcakes)
- Strawberry Cake (or Strawberry Cupcakes)
- Coconut Cake
- Pistachio Cake
Whatever you pair this lemon buttercream with, I hope you love it as much as I do! It’s such a light, sunny frosting that it almost tricks your brain into thinking it’s low in calories. Spoiler alert, it’s not. But it is worth it!
Lemon Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 1/2 Cups (420g) powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp (30ml) fresh lemon juice or about 1/2 of a large lemon
- 2 tsp (10ml) whole milk, room temperature
- pinch of salt, or to taste
- 1-2 drops yellow food color gel (optional)
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter on high speed until creamy and light in color, about 5 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar in two additions, mixing thoroughly for a minute and scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition.
- Add the lemon juice, whole milk and salt and mix on low until the buttercream is well incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Mix in the yellow food color gel, if using.
Notes
- Frost 12-15 cupcakes with a piping bag
- Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch cake. To have enough for frosting and decorating as well, double the recipe.
I hope you love this lemon buttercream recipe as much as I do! Let me know what you paired it with in the comments below + be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!
I made this buttercream and paired it with your lemon cake – it was delicious! I added lemon zest to the frosting, which worked really well. Thank you for such a lovely recipe.
Yay, Amy! I’m so thrilled you loved this frosting paired with my lemon cake. So smart to add zest to the frosting too!
Hi Maam
Thank you so much for helping me and so many people out by sharing your valuable knowledge and experiences. All i can say with lot of respect God Bless You maam.
could we use this recipe but use half high ratio shortening to make to make it more heat stable?
Yes you absolutely can!
excited to try this out. my question is: can I somehow add cream cheese to this or will it throw off the consistency? I need the frosting to be pipeable and hold its shape throughout a wedding reception.
Hi Christie! I have a lemon cream cheese buttercream recipe in this post: https://sugarandsparrow.com/lemon-cake-recipe/. It makes enough to fill, stack and decorate a 3-layer 6 or 8-inch cake in the style pictured. It’s pipeable and will hold its shape. Hope that helps!