Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

Jump to Recipe

If you love the tang of cream cheese frosting, you’re going to be obsessed with this lemon variation! Ideal for Spring and Summer cakes, this lemon cream cheese buttercream is so light and refreshing, beautifully tangy and complex, and perfectly thick for decorating cakes and cupcakes. Just like your standard cream cheese buttercream recipe, this one comes together quickly with simple ingredients. The only change is the addition of lemon juice in place of vanilla extract. You could even toss some zest in there if you want to really up the lemon flavor! I love this frosting with my lemon blueberry cake and lemon cupcakes, but it will pair well with any flavors that are complementary to citrus.  

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients 

This frosting comes together with five simple ingredients:

• Brick-Style Cream Cheese. The most important thing with this recipe is to use full-fat brick-style cream cheese. The other kinds (low fat or the spreadable kind in tubs) contain too much water content and will never yield the right consistency. You’ll basically end up with lemon cream cheese soup, so just trust me on this one! If you can’t find full-fat brick-style cream cheese locally, try this lemon buttercream instead. 
• Unsalted Butter. Since cream cheese is notoriously soft, I like to add some butter to the base of this frosting to add stability. I prefer unsalted butter so that I can control the overall salt content, but you could use salted butter and omit the salt at the end of the recipe if you want. 
• Powdered Sugar (or Confectioner’s Sugar). Not only does this sweeten the frosting, it adds stability and thickens the frosting into the perfect consistency for decorating cakes and cupcakes.
• Lemon Juice. I like to use fresh lemon juice for the most natural flavor. You could also bump up the lemon flavor with a little zest if you want it super lemony. 
• Salt. A pinch of salt balances out the sweetness beautifully.

How to Make Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

Step 1: Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Add the cream cheese and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer with a large bowl). Then, beat the two ingredients together on high speed until uniform and smooth (no lumps). 

Step 2: Add the powdered sugar. Mix in the powdered sugar on low speed in two additions, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed.

Step 3: Add the lemon juice and salt. Mix the lemon juice and a pinch of salt on low speed until fully combined and smooth. 

Best Practices for Cream Cheese Frosting Success

Cream cheese frosting is notoriously soft and can be frustrating to work with if you don’t know how to troubleshoot. Here are my best tips for making it the perfect consistency for filling and frosting a cake or piping onto cupcakes:

• Use full-fat brick style cream cheese. I use Philadelphia brand, but any brick-style cream cheese that’s not low fat will do. Other kinds of cream cheese (low fat or the spreadable kind in the tub) contain too much water content and will always result in a soupy frosting that’s too thin for filling and frosting a cake. If you don’t have access to brick-style cream cheese, make this lemon buttercream instead.
• Don’t over-soften the butter and/or cream cheese. Before you start mixing up the buttercream, it’s super important that the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature or even slightly colder. If these ingredients are too warm when you begin (like if you over-soften them in the microwave or they were left out in a super warm kitchen), the base of your frosting is going to be too soft from the get go. Here’s how to soften these ingredients quickly and naturally instead of popping them in the microwave. 
• Refrigerate to thicken the consistency. If you make the lemon cream cheese frosting and find that it’s not thick enough for your liking or your kitchen environment is super warm, pop the frosting in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to let the butter solidify a bit. Then, re-mix it on low speed with your stand mixer to make it smooth and uniform. The trip to the refrigerator will thicken the entire buttercream to a workable consistency.

Cakes to Pair with Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

This lemon cream cheese buttercream will pair beautifully with pretty much any Spring/Summer cake, or any flavor that pairs well with citrus. Here are some of my favorites so far:

• Lemon Blueberry Cake (or Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes)
• Lemon Layer Cake (or Lemon Cupcakes)
• Strawberry Cake (or Strawberry Cupcakes)
• Pistachio Cake
• Vanilla Cake
• Coconut Layer Cake 

I can’t wait to hear what you pair this lemon cream cheese buttercream with! Let me know if you make it in the comments below (be sure to leave a star rating!) and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me if you post a photo. I love to see what you create with my recipes!