Easy Lemon Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Lemon buttercream frosting is a thick, creamy lemon-flavored frosting made with a generous amount of butter and powdered sugar. There are many styles of buttercream frosting, including French, Swiss, German, Italian, and American “quick” buttercream, which you can flavor with zest, juice, or extracts. Lemon buttercream’s zingy flavor comes from fresh lemon juice and zest or lemon curd.

Buttercream is an all-purpose decorating tool: fluffier than cream cheese frosting but stable enough to hold piped shapes and easily spread. Here are a few of the easiest ways to use it:

1. 1. Cakes: Frost the outer edges of a lemon cake, or use lemon buttercream between the levels of a layer cake—alternating with raspberry jam for a classic tart-sweet combination.
2. 2. Cookie sandwiches: Use lemon buttercream frosting as a light-yet-decadent filling between two sugar cookies or delicate macarons. If you’re up for a challenge, try this French macaron recipe.
3. 3. Cupcakes: Buttercream is one of the best options for piping mile-high frosting swirls. Use lemon buttercream to add a concentrated citrus finish to lemon cupcakes or vanilla cupcakes.

Here’s how to get the most lemony flavor into your buttercream frosting:

1. 1. Use fresh lemon juice and zest. To achieve vanilla buttercream’s rich, velvety texture with authentic lemon flavor, skip the lemon extract or lemon oil and use fresh lemon juice and zest. The fresh lemon zest will better translate the fruit’s natural tartness and balance the overall sweetness of the frosting.
2. 2. Make lemon-flavored American buttercream. If you’re short on time, make American buttercream rather than meringue-based French, Swiss, or Italian buttercream or custard-based German buttercream. Making American buttercream involves mixing confectioners’ sugar (also known as powdered sugar or icing sugar) with butter and sometimes milk or heavy whipping cream—no heat or eggs required. (As a result, some pastry chefs don’t consider this type of frosting an “official” buttercream.) To prevent a lemon frosting with a curdled texture, use enough confectioners’ sugar to balance out the addition of the lemon juice.
3. 3. Boost the color with food coloring. The egg yolks in German buttercream recipes lend a pale yellow color to the finished frosting, but you can also add a few drops of yellow food coloring gel as a final step—or drip lines directly into a piping bag for a swirled effect.

Store lemon buttercream frosting in an airtight container or sealed piping bag in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Before using the buttercream, bring it to room temperature by letting it sit out for a few hours. Use the paddle attachment of your standing mixer to beat it until it is glossy again.

If the buttercream looks curdled after beating, it is still too cold, and you’ll need to continue beating until it comes together. Warm a bit of buttercream in a saucepan on the stove, and add it to the mixer with the firm buttercream to help smooth it out.