• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Charlotte's Lively Kitchen logo

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Desserts
      • Biscuits & Bars
      • Cakes
      • Cheesecakes
      • Chocolates
      • Cupcakes
      • Icing
      • Ingredients
      • Jams, Curds & Spreads
      • Meringues
      • Savoury Baking
      • Scones
      • Sweet Sauces
      • Vegan Baking
    • Lunch & Dinner
    • Side Dishes & Sauces
    • Breakfast
    • Drinks
  • Conversions
    • Grams to Cups Conversions
    • Oven Temperature Conversions
    • All Baking Tools
  • The Food Calendar
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • HOME
  • RECIPE INDEX
  • – BAKING & DESSERTS
  • – LUNCH & DINNER
  • – SIDE DISHES & SAUCES
  • – BREAKFAST
  • – DRINKS
  • CONVERSIONS
  • CALENDAR
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • PRIVACY
×
Home » Baking & Desserts » Icing » Lemon Buttercream

18 February 2019

Lemon Buttercream

2.4K shares

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream – one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

Jump to the recipe made with fresh lemon zest and juice or lemon extract/oil

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

One of my most requested new recipes is lemon buttercream (and a lemon birthday cake to go with it!). It’s something I’ve not shared until now because I had a massive dilemma about the best way to make the buttercream. Should it be flavoured with lemon extract/oil, or should I opt for fresh lemon zest and juice?

Both types of buttercream are delicious, and both have times when they really come into their own. In the end, I decided the only solution was to share both.

This lemon buttercream goes brilliantly with both my carrot cake cupcakes and gingerbread cupcakes and I’ll be sharing my recipes for the lemon cupcakes shown in these pictures (which I also filled with lemon curd for an extra burst of lemon flavour), and my full-sized lemon cake soon. I’ll add the links here when I do, and if you want to make sure you don’t miss these new recipes when they’re published make sure you subscribe to my mailing list.

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

When to use buttercream made with fresh lemon zest and juice

Lemon buttercream made with fresh zest and juice is best when you want your buttercream to really pack a punch. You’ll see from the recipe that I’ve added a lot of zest for flavour and then a little lemon juice for added sharpness. The addition of the lemon juice really adds a kick to the buttercream.

You’ll notice that I’ve used more zest than juice in the recipe. After a lot of testing, I found this gave just the right balance of flavours. It does mean that you’ll have some juice leftover, but don’t worry about waste. Lemon juice freezes really well for you to use later – I like to put the juice of ½ a lemon in each square of an ice cube tray and then I can defrost it as I need it. I’ve also added a list of recipe ideas below for using up lemon juice for you to try.

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

Lemon Buttercream made with fresh lemon juice and zest

When to use lemon buttercream made using lemon extract/oil

Lemon buttercream made with extract or oil is better when you want a more subtle lemon flavour in your buttercream. When I tested the two buttercream types on my family, I found that adults enjoyed the kick of the buttercream made with fresh lemons and the children preferred the one made with extract. When I was a child I remember not liking the sharpness of lemon (how my tastes have changed as an adult because now I love it!), this version of the buttercream keeps the flavour but loses the sharpness you get from the fresh lemons.

If you’re planning on piping your buttercream then I’d recommend using the version made with lemon extract. You can see from the pictures that it’s silky smooth, whereas the buttercream made with fresh lemon has flecks of lemon zest running through it. It still pipes OK, but you can see the edges aren’t as clearly defined and if you were planning on using a smaller nozzle than the one I’ve used here (JEM1B) you may find that the nozzle gets clogged by the zest.

The other big advantage to this version of the buttercream is that it’s made from ingredients I always have in my store cupboard/fridge – butter, icing sugar, lemon extract and milk. It’s therefore perfect for those times that I need to bake a cake at the last minute and I haven’t had a chance to go to the shops, as I only buy fresh lemons when I know I’m planning to use them. It also means you don’t have to think about what to do with the leftover lemon juice.

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

Lemon Buttercream made with lemon extract/oil

Does this buttercream crust?

Yes, it’s based on a standard buttercream with twice the amount of icing sugar to butter and so it crusts just as that would. It’s therefore perfect for piping more intricate shapes such as buttercream flowers and also for using under fondant on a decorated cake.

Can this lemon buttercream be made vegan/dairy-free?

Absolutely, it’s pretty straightforward to adapt the recipe to be vegan/dairy-free.

All you need to do is switch the 250g of butter in the recipe for 125g of dairy-free/vegan margarine (I use Pure Sunflower) and 125g of a vegetable oil block such as Stork Baking Block or Trex. Then switch the milk added at the end for a dairy-free alternative such as almond milk.

The vegan margarine adds flavour to the buttercream and the vegetable oil block adds firmness, so your buttercream is just the right consistency for piping.

If you’d like to read more about making vegan buttercream take a look at my vegan vanilla buttercream recipe where I’ve gone into more detail.

Ideas for using up lemon juice

As I mentioned before, this recipe uses more lemon zest than juice so here are some delicious recipes you can try to use up the leftover lemon juice.

  • Lemon Cheesecake from Apply To Face
  • Lemon Posset from Fuss Free Flavours
  • Shortbread Lemon Bars from Sugar & Soul
  • Moist Lemon Cake from Living Sweet Moments
  • Lemon Blueberry Cake from Cooking With Carlee
  • Watermelon Lemonade from Caroline’s Cooking
  • Frozen Lemonade from Finding Zest
  • Ginger Beer & Gin Cocktail from Greedy Gourmet
  • Caribbean Rum Punch from Earth Food & Fire
  • Spiked Lemon Shake-Up Cocktail from Mama Gourmand

Some of the recipes listed use cups measurements rather than grams. If you’d like to convert between the two then I have a handy conversions calculator you can use.

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

Lemon buttercream made with fresh lemon juice and zest. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

Lemon Buttercream

Version one of my lemon buttercream made with fresh lemon juice and zest. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.
4.09 from 12 votes
Print Pin Rate Save Go to Collections
Active Time: 10 minutes minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Prevent your screen from going dark

INGREDIENTS

Metric - US Cups/Ounces
  • 250 g butter - soft at room temperature
  • 500 g icing sugar
  • Zest of 5 lemons
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice - The juice from approximately ½ a lemon
  • A little milk - To help get the buttercream to a soft consistency

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Beat the butter (250g) on a low speed until it is soft.
  • Add the icing sugar (500g) and beat until combined - I like to add mine a spoonful at a time as it helps stop it flying out of the bowl!
  • Finely grate the zest of 5 lemons. Squeeze the juice from the lemons until you have 1 tbsp. 
  • Add the lemon zest to the buttercream and beat until it is evenly distributed. Slowly add the lemon juice (no more than 1 tsp at a time) and beat in each addition before adding more.
  • Check the consistency of your buttercream - It should be soft enough that you could spread it onto a slice of bread without the bread tearing, but not runny. If it is a little stiff, then add a little milk (again no more than 1 tsp at a time) until is it the right consistency.
  • Your buttercream is now ready to use.

NOTES

If you would like to make the buttercream a little smoother simply blitz it with a hand blender and this will break down some of the lemon zest so it is finer.
The recipe makes enough to decorate 12 cupcakes in the style shown in the fresh lemon buttercream pictures, or 18 cupcakes decorated as shown in the buttercream made with lemon extract pictures.
It will be enough to fill and create a thin outer coating on a 20cm 2-layer round cake.
Nutritional information is based on 12 servings.
WANT TO HEAR ABOUT NEW RECIPES FIRST?SUBSCRIBE to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Mailing List

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 323kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.9g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 17.1g | Saturated Fat: 10.9g | Sodium: 13.5mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 40.7g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


Keyword: Frosting, Icing
Author: Charlotte Oates

FREE FROM/SUITABLE FOR…

The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time. 

  • Suitable for Vegetarians
  • Gluten-Free
  • Egg-Free
  • Tree Nut-Free
  • Peanut-Free
  • Sesame-Free
  • Soya-Free
  • Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
  • Lupin-Free

This list of allergens is the same regardless of which version of the buttercream you choose to make.

There are details of how to adapt this lemon buttercream to be vegan/dairy-free above the recipe.

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream - one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

Lemon cupcakes topped with lemon buttercream.

Lemon Buttercream

Version two of my lemon buttercream made with lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.
4.09 from 12 votes
Print Pin Rate Save Go to Collections
Active Time: 5 minutes minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Prevent your screen from going dark

INGREDIENTS

Metric - US Cups/Ounces
  • 250 g butter - soft at room temperature
  • 500 g icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon extract/lemon oil - (can use a little more or less according to your own taste
  • A little milk - To help get the buttercream to a soft consistency

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Beat the butter (250g) on a low speed until it is soft.
  • Add the icing sugar (500g) and beat until combined - I like to add mine a spoonful at a time as it helps stop it flying out of the bowl!
  • Slowly add the lemon extract/oil (1 tbsp - add no more than 1 tsp at a time) and beat in each addition before adding more.
  • Check the consistency of your buttercream - It should be soft enough that you could spread it onto a slice of bread without the bread tearing, but not runny. If it is a little stiff, then add a little milk (again no more than 1 tsp at a time) until is it the right consistency.
  • Your buttercream is now ready to use.

NOTES

The recipe makes enough to decorate 12 cupcakes in the style shown in the fresh lemon buttercream pictures, or 18 cupcakes decorated as shown in the buttercream made with lemon extract pictures.
It will be enough to fill and create a thin outer coating on a 20cm 2-layer round cake.
Nutritional information is based on 12 servings.
WANT TO HEAR ABOUT NEW RECIPES FIRST?SUBSCRIBE to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Mailing List

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 344kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.4g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 19.6g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Sodium: 13.5mg | Sugar: 40.5g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


Keyword: Frosting, Icing
Author: Charlotte Oates

Two different versions of my delicious lemon buttercream – one made with fresh lemons (juice and zest) and another made with either lemon extract or oil. Perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes or filling biscuits and macarons.

2.4K shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lory says

    February 26, 2024 at 12:48 am

    5 stars
    I made this lemon butter cream, using lemon extract, to decorate vanilla sugar cookies. I didn’t tell my husband that it was lemon, and when he took one bite, he exclaimed, “Oh wow! Lemon!” and he said that this is the only icing I should ever use to decorate my sugar cookies from now on. I was not the least bit offended because this was the creamiest, fluffiest, most wonderful lemon icing I have ever tasted! I can’t wait to try the recipe using fresh lemons! Thank you so much for sharing this fabulous recipe with all of us! <3

    Reply
  2. Heather says

    July 31, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    Could not get the right consistency by following the recipe. Had to add nearly double the amount of icing sugar which still didn’t work. It’s a very runny butter cream more like a runny icing than a buttercream

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      August 09, 2023 at 10:00 pm

      The most common reason that people seem to experience this problem is when using a butter that isn’t proper block butter. What butter did you use?

  3. zoe says

    June 17, 2023 at 8:50 pm

    Can this butter cream be frozen? if not how many days will it last in the fridge?

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      June 24, 2023 at 12:21 am

      You can. Make sure you allow it to thaw and come up to room temperature and then if needed, beat in a little extra milk (no more that 1 teaspoon at a time) to soften it as it may become too stiff to use during the freezing process.

« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe




4.09 from 12 votes

Primary Sidebar

Charlotte Oates about me

Hi, I'm Charlotte Oates. Welcome to my lively kitchen where I share delicious, simple baking recipes, baking tools and calculators, and lots of tips and tricks.

Find out more
Facebook logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Facebook page Pinterest logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen - Pinterest page Instagram logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Instagram page Twitter logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen twitter page

Latest Post

  • A cartoon calendar with the text The Food Calendar UK Food Days, Weeks and Months
    The Food Calendar 2024 – International & UK Food Days, Weeks and Months

Featured Recipes

  • Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
  • Biscoff Cake
  • A no-bake Oreo cheesecake topped with whipped cream and Oreos.
    Oreo Cheesecake (No-Bake)
  • Chocolate Orange Cake
    Chocolate Orange Cake
  • Lemon cake topper with lemon buttercream on a white cake stand.
    Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One Lemon Sponge)
  • No-bake lemon cheesecake
    Easy Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
  • Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 
    Easy Coffee Cake
  • White-Chocolate-Buttercream-2
    White Chocolate Buttercream
  • A close up of a coffee cupcake topped with a swirl of coffee buttercream on a cooling rack with more cupcakes behind.
    Coffee Buttercream

Footer

About

Contact

Privacy Policy

↑ back to top

Copyright © 2024 CLK Digital Limited

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.