Lemon cream cheese frosting is a creamy, silky-smooth frosting that's bursting with fresh lemon flavor. Top your next batch of lemon cupcakes with this easy homemade lemon frosting!
In a large bowl, add room temperature cream cheese and butter and beat with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) until creamy, about 1 minute.
Add confectioner's sugar, half at a time, and slowly mix until ingredients are fully combined. Then, whip at high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
Add lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and salt, then whip until fluffy, another 1 to 2 minutes.
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes or spread onto cooled cake and serve.
Notes
Original, full-fat block-style cream cheese cannot be substituted with low-fat cream cheese, whipped cream cheese, or spreadable cream cheese in a tub. Any of these substitutions can cause your frosting to turn out runny.
To add more lemon flavor, add additional lemon zest, not lemon juice. Lemon zest has a more concentrated lemon flavor and lemon juice will thin your frosting.
Cream cheese frosting needs to be refrigerated if it sits out for longer than 2 hours. Store frosted baked goods in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Remove and bring to room temperature 1 hour before serving.
Leftover frosting will keep for 1 week in a sealed container in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. Bring to room temperature before spreading onto baked goods.
Recipe makes enough to frost up to 18 cupcakes with piped frosting, 24 cupcakes spread with a knife, a 9x13 sheet cake, a 13x18 sheet cake, or an 8-inch or 9-inch two layer cake with thin frosting on the tops, sides, and middle. For thick frosting all over, make an additional ½ batch of frosting.