Lemon Buttercream Frosting

This lemon buttercream frosting is so smooth, airy, and perfectly citrusy made from fresh lemons. Use this frosting to make exceptional lemon cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and many many other tangy desserts for all lemon lovers!

📌 Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Smooth frosting: It is silky smooth and not grainy at all. 
• It's stable: It can sustain the weight of large cakes.
• It is stiff to pipe detailed designs with a piping bag.
• Bright lemon flavors: It's perfectly citrusy. The flavor of fresh lemon zest and lemon juice bursts in your mouth. Can't beat that with lemon extract or lemon oil!🍋 
• It is fluffy and not dense. 
• It's not overly sweet.
• There is no need to re-whip it after thawing it. Use it right away!

The secret to the airy and smooth texture is combining Swiss meringue buttercream and lemon curd. It creates a very stiff and stable buttercream with depth in flavor. Combining lemon juice or lemon curd with American buttercream frosting is probably the most popular way to make lemon buttercream because it's so quick to make. Yet, the texture gets grainy due to the confectioner's sugar. It's also a lot sweeter and less stable compared to Swiss meringue buttercream. 

I tell you this upfront - This lemon frosting is not the easiest one to make. But this recipe is for you if you want an exceptional lemon frosting. I use this one for my desserts whenever I want to truly "wow" my guests. 

📌 Ingredients For Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Lemon Curd

• Whole egg: It helps to thicken the curd. 
• Egg yolk: It adds amazing richness to the frosting while also thickening the curd. 
• Granulated sugar: Sugar prevents the eggs from getting cooked too much while heating the curd. It also works as a preservative.
• Lemon zest: It adds another layer of refreshing flavor. Only zest the yellow part of the peel since the white part inside is bitter! 
• Lemon juice: Use any lemon of your choice! Use fresh lemon juice for the best results. 
• Unsalted butter: Butter helps to thicken the curd.

Swiss Buttercream

The 3 essential ingredients to make Swiss buttercream are egg white, sugar, and butter. Today, I'm adding salt to enhance the fresh lemon flavors. 

• Egg white: Ensure that no yolk, liquids, or dirt is mixed in the egg whites since they prevent the egg whites from getting whipped well.
• Granulated sugar: We make Swiss meringue by whipping egg whites and sugar heated in a water bath.
• Unsalted butter: It's important to use softened butter to make fluffy and smooth buttercream. Leave it at room temperature ahead.
• Salt: It enhances the lemon flavor.

📌 How To Make Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Make lemon curd.

1. Make half batch of the homemade lemon curd. (The printable recipe in this post is already calculated to the half batch.) Follow the steps and the tips in the post to make it successful. 
2. Chill it in the fridge while making the Swiss buttercream.

Make Swiss buttercream.

1. Heat egg white and sugar in a water bath while mixing constantly and evenly until it reaches 160ºF (71ºC).
2. Immediately start whipping the heated egg white and sugar at high speed using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
   • Touch the bowl and check: Continue whipping at high speed while it's hot or very warm.
   • Turn it down to medium speed when it feels comfortably warm. 
   • Turn it down to low or medium-low speed when it is slightly warm.
   • And turn it off when it cools down to room temperature. It should not feel warm at all. 

3. Add room temperature butter and salt to the meringue and whip. Scrape off the bottom and sides of the bowl on the way to ensure it's incorporated evenly.
4. Add the cold lemon curd to the buttercream. And whip until combined. Again, scrape off the bottom and sides of the bowl on the way to ensure it's incorporated evenly.

How much should we whip the buttercream?

It's up to you! It's not necessary to whip a lot here since the buttercream is already fluffy, thanks to the meringue. 
Whip it longer if you want to make it a little more airy. I whipped it for about 1 minute after adding butter this time.

📌 Uses For Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Use it for a variety of lemon desserts, such as:

• Macarons: Pipe this buttercream with a spread of lemon curd on one of the other macaron shells - It tastes incredible. I have to say it is my top 3 favorite macarons! 
• Cakes: Use it for any layer cake, such as a birthday cake, wedding cake, etc. 
• Cupcakes: Make scrumptious lemon cupcakes using the frosting! Pipe the lemon curd in the middle as an option.
• Sugar Cookies: Spread it on top of them to make simple yet special treats every kid would love! 

📌 How To Store Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Store the buttercream in an airtight container. I also like to wrap it with plastic wrap so that I can cut the edge, insert it in a pastry bag, and start piping right away after thawing it.

The shelf life

You can store it for 4 - 5 days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer.

How to thaw it:

Any buttercream gets much firmer in the fridge when it's chilled due to the butter inside. Leave it at room temperature to soften it again.

How long it will take depends on the room temperature and how cold the fridge or the freezer is. It often takes about 3 - 6 hours. (You can thaw the frozen buttercream in the fridge overnight.)

Do I need to re-whip the Swiss Buttercream? 

There is no need to re-whip it when it's made successfully. It should stay stiff and stable!

📌 Troubleshooting Tips

Why is the buttercream loose?

The possible causes:

1. The butter melted partially because it was added to warm meringue.
2. The meringue was not heated enough, or whipped properly (With high speed while it's hot). 
3. A small amount of oil or liquid was mixed in the bowl.
4. The meringue was whipped for too long. (The meringue slowly loses the volume when it's over-whipped.)
5. The butter got loose at warm room temperature. 
6. The lemon curd was not completely cooled when it was added to the buttercream. 

Why is my buttercream not smooth? 

The possible causes:

1. The meringue was partially cooked. To avoid this, mix constantly and evenly while heating it.
2. The butter was too cold. Cold butter doesn't blend well in the meringue. Ensure it is soft before adding it.

To sum up, the most important thing to make the buttercream successful is to pay attention to all the temperatures: the meringue, butter, and lemon curd - Is the meringue cooled completely before adding butter? Is the butter softened enough at room temp? And so on.

📌 More Frosting Recipes

If you liked this lemon buttercream frosting recipe, also try other fluffy frosting recipes!

• French Buttercream
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Italian Buttercream
• Cream Cheese Frosting 

📌 VIDEO: Watch It How To Make It!

Watch this video to learn how to make the lemon frosting visually and have a deeper understanding of all!

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📌 Printable Recipe

💬 If you loved the fresh lemon buttercream recipe, please share your feedback on this post! I always love hearing how you enjoyed it with your friends and family. 

📌 Pin It!

Pin it if you love this lemon frosting recipe, and find so many other recipes on my Pinterest page!