Instructions

1. Juice and zest a lemon.  You will need 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1 heaping tablespoon of lemon zest.  For us, that was one large lemon.
2. Add the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest to the mixer. Both the butter and the cream cheese should be “slightly softened” which means it is still cold but has been out of the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
3. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined (about 2 minutes.)  You want to fully cream the ingredients together so their flavors meld together. The lemon juice needs to be completely mixed in with the butter and cream cheese. At the beginning of this creaming process, the lemon juice will not mix easily with the butter but keep mixing it will come together. Scrap the mixture down from the sides of the bowl before the next step.
4. Measure 5 cups of Powdered Sugar and add it to the measuring bowl.  You can sift the powdered sugar if it is really lumpy. (Two Sisters Tip – cover the mixer with a towel during this part of the mixing process to keep the powdered sugar from flying out of the mixer.)
5. Start your mixer (or electric beater) on the lowest setting and keep it on low until the cream cheese/butter and sugar are incorporated (about 30 seconds). Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and then increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another 30-45 seconds so the frosting gets light and fluffy.
6. The fresh lemon will give the frosting a slight yellow color. If you want the frosting to look a bit more lemon-y ... add a tiny drop of yellow food coloring as we have done here and mix until combined.
7. Taste your frosting to determine if it needs more lemon zest or if the consistency is too thin or too thick. Cream cheese frosting is a thin frosting.  It will never be a frosting that will crust up like buttercream or be used to make fancy decorative elements. However, as you can see in our pictures, you can do a swirl on a cupcake or the top of a cake. The first thing you should do before using the frosting is put it in the refrigerator for an hour or so, that will help the butter and cream cheese firm up and the lemon flavor to develop.