If You Have Cream Cheese, Lemon, And Powdered Sugar, You Have An Easy Frosting In 5 Minutes

Store-bought frosting may be convenient, but the product can often be too sweet or too thick and stodgy, not to mention that the frosting tends to have an ingredients list a mile long filled with palm oil, artificial flavorings, and hard-to-pronounce preservatives. While, of course, not everyone has the time, skills, or energy to create a beautifully glossy Swiss meringue buttercream from scratch at home, making an American buttercream-style frosting doesn't have to be a long and difficult process. In fact, you can make an easy and delicious frosting at home with just three ingredients. 

If you have lemons, cream cheese, and powdered sugar, you're only a few minutes away from a smooth and fluffy lemon cream cheese frosting. Most cream cheese frostings are made with equal parts butter and cream cheese, along with powdered sugar and a splash of milk or heavy cream, but in a pinch you can make a tangy, tart frosting without butter. 

The frosting may be a bit thicker than what you're used to, but whipping it for longer can help lighten up the texture. Using lemon juice instead of heavy cream brings a vibrant acidity to make the frosting seem lighter as well. Be sure to let your cream cheese come to room temperature before beginning, which is a key component of cream cheese frosting, as this will make the process a lot easier and result in a smoother and lighter final product. Once the cream cheese has softened enough, the frosting comes together in just a few short minutes. 

Start by adding softened cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer (or into a large mixing bowl if using a hand mixer). While you could easily use a hand mixer, if you do have a reliable stand mixer available, that will produce silky frosting with little manual effort. Use the paddle attachment of your standing mixer to beat the cream cheese until it's smooth with no lumps or chunks remaining. Increase the speed to continue beating until the cream cheese is light and fluffy. From there, sift in powdered sugar and turn the mixer on low speed until it's fully incorporated. After that, gradually add in lemon juice while mixing on medium-low speed until your desired consistency is reached. Add a pinch of salt, if you like, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy.

To make your lemon cream cheese frosting even more tart and lemony, adding lemon zest is a quick and easy way to bump up the lemon flavor substantially. Before you cut and juice your lemons to add to the cream cheese and powdered sugar, use a Microplane zester to shave off tiny shards of lemon peel. A Microplane is the best tool for this job as you want the lemon zest to be as fine as possible so that it doesn't affect the texture of the frosting too much. Once you try this simple lemon icing, you'll want to try even more ways to upgrade your cream cheese frosting for your next dessert.