Vegan Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Vegan Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting 🍋 A tangy & sweet frosting made with plant-based cream cheese, vegan butter, fresh lemon, and powdered sugar. Perfect on cakes, cupcakes, or your favorite baked goods!

Why Frosting Matters

These vegan piña colada cupcakes are crowned with a plant-based coconut buttercream frosting and topped with toasted coconut. They taste like a tropical vacation!

If you do a quick online search about the purpose of frosting, you'll find a lot of comments about how frosting makes baked goods look prettier and adds flavor. But if you think about it, while eye-catching and tasty cupcakes are important, frosting contributes more than just that.

Frosting helps prevent cakes, cupcakes, and pastries from drying out quickly. By creating an outer layer, frosting acts as a protective barrier, keeping sweet treats fresh longer. Frosting also helps hold layer cakes together, providing structural strength. In addition, frosting provides a fabulous mouth and taste sensation that enhances practically anything you spread it on, even a spoon. There, I said it. Frosting rocks.

Ready to whip up a batch of this luscious lemony frosting? Let's do this!

🍋 Ingredients

• Vegan cream cheese - use your favorite
• Non-dairy butter - your choice
• Lemon juice - freshly squeezed 
• Lemon zest
• Powdered sugar 

🍋 Instructions

This super simple recipe makes enough frosting for at least 24 cupcakes, one 9" x 13" single layer cake or an 8" round 2-layer cake.

Place all the ingredients inside a deep bowl.

Using an electric mixer or spatula, beat the ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. That's it, you have frosting! So easy!

This vegan lemon cream cheese frosting pairs wonderfully with a variety of cakes, quick breads, muffins - even cookies - like my simple lemon drop cookies. The sweet & tart taste complements the flavors and textures. Here are some of my favorite vegan recipes that are even tastier with a touch of frosting!

1. Carrot Cake -The creamy tanginess of cream cheese frosting balances the sweetness of carrot cake, creating a harmonious combination of flavors.
2. Applesauce Cake - The subtle flavor of apples and spice are the perfect partner with the combo of sweet and citrus in vegan cream cheese frosting.
3. Pumpkin Bread - The warm spices in pumpkin bread are elevated by the smooth and slightly tangy cream cheese frosting, making it a favorite fall treat.
4. Banana Muffins - Vegan cream cheese frosting adds just the right amount of sweet and tangy taste to these marvelous vegan banana muffins.
5. Lemon Blueberry Bread - The zesty flavor of lemon bread pairs wonderfully with cream cheese frosting, creating a refreshing and yummy treat.
6. Zucchini Bread - Enjoy the best zucchini bread topped iced with this luscious vegan cream cheese frosting.
7. Lemon Cake - a lemon lover's dream dessert topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and homemade vegan lemon curd!

🍋 How to Decorate with Frosting

Part of the joy of this yummy frosting is the fun you can have decorating with it. You can keep it as simple or fancy as you like. I like to use natural decorations, like fresh berries, citrus slices, sprigs of herbs, lemon leaves, or edible flowers as colorful and pretty garnishes.

Layer Cakes

This lemony vegan cream cheese frosting is the ideal topping for this gorgeous vegan lemon layer cake with homemade lemon curd. The frosting was applied along the sides with a frosting spatula. For the ridged detail, the cake was placed on a turntable and slowly rotated while using a cake scraper. The ruffled edge was created with a piping bag and decorative tips. It was so much fun to do (and even more fun to eat!).

For the vegan pineapple carrot cake above we iced the sides with a very light amount of lemon cream cheese frosting, sometimes known as half-dressed, semi-naked, or a crumb coat. It looks nice and helps keep the cake from drying out too quickly. The top of the cake is finished with a generous amount of frosting sprinkled with unsweetened flaked coconut and decorated with dried slices of Cara Cara orange and lime. So pretty and appealing!

Cupcakes

For cupcakes, I like to use a pastry bag with decorative tips to apply the frosting. If you don't have that on hand, you can also use a food grade plastic bag filled ⅓-½ full with frosting. Twist the open end tight and hold with one hand. Use scissors to snip a small opening on one corner and gently squeeze the bag and swirl on some frosting. You don't have to cover the entire top. A dollop in the middle makes for a nice look.

You can also decorative designs with colored icing made with food coloring mixed with frosting. Look for natural food colorings that are vegan and cruelty free, such as TruColor , Wilton , or Americolor .

Cream Cheese Frosting Tips

Because the frosting is made with vegan cream cheese, it will tend to soften in warm temperatures. It's important to keep the frosting cold when you use decorative piping tips. Otherwise, if the frosting is too soft, the piping details will melt. If your frosting is too thick, thin it with a small amount of non-dairy milk, adding just a little at a time. If the frosting is too thin, you can add more powdered sugar, a spoonful at a time until it's as thick as you want it. Be sure to refrigerate your cake or cupcakes until you're ready to serve.