Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

This easy Lime Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect blend of sweet and tart flavors. Swirl it on cupcakes, muffins, bundt cakes, or quick breads – it goes with practically everything!

Easy Lime Frosting Recipe

Cream cheese frosting is already a beautiful blend of sweet and tart flavors, but today we’re really taking it over the top by making a lime cream cheese version. This easy frosting has both fresh lime juice and fresh zest, for a double dose of tangy citrus flavor.

What can you do with this frosting? You mean, aside from eating it with a spoon from the mixing bowl? Welllllll how about using it to frost my uber-moist zucchini cupcakes? Or maybe a few loaves of zucchini bread, banana bread, or an orange bundt cake? The beauty of this frosting is that it’s super versatile — you can add more powdered sugar to make it stiff and pipe-able, or add more liquid and use it as a drizzle on cakes or quick breads.

Note: like many cream cheese frosting recipes, this is a softer frosting, and I do not recommend using it for intricate piping designs, tall layer cakes that require a lot of stability/structure, or any recipe that needs to withstand hot environmental temperatures.

🧾 What You’ll Need

Ingredients

This lime cream cheese frosting is a super simple 6-ingredient recipe! (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)

• Butter:Room temperature, please! I recommend letting your butter sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes before making the frosting, so it’s easy to blend.
• Cream cheese: be sure to use a full-fat brick of cream cheese so the frosting has a nice, creamy texture. Anything with a lower fat content will yield a runny frosting. I always use and recommend Philadelphia cream cheese.
• Lime zest and juice: fresh lime is the key to this frosting! Using both the zest and juice of a lime gives you the perfect amount of tangy lime flavor. I do not recommend making this with bottled juice and powdered zest–you will probably be disappointed in the results. Regular limes or key limes will work for this recipe. Check out my detailed post about the difference between regular and key limes so that you can choose the flavor that’s right for you!
• Powdered sugar: adds sweetness and thickens the frosting.

Equipment

You don’t need a whole lot to pull off this simple lime frosting. Here’s what you’ll need in terms of equipment. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)

• Citrus juicer: a citrus juicer makes it super easy to get all the lime juice out the fruit.
• Microplane: I like to use a microplane to zest the lime. If you don’t have a microplane, a cheese grater will work too. Be careful not to grate your knuckles!
• Hand Mixer: a hand mixer makes it super easy to get the batter nice and mixed without over-mixing. A stand mixer also works well.
• Piping Bags and Tips: you can use piping bags and pastry tips to pipe this frosting onto whatever dessert you wish.

📋 Instructions

This lime cream cheese frosting is ready in just 10 minutes! Full instructions in the recipe card below.

• Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy.
• Add in the cream cheese and mix again until combined.

• One cup at a time, add in powdered sugar. Beat between each addition.

• Add in the lime zest and lime juice, then beat until combined.
• Add more powdered sugar or lime juice, as desired, until you have the perfect texture for your project.

💭 Variations

This recipe is delicious as-is, but there are a few ways you can switch the flavor up a bit.

• Swap the citrus. You can totally experiment with different citruses to give this frosting a different flavor. Try lemon, orange, tangerine, or grapefruit!
• Make coconut lime frosting. Add a couple drops of coconut extract for a lime coconut frosting.
• Make vanilla lime frosting. Mix in a couple of drops of vanilla extract for a vanilla lime frosting.

💡 Tips  

• Frosting amount: This lime frosting recipe makes enough to frost 20 cupcakes, 2 loaves of quick bread, or 1 large bundt cake.
• Use full-fat cream cheese. It’s super important to use full-fat cream cheese bricks for the frosting. Otherwise the frosting will be too runny.
• Soften the butter and cream cheese. You don’t want them melting at all, but having the butter and cream cheese more pliable helps them blend together for a creamier texture.
• Add the powdered sugar gradually. Adding a little at a time means you won’t end up with a cloud of sugar.
• Texture tip: As written, this is a soft frosting, perfect for spreading. If you want something firmer for piping, you can tweak the powdered sugar amount to adjust the texture. Add powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, until you have the texture you want–you can add up to an additional 1.5 cups if you’d like. You can also refrigerate it for half an hour or so after making it to help it firm up.

🍽️ Serving Suggestions

You can serve this lime frosting on any cupcakes, muffins, or sweet breads. Try pairing it with one of these recipes:

• Easy Zucchini Bread
• Zucchini Cupcakes
• The Best Banana Bread
• Pineapple Cupcakes
• Banana Coconut Macadamia Nut Bread
• Zucchini Whoopie Pies

💭 FAQs

❤️ More Delicious Frosting Recipes You’ll Love

• Cookie Dough Frosting
• Rainbow Swirl Frosting
• Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
• Strawberry Buttercream
• The EASIEST Swiss Meringue Buttercream