I have a wedding cake due on Friday and the Bride ordered my Poppy Seed Layer cake. Well I told her that the whipped cream frosting that comes with that cake would not be good for a wedding so we are replacing it with butter cream. Now here's my concern. The other frosting has fresh squeezed lemon juice in it. I want to give this same flavor to the butter cream. Will the lemon juice break down my butter cream and turn into mush or will it be ok?

Thanks,
Lazy_Susan

not sure about fresh lemon juice, but i have used lemonaid concentrate--worked well, and tasted good, but a little tart. I have also used, and prefered the taste too, Lorann's lemon flavoring. It tasted lemony without being tart.

I use real lemon juice in my lemon buttercream and it has always turned out fine, I've kept a cake in the frig w/this icing for up to 3 days without it changing the texture at all. You might want to make your b/c a little thick to make up for the extra liquid. I put about 3 tbs in my recipe that makes about 7 cups of b/c. Good Luck, hope this helps.

I too have used fresh lemon juice in buttercream and it did fine. In fact, I think it helps keep it fresh!

You could also try using just the zest of a lemon. A lot of flavor there, but none of the liquid. Just add a small bit at a time, and taste it, because it tends to be a bit strong.

I haven't made it myself, but since everyone else says lemon juice works fine, I would definitely think it would. This is just an alternative if you don't want to add the extra liquid.

Try both, see which you like best, if you're still unsure. I believe also, someone mentioned Lorann Oils. I love those oils. They're great for flavoring buttercream.

Good luck! I hope you find something that works for you, and makes your cake really stand out.

Holly

you can substitute the butter for shortening and use butter flavoring also.

You could just use lemon extract instead...

Thank you everyone. So, lemon extract is different from lemon juice? I have lemon extract.

Yes, it is. It's more like the oil from the lemon peel, instead of the acidy juice from inside.

I hope that made sense.


Holly

oh yeah...lemon extract is much more concentrated. It's about the same as adding vanilla to your recipe.