Make strawberry buttercream frosting with real strawberries for a fresh strawberry flavor and natural pink color. This recipe can be made with fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried strawberries!
Recipe summary
Flavor: Sweet and packed with REAL strawberry flavor! No artificial colors or flavors.
Use any strawberries. Make this recipe with fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried strawberries.
It's versatile. Frosting pipes and spreads beautifully onto cakes and cupcakes!
Great for: Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, and Strawberry Sheet Cake
Similar to: Whipped Buttercream Frosting
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Ingredients and substitutions
- Strawberries - This recipe can be made with fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried strawberries - choose one. Frozen strawberries need to be thawed beforehand, but are otherwise treated the same as fresh strawberries in this recipe.
- Butter - Butter serves as the base for this recipe. Unsalted butter and the listed salt can be substituted with salted butter if desired.
- Confectioner's sugar - Confectioner's sugar adds stability and structure to your frosting. Confectioner's sugar may also be labeled as icing sugar or powdered sugar.
- Vanilla - Enhances the flavor of your frosting.
- Salt - Enhances the flavor of your frosting and helps balance the sweetness.
- Heavy cream - If you're using freeze-dried strawberries, you'll also need to add some extra liquid to the recipe. Heavy cream or whole milk is recommended for a rich, creamy texture.
How to make fresh strawberry frosting
- If you're making frosting with fresh strawberries (or frozen, thawed strawberries), they'll need to be pureed in a blender first.
- Add strawberries to the bowl of a blender, cover, and puree until smooth.
- Add strawberry puree to a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently. Reduce heat if sauce begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Cook for about 25-35 minutes, or until sauce has reduced by half and looks thick, like tomato paste. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, add butter. Beat with a hand mixer until creamed and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar, half at a time, and mix to incorporate.
- Add strawberry puree, vanilla, heavy cream, and salt.
- Whip until light and fluffy.
- Spread onto cooled cake or pipe onto cupcakes.
How to make freeze-dried strawberry frosting
- Add freeze-dried strawberries to the bowl of a food processor or blender.
- Cover and pulse until you have a fine powder.
- Add to a bowl along with the confectioner's sugar and whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar mixture, half at a time, until incorporated. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and salt, and whip until light and fluffy.
- Spread onto cooled cake or pipe onto cupcakes.
Tips and tricks
Thaw frozen strawberries first - If you have frozen strawberries on hand, they must be thawed first. Adding frozen strawberries to a blender can ruin the motor.
Hull and halve before pureeing - Hull your fresh strawberries with a paring knife by inserting the knife near the greens on top and rotating around the greens diagonally into the center of the strawberry. This removes the greens and the white center of the strawberry which has little flavor. Slice strawberries in half and add to your food processor or blender.
Cool puree completely - Allow your strawberry puree to cool completely before incorporating into the frosting. Butter melts at about 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which means a warm strawberry puree will melt and ruin your frosting.
Don't add watery puree to your frosting - Watery or thin strawberry puree will make your frosting runny. It must be cooked down on the stovetop to remove the excess water first. If your puree still looks watery and thin, transfer it back to the stovetop to cook down further.
Storage
Frosting will keep for 2 days in a sealed container at room temperature or 1 week in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Buttercream frosting can be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container.
Refrigerated or frozen frosting will harden, so allow it to come to room temperature before spreading onto baked goods.
Frequently asked questions
I don't recommend it. Buttercream frosting is a traditional, very sweet frosting that is often found in grocery store bakeries and used on birthday cakes. It is popular because it's easy to prepare with two main ingredients - butter and confectioner's sugar. Since buttercream frosting includes so few ingredients, it is not easy to alter or make less sweet. Adding less sugar makes the frosting too soft to pipe and tastes like sweetened butter.
Instead, I'd suggest making a less sweet frosting recipe like ermine frosting, homemade whipped cream, Italian meringue buttercream, or Swiss meringue buttercream.
Frosted cake can be left at room temperature in a sealed container for up to two days. Buttercream frosting will melt around 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If your location is nearing this temperature, I'd recommend refrigerating your baked goods until an hour before you're ready to serve them.
Here's a fantastic article about how frosting holds up to heat: The Best Cake Frosting For Hot Weather
Yes, this frosting pipes beautifully and can be used for rosettes, borders, and topping cupcakes.
This recipe makes enough frosting to frost the following cupcake quantities and cake sizes:
- 6-inch three layer cake
- 18 cupcakes with piped frosting
- 24 cupcakes spread with a knife
- 9x13 sheet cake
- 13x18 sheet cake
- 8-inch or 9-inch two layer cake with thin layers all over and in the middle.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Frosting base
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3.5 cups (400 g) confectioner's sugar, sifted to remove lumps
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Freeze-dried strawberries
- 1 cup (23 g) freeze-dried strawberries
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream, or whole milk
Fresh strawberries
- 5 ounces (142 g) strawberries, if frozen, thaw
Instructions
- Make this recipe with either freeze-dried strawberries OR fresh/frozen strawberries - choose one.
Freeze-dried strawberry frosting
- In a large bowl, add room temperature butter and beat with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) until creamy, about 1 minute.
- In a spice grinder or food processor, grind freeze dried strawberries into a powder. Add to a bowl along with the confectioner's sugar and whisk to combine.
- Add half of the confectioner's sugar mixture and slowly mix until ingredients are fully combined. Add remaining confectioner's sugar and slowly mix until combined. Then, whip at high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Add salt, vanilla extract, and heavy cream and mix until light and fluffy, about a minute. Add more heavy cream as needed to thin frosting to desired consistency.
Fresh strawberry frosting
- Hull and halve strawberries and add to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. You should have about ½ cup of strawberry puree.
- Add to a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 25 to 35 minutes, or until mixture has reduced by half and looks thick (like tomato paste).
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely (warm puree will melt the frosting). Optionally, puree can be made the day before and refrigerated until ready to assemble.
- In a large bowl, add room temperature butter and beat with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) until creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add half of the confectioner's sugar and slowly mix until ingredients are fully combined. Add remaining confectioner's sugar and slowly mix until combined. Then, whip at high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Add salt, vanilla extract, and strawberry puree and mix until fully incorporated.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Storage: Frosting will keep for 2 days at room temperature, 1 week in a sealed container in the refrigerator, or up to 3 months in the freezer. Bring to room temperature before spreading onto baked goods. Stored frosting may need to be rewhipped to achieve original texture.
- How much frosting do I need?: Recipe will frost up to 18 cupcakes with tall piped frosting, 24 cupcakes spread with a knife, a 9x13 sheet cake, a 13x18 sheet cake, a round 8 or 9 inch 2-layer cake.
I had so much fun creating this recipe! I hope you give it a try and love it as much as I do. If you have a question, check out the post above, which is packed with information about the recipe. Tried the recipe? I'd love to hear your thoughts — leave a comment and a star rating to share your feedback!