Strawberry Buttercream Frosting Recipe

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I’m a buttercream frosting type of gal! Sure there are other frostings you can use on desserts but I love buttercream and lots of it! Usually I just make the traditional vanilla or chocolate buttercream frostings for my homemade cakes but did you know that you can make strawberry buttercream? It’s actually quite easy and the strawberry flavor is SO good. You could always replace the frosting on my Rainbow Sprinkle Funfetti Cake with this frosting recipe.

There are many ways that you can make strawberry buttercream (using jam, puree etc) but I found the easiest way to produce a delicious strawberry buttercream icing is with dried strawberries. Yup, the dried strawberries that you can find in most grocery stores or on Amazon gives a traditional buttercream an amazing strawberry flavor.

WHAT IS BUTTERCREAM FROSTING?

Buttercream frosting is an easy to make icing that usually requires only 5 ingredients: butter, vanilla, heavy cream, salt and powdered sugar. According to Wikipedia, “Simple buttercream is made by creaming together fats (butter, margarine, or vegetable oil) and powdered sugar, typically icing sugar, to the desired consistency and lightness. Usually twice as much sugar as butter by weight is used. Flavorings, in the form of extracts and oils, may also be added. 

WHAT IS BUTTERCREAM FROSTING USED FOR?

The sky is the limit for uses with buttercream in desserts but it is usually used to frost cakes, squish in between cookies to make cookie sandwiches, frost cookies and much more.

This frosting is also perfect for any Valentine Day treat!

HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY POWDER WITH FREEZE DRIED STRAWBERRIES

You can just buy strawberry powder at specialty grocery stores or on Amazon, but I found it’s just as easy to create my own with freeze-dried strawberries that are easier to find.

I buy my freeze-dried strawberries at my local grocery store in a 1 oz package. You’ll need the entire package to make one batch of my strawberry buttercream frosting.

All you have to do is pour the entire package into a blender or food processor and blend until you get a fine powder. NOTE: Be sure to use a blender with a lid because this process will make a lot of strawberry smoke that you don’t want all over your kitchen.

You will need to pulse the strawberries and stop the blender from time to time using a utensil to move the strawberries around to get them all completely turned to powder. Once you have a fine powder of strawberries, remove from the blender/food processor and set aside until you need to add to the other buttercream ingredients.

For my daughter’s 16th birthday this week, I wanted to make a sure special cake and that is when the Strawberry Buttercream Frosting came into play. I whipped up a batch to frost her Dark Chocolate Strawberry Cake that turned out amazing. I’ll be sharing that recipe in the next few days but here is a sneak peek to how it turned out.

Let’s get to making the strawberry buttercream because it is SO much easier to make than you think and it tastes amazing!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups butter (room temperature)

1oz freeze dried strawberry powder (the entire contents of a 1oz dried strawberries bag)

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup heavy cream

7 cups powdered sugar

1 tbsp lemon (or lime) juice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Blend 1 oz of freeze-dried strawberries in a blender or food processor completely until you get a strawberry powder. Set aside.
2. Beat butter in a stand mixer (or with a handheld mixer) for 30 seconds until smooth.
3. Add in strawberry powder, vanilla extract and salt. Blend on low until combined.
4. Slowly add in one cup of powdered sugar at a time and alternate with small amounts of cream until you have used all powdered sugar and cream.
5. Add in lemon (or lime) juice.
6. Beat on low until everything is combined and you get the consistency you are looking for. NOTE: To thicken up the frosting, add more sugar. To thin it out, add more cream.