Ever wonder how to make Strawberry Buttercream Frosting? I love this strawberry frosting because it’s so easy to make and pairs beautifully with whipped cream, pound cake, and cakes of all shapes and sizes.
So, you want to make a delicious strawberry buttercream frosting for your cake, cupcakes or cookies. I have a few recipes for you that are simple and will not take too much time to make them.
Real Strawberry Frosting
I wanted REAL strawberry frosting for my Real Strawberry Cupcakes and could not find an acceptable recipe. I wanted an intense strawberry taste without using an extract or gelatin. I came up with this recipe using a strawberry puree reduction that is truly the strawberry-est. If you love strawberries, you’ll LOVE THIS!!!
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Recipe Summary
Prep:
20 mins
Cook:
20 mins
Total:
40 mins
Servings:
18
Yield:
18 servings
Ingredients
Decrease Serving
18Increase ServingAdjust
Original recipe yields 18 servingsIngredient Checklist
- 1 cup fresh strawberries
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted, divided
Directions
Instructions Checklist
- Step 1Place strawberries in a blender; puree until smooth.
- Step 2Transfer strawberry puree to a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring often, until puree is reduced by at least half, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Step 3Beat butter with an electric mixer in a bowl until light and fluffy.
- Step 4Beat 1 cup confectioners’ sugar into butter until just blended.
- Step 5Beat 2 tablespoons strawberry puree and vanilla extract into butter mixture until just blended.
- Step 6Repeat with 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, followed by 2 tablespoons strawberry puree two more times.
- Step 7Beat last 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar into mixture until just blended.
Foolproof Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
My Strawberry Buttercream Frosting recipe uses fresh strawberries and never artificial flavors!
Hi Bold Bakers!
WHAT YOU GET: A sweet, light, and fluffy strawberry buttercream recipe that’s flavored with fresh strawberries, not artificial flavors.
Give your cake or cupcakes a burst of summer flavor with my homemade (and foolproof) strawberry buttercream! I love using fruits in my baking to give my desserts a deliciously sweet flavor — plus, this counts as my daily serving of fruit for the day, right?
There’s nothing artificial in this recipe; I use real strawberries, not strawberry extract, which also gives the buttercream a lovely pink color, and just a touch of lemon juice to bring out the sweetness of the fruit. You can also use frozen strawberries, but keep in mind that they may be more liquid-y than fresh.
If strawberry isn’t your thing, check out my Best-Ever Vanilla Buttercream and my Best-Ever Chocolate Buttercream!
How To Make The Best Buttercream
No dense buttercream here! Over the years, I’ve learned the key trick to making the best buttercream: you want to incorporate as much air as possible into the butter. To ensure my strawberry buttercream is fluffy and airy, I whip my butter for a bit longer than other recipes suggest. Sometimes I’ll let it whip for 7 to 8 minutes before adding the powdered sugar.
Sifting is also a great way to not only ensure you’re adding air into your buttercream, but it’s also a great way to avoid lumpy, gritty frosting! So be sure to sift your powdered sugar before combining it with the butter.
Use this on my Vanilla Birthday Cake, or even my Crazy Cupcakes — one base cupcake recipe that can be any flavor you want!
Is The Buttercream Too Thin?
If you’re trying to decorate a cake with buttercream that’s too thin, you will run into some problems. You want your buttercream to be stiff enough, so it’s easy to manage and spread. If your frosting is too thin, try chilling it in the refrigerator. If it is still too thin, add more sifted powdere3d sugar until you get the right texture.
How To Freeze Strawberry Buttercream
You can freeze buttercream for up to 3 months in an airtight container for whenever you’re ready to decorate your masterpieces. Be sure to let the frosting come to room temperature before using!
Tools You Need To Make Nutella Buttercream Frosting:
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Electric stand mixer or hand mixer
- Sifter
- Small skillet
Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Recipe
Prep:10 mins
Cook:0 mins
Soaking:15 mins
Total:25 mins
Servings:12 servings
Yield:1 pint
| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 444 | Calories |
| 15g | Fat |
| 79g | Carbs |
| 0g | Protein |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)SAVE RECIPE
Bring summer sunshine into your cakes and bakes with this ultra-easy fresh strawberry buttercream recipe. You heard that right — there are no artificial flavors or colors to be found here, just the sweetness of ripe berries, and their beautiful rosy hue.
Use the freshest seasonal fruit for maximum strawberry flavor and sweetness. Avoid frozen berries for this recipe, as they change consistency when they thaw, resulting in runny buttercream.
Pipe your strawberry buttercream on cupcakes, use as cake frosting, or use to fill sandwich cookies or macarons. It will also add extra decadence to a fudgy chocolate brownie. The subtle, floral flavor of rose pairs beautifully with strawberry, so feel free to add a small amount for an extra-special finished product.
Tricks to Keep Cupcakes Fresh
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh strawberries
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted, divided
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon rosewater, optional
Steps to Make It
- Gather your ingredients. Wipe the berries with paper towels and remove the hull. As these strawberries are going to be puréed, you can chop the tops off with a kitchen knife. Roughly chop the fruit, place in a mixing bowl, sprinkle with the sugar, stir and leave for 15 minutes.
- Transfer the strawberries into a food processor and pulse to create a thick purée. The purée can be used unstrained but if you prefer a smoother frosting, push the purée through a fine sieve (keep in mind that this will also remove some of the texture and a little flavor). Put aside.
- Beat the butter and 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar in a stand mixer using the paddle beater on low speed. Add the strawberry purée, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and rosewater if you are using it, and whip until light and fluffy.
- With the mixer turning (still on low or you may disappear into a cloud of sugar!) gradually add more confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is the thickness you want — buttercream for frosting a cake should be stiffer than for piping onto a cupcake, for example.
- The buttercream is now ready to use in your recipes, it will keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for five days. It also freezes well for up to three months.
Try other berries
- Don’t stop with strawberries — many soft fruits will also work well. Raspberries are easy to use, but you’ll want to strain them before finishing the buttercream, as they have a lot of seeds.
- Any berries pureed with their skins (like blueberries) must be strained, as the skins will affect the buttercream’s texture.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Looking for the best strawberry frosting made with fresh strawberries? This Strawberry Buttercream Frosting is a small batch frosting that makes enough to frost 6-8 cupcakes or one 6-8 inch cake.
It’s almost strawberry season in PA! Every year I talk about how my dad and I go strawberry picking at a local farm.
I’m still waiting for this year’s dates, but it should be within the next two weeks.
Strawberry recipes are plenty abundant here, with some favorites like strawberry cupcakes, small strawberry cake, strawberry cake without gelatin, and strawberry snacking cake.
You know what they have in common? They’re all cake in need of a delicious frosting recipe.
And since I have strawberry on the brain, let’s pair them with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting. Double the strawberry fun.
My strawberry buttercream is similar to my strawberry cream cheese frosting in that you cook fresh strawberries down into a thick puree before beating into butter and powdered sugar.
This allows for maximum fresh strawberry flavor without making your frosting runny.
For this blog post, I paired my strawberry frosting with my small batch vanilla cupcakes.
You can also pair them with small batch chocolate cupcakes or lemon cupcakes.
WHY MAKE SMALL BATCH FROSTING?
What makes my strawberry buttercream recipe special? You make only what you need.
How many times have you made frosting, only to have a ton leftover?
Unless you have plans to make another cake, you end up throwing out said extra frosting. All that butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla wasted.
That’s why I set out to make a small batch of strawberry buttercream. Just the right amount of frosting for most small cakes without throwing any away.
HOW MUCH DOES SMALL BATCH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM MAKE?
The yield for this strawberry frosting recipe will depend on what you’re making:
- If you’re piping cupcakes, you can frost between 6-8 cupcakes, depending on how tall you make the swirls.
- If you’re frosting cupcakes with an offset spatula, you can frost 1 dozen cupcakes because you typically don’t use as much as you would piping.
- If you’re frosting a 6 or 8 inch cake, you can frost the top and edges
- If you’re frosting a small two layer cake, you can frost the middle and top. Frosting the edges will depend on how much you’ve used so far. You can always leave it as a naked cake with the edges showing.
ADDING FRESH STRAWBERRIES TO BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
The best strawberry buttercream recipe starts with its namesake – the strawberries.
In order to incorporate fresh strawberries into your frosting, you need to puree them in a blender then cook down the mixture until thickened.
If you were to add the puree without cooking, your frosting would be too runny. That would mean adding more powdered sugar to thicken it, which would make the frosting a little TOO sweet.
Measuring is very important because you want 1 1/2 tablespoons cooked puree (3 tablespoons if you’re doubling my recipe).
Let it cool to room temperature before using. Otherwise, it may curdle your frosting if it’s too warm.
If you’re making the puree the day before, make sure you bring it to room temperature along with your butter. If it’s too cold, it may also split your frosting.
HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM
To make strawberry buttercream, I highly recommend using an electric mixer to beat together the ingredients rather than beating by hand.
Using a mixer makes it super smooth and adds air, which is key for making a fluffy frosting. I personally use a 5 quart stand mixer. However, you can also use a hand mixer.
First, start with room temperature butter.
If you beat it while too cold, the frosting won’t be as smooth and may result in a lumpy frosting. If you beat it while too warm, the frosting will become too soft to set up.
Since I always use unsalted butter, I add a pinch of salt. It helps amplify the other flavors. If you’re using salted butter, you can skip this part
Next, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, roughly 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl if needed.
Finally, add your cooled strawberry puree and vanilla. This will smooth your frosting into something spreadable.
HOW DO YOU FIX RUNNY FROSTING?
At this point, you need to decide if your strawberry frosting is to your liking. If you’re making a cake, you want the frosting to be spreadable.
However, if you’re piping cupcakes, you want the frosting more on the firm side so it doesn’t fall over.
If your frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar. If your frosting is too thick, add a few drops of milk.
Sometimes if your frosting is the right thickness but too warm to pipe, the refrigerator is your friend! My kitchen gets super warm when the oven is on, even in the winter.
What I do is refrigerate the frosting for 15 minutes. This is usually enough time to firm it up for my cake.
HOW DO YOU FIX SEPARATED STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM
If your strawberry buttercream looks curdled, it means you have broken buttercream. This means your fat and liquid from the butter separated.
If any of your buttercream ingredients are too warm or too cold, such as not letting the strawberry puree cool down or using butter straight from the fridge, your frosting will curdle.
There are two ways to fix separated strawberry buttercream:
- If your buttercream is too warm, refrigerate for about 15 minutes then try beating again.
- If your buttercream is too cold, gently reheat it over a pan of steaming water, like you would with a double boiler. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water. Once warmed up, start beating again.
CAN STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM BE MADE IN ADVANCE?
Yes, you can make strawberry buttercream frosting in advance! Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
You may need to bring your frosting to room temperature if it’s too hard to spread.
DO YOU HAVE TO REFRIGERATE STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM?
The biggest question I get about strawberry buttercream is do you have to refrigerate a cake with buttercream frosting?
The answer is no. Because it uses a good amount of powdered sugar, strawberry buttercream is safe to leave out at room temperature for 2-3 days.
That means a strawberry buttercream cake can sit out overnight for up to 2-3 days.
However, buttercream tends to melt if it’s too warm because of the butter’s melting point. In the winter I can leave my cake out, but in the summer I refrigerate my cakes.
You also want to refrigerate your cake if you want it to last longer than 3 days.
HOW TO REFRIGERATE A CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
To refrigerate a strawberry buttercream cake, first put it in the fridge uncovered for about 15 minutes. This will harden the frosting just enough so it won’t smear if accidentally touched.
Next, cover the cake so it doesn’t dry out in the refrigerator.
You can either loosely wrap with plastic wrap (you can use toothpicks if you don’t want it touching the frosting) or store in an airtight cake container
I highly recommend using a cake container because it won’t actually touch your cake and you can store other items on top.
STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Strawberry buttercream frosting is easy to make with butter, jam, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt. It’s creamy, fruity, and great for spreading on cakes or piping onto cupcakes.
Strawberry frosting is a staple for cakes and cupcakes alike. The fruity flavor is great on vanilla, chocolate, coconut, and even lemon or lime cakes.
I’ve used this same strawberry buttercream frosting on my strawberry cake with jello, strawberry sugar cookie bars, and strawberry lime cupcakes. It’s easy to spread or pipe.
STRAWBERRY FROSTING WITH JAM
This strawberry buttercream uses strawberry jam or strawberry preserves to give the frosting its fruity flavor.
Jam is a thick spread made from crushed or puréed fruit and sugar. Preserves are another thick fruit spread made from whole fruit cooked with sugar, creating a chunkier spread.
Look for a brand that looks thick through the jar and has little to no added sugar, since there will be powdered sugar added for the frosting. You don’t want it to be overly sweet.
If using preserves, keep in mind the size of strawberry chunks. You don’t want one with very large pieces. Especially if you plan to put the strawberry frosting in a piping bag.
CAN I MAKE STRAWBERRY FROSTING WITH FRESH STRAWBERRIES?
Of course you can make your own jam with fresh strawberries for this frosting. You will need to make it ahead of time and allow it to cool completely before using it.
Try my low sugar strawberry freezer jam. It’s easy to make in the microwave.
You can also purée fresh strawberries (strain it to remove the seeds, if desired), add a little sugar and a splash of lemon juice. Then cook it on the stovetop, stirring frequently until the fruit reduces to a thick, jammy texture; about 40-50 minutes. Cool completely. Then use it in the strawberry frosting recipe below.
Cooking the fruit is important! If you just added strawberry purée to the frosting, you wouldn’t be able to use very much of it before the frosting becomes overly soft and runny. Plus you’d miss out on a lot of strawberry flavor.
Using jam packs the frosting with flavor because the fruit is concentrated during the cooking process. Strawberry frosting made with jam will still be sturdy enough for spreading and piping without adding gobs of extra powdered sugar. Plus it’s an easy ingredient to find at the store or make from home.
Frozen strawberries can be cooked down for this recipe. Just keep in mind they will put off more liquid than fresh berries, so it may take longer to reduce and thicken.
You can always mix a Tablespoon or two of cornstarch with the sugar that you add to the puréed strawberries to help it thicken sufficiently. I do that when I make pie filling like in this Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie.
HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Now that you’ve got the strawberry part figured out, you will need butter. This is buttercream after all. Unsalted butter with a pinch or two of salt to bring out the flavor and offset some of the sweetness is perfect. Don’t skip the salt!
Salted butter will work great too, although if you’re sensitive to salt, you may find it too salty. Better to start with none and add some to taste.
You can use half butter and half shortening if you are worried about the frosting melting in humidity, but the best flavor is going to be created with all butter.
- Simply beat the butter and strawberry jam with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating until combined between each addition. Add a pinch or two of salt and mix together.
This strawberry buttercream will be slightly softer than vanilla frosting, but should still be thick and pipeable.
PRO TIP: If the frosting still seems too soft after adding the powdered sugar, throw it in the fridge to firm it up.
This strawberry buttercream is great for cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and any other dessert you’d want to put it on. Like my fresh strawberry cupcakes! Try it today!