Strawberry season is in full swing and today I’m sharing a fantastic Strawberry Buttercream Frosting Recipe that is easy to make, pipes beautifully, and is bursting with strawberry flavor!
This versatile strawberry buttercream recipe can be used as a filling or frosting, and tastes AMAZING with all sorts of cake and cupcake flavors.
**If you will be doing a lot of piping you will need to double the recipe
(*In the photo above, I covered our thinly crumb coated lemon cake in Strawberry Buttercream piping using a Wilton Star 21 tip. Spirals of buttercream covered the top of the cake, and I continued my buttercream piping around the sides with a simple braided buttercream design.)
We have quite a few favorite buttercream recipes in our Recipes section, and this latest strawberry addition does not disappoint!
Not only is it the perfect complement to Strawberry Cake, but it is divine with white, yellow, chocolate, and even lemon cakes and cupcakes! In fact, Strawberry Lemon Cake is a brand new favorite of mine!
Strawberry Buttercream
Ingredients
- 10 to 12 large strawberries, sliced and pureed in blender or food processor
- 2 sticks (1 cup) (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt (optional) this will cut the sweetness (popcorn salt will dissolve more quickly)
- 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon pureed strawberries, add more to reach your desired spreading consistency
- 1 teaspoon (4g) strawberry extract (optional) use if the buttercream needs more strawberry flavor
Directions
- Cream the softened butter until smooth.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar and pureed strawberries beating at medium speed until blended.
- Continue mixing on medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally
- Slow down the mixer to very slow (#2 on a KitchenAid) and mixing another 1 to 2 minutes. This will eliminate air pockets. The buttercream will become very smooth.
- If the buttercream is too thin add more powdered sugar, if too thick add more puree or a bit of milk.
- Any extra strawberry puree can be spread between the cake layers
- Makes 4 to 4 1/2 cups
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. One more question or two. When making this frosting with high ratio shorting do you eliminate the almond and butter extract (flavoring) from the recipe? If not how much do you recommend. I had to order strawberry extract on line it is had to find where I live. Again thank you for getting back to me so quickly and for all those little hints.I have told all my friends on Facebook whether they just like to bake cakes or do it for a living, this is one of the best sites to go to. Thank you
Hi Claudia, I’m glad you asked the question, the butter flavoring slipped my mind. When eliminating all the butter you will need to add that flavor. I think based on the quantity of the strawberry recipe I would add 1/4 teaspoon butter flavoring . I would leave out the almond and use only the strawberry extract. I would use 1 teaspoon strawberry extract unless after tasting the buttercream you think it needs a bit more. The high ratio shortening has no flavor so you might need to adjust the amounts of butter flavor or strawberry extract to suit your taste. If you were open to using some butter, you could change the recipe to 1/2 cup (1 stick ) butter and 1/2 cup high ratio shortening, eliminate the butter flavoring and keeping the recipe otherwise the same except you might need to add a bit more liquid (strawberry puree or milk) as I mentioned earlier. Let me know if you have other questions.
I opened my small bottle of Strawberry Extract but before using I tasted of it…. so bitter and an after taste… I didn’t use it… it wasn’t good!! Not sure what brand you use but this one I ordered from a great company was not good.., I poured it down the drain!! So I bought fresh strawberries and made a strawberry syrup to use… haven’t used it yet… But it taste wonderful!!
This frosting is absolutely, deliciously, spectacular!! I think it tastes even better the day after you make it and the strawberries have time to sit. I didn’t use any flavorings or extracts with it and it is so fresh tasting and womderful…especially on your white cake recipe! Yummmm!!
Thanks so much for your feedback Molly! So happy that you enjoyed it. xo
I have 3/4 a of a cup of strawberry puree, left over from another recipe.
I would like to make this recipe, but I don’t know how much 10-12 large strawberries would be. How much purée would I need?
Also, can I freeze this?
A friend picked chocolate cake with strawberry frosting for a belated birthday cake. I might be having surgery, and want to get a lot done before then. Also, which dark chocolate cake would you recommend with this frosting?
Thank you so much, Judy.
Hi Judy, You have enough strawberry puree with 3/4 of cup. The recipe needs 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon, more if needed to reach the spreading consistency your like. You could always add a bit of milk if needed. We most often use the Classic Chocolate Cake recipe. I think you would also like the Chocolate Sour Cream or Devils Food recipe. These two are a bit darker. All would pair well with strawberry frosting. The cake layers can be made in advance and frozen for up to 2 months, just wrap layers individually in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. Hope all goes well.
Hi Bebe,
Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly. What’s confusing me is that the recipe says it needs 10-12 strawberries that are puréed.
And then it says 1/4 cup plus 1 TBSP.
Is this an error in the recipe???
Thank you. MWAH!
Hi Judy, I think I understand your question now. The 10-12 strawberries are pureed to give you the 1/4 cup plus 1 TBSP. The 10 to 12 strawberries will give you more than than 1/4 cup. If your strawberries are very small you can add a few more to the blender. Does this help?
Hi Bebe,
Yes, thank you. I understand now. I didn’t know why the strawberries were listed in two places.
I will make the frosting and freeze it.
Hi, Will this frost a half sheet single layer cake or would I need to increase? Thank you.
If we use hi-ratio shortening vs butter what would be the amount? I saw someone ask, but I didn’t see a conversion. What would be the amount swapped? Would it be the same, 1/2 cup for 1/2 a cup? Also, I have nut allergies and cannot use almond extract. Would it be ok to just use the butter flavoring and strawberry instead? sorry so many questions!
Thanks!
Hi bluebugs, There are different thoughts on amounts but you can use the same amount of hi-ratio as butter or a combination of 1/2 butter and 1/2 hi-ratio. With a combination of the two you could eliminate the butter flavoring. Omitting the almond extract will be fine. Recipes using hi-ratio shortening can hold more liquid so you will need to increase the liquid use to reach the spreading consistency you like. You can increase the strawberry puree or leave it the same and add milk as needed for for more liquid.
I want to use this frosting on some strawberry cupcakes that i will be making for a bake sale this sunday. If i keep them in the fridge and pull them out right before i drop them off for the sale, will the frosting be okay to sit out for four hours?
Hi Tracy, I think your plan should work fine, I am thinking it is an inside bake sale.
Bebe it is not. It will be outside
Hi Tracy, Even though it is outside the frosting should not spoil during that time frame because of all the powdered sugar in the recipe. If you are using a 2D piping tip the edges of your frosting swirl may not remain as sharp. I would think they won’t have baked goods sitting in the hot sun so all should be fine.
Emergency
Can this cover a three layer 9inch cake
Hi Em, This recipes makes 4 1/2 cups frosting. I would increase the recipe by 1/2 so you will have plenty to crumb coat, fill, frost and do some decorative piping on your cake. This will give you a little over 6 cups frosting.
The frosting looks delicious. Can you use freeze dried strawberries in this recipe? If so, how much and when to add?
thanks you.
Jackie
Hi Jackie, It seems that you should be able to, but we have never used freeze dried strawberries so I can’t give you a definite answer.
this looks amazing! I have a request to make the strawberry frosting in different colors for a princess theme bday to show the dress ruffles in blue, yellow etc. DO you think adding color would make a difference in the taste, texture?
Hi Praj, Adding coloring get won’t effect the taste. The texture would only be affected if you added so much color that it softened the buttercream, then you would add more powdered sugar to firm it up again. We use AmeriColor gel coloring and a little goes a long way. The problem you will have is trying to color the pink strawberry buttercream. Blue added to pink buttercream will give you purple and yellow added to pink will give you an orange color. You may need to make some white buttercream just to color the ruffles of the princess dress. However, if the entire cake is the princess dress, that is a problem.
Thanks Bebe! This is so helpful!