Strawberry season is in full swing and today I’m sharing a fantastic Strawberry Buttercream Recipe that is easy to make, pipes beautifully, and is bursting with fresh strawberry flavor!
This versatile strawberry frosting recipe can be used as a filling or frosting, and tastes AMAZING with all sorts of cake and cupcake flavors. It not only makes a wonderful strawberry frosting, but is delicious as a strawberry filling when sandwiched between cake layers. The real strawberries in the recipe give it great flavor.
**If you will be doing a lot of piping you will need to double the recipe
How to Make Strawberry Buttercream
This strawberry buttercream recipe is so delicious, you’ll want to make it again and again for all of your favorite strawberry cake recipes! The best part (aside from being such a good, pipeable frosting) is that it is such an easy recipe to whip up.
This is a basic American Buttercream recipe, which means it is a combination of these simple ingredients: softened butter, confectioners sugar, a pinch of salt, flavoring, and in this case, strawberries which lends a delicious natural strawberry flavor.
**You can find the full, printable recipe for Strawberry Buttercream below, but here is a quick rundown of the steps:
- Soften the butter at room temperature, and puree the strawberries in the food processor. Using a paddle attachment, cream the softened unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, a handheld mixer works well also!) Gradually add the powdered sugar and strawberry puree beating at medium speed until blended.
- Continue mixing at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl. **If you’d like the frosting to be a bit more pink, just add a few drops of pink food coloring or coloring gel.
- Next, turn the mixer to low speed (#2 on a KitchenAid) and continue mixing another 1 to 2 minutes to eliminate air pockets. The strawberry frosting will become very smooth.
- The consistency is simple to change- 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.
- This buttercream should be refrigerated in an airtight container until it’s time to frost the cake! Due to the perishable nature of strawberries, I like to refrigerate cakes that have been frosted with this buttercream until within a couple of hours of the event.
Decorating the Cake
In the photo above, I filled a disposable piping bag with strawberry buttercream, and piped on top of our freshly crumb coated cake using a star tip 21. Spirals of buttercream covered the top of the cake, and I continued my buttercream piping around the sides with simple piped shells in a braided buttercream pattern.
This strawberry buttercream is perfect for all sorts of piping techniques, textured buttercream techniques, or a smooth finish.
We have quite a few favorite buttercream recipes in our Recipes section, make sure to scroll through all of them!
Pureed Strawberries vs. Strawberry Extract
**If you will be doing a lot of piping you will need to double the recipe
No More Grainy buttercream
Many people are surprised to learn that the type of powdered sugar used in an American Buttercream recipe like this one, can greatly the smoothness of your buttercream. Some brands/types of confectioners sugar just don’t work well with frosting.
Over the years, we’ve run into a couple of brands of powdered sugar that gave us a beautiful looking buttercream which turned out to have a gritty, grainy consistency- ugh!
If a package doesn’t say pure cane sugar, it contains beet sugar which is more likely to give you a grainy outcome.
However, we’ve noticed that even some brands that say “Pure Cane Sugar” will give a grainy consistency. One example is Dixie Crystals (although it used to work great for us several years ago.) Something has changed.
I’ve read that sometimes brands will use an anti-caking agent that causes grittiness, but it’s hard to say what the true reason is. Your best bet is to do a little experimenting to find the brand that gives you the best results.
We’ve had great results with Domino’s confectioner’s sugar.
What Cakes Pair Well with Strawberry Buttercream?
This easy Strawberry Buttercream Frosting tastes great with so many cake flavors! Here are just a few of our favorites!
Strawberry Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
We love this delicious Strawberry Buttercream recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt (optional) this will cut the sweetness (popcorn salt will dissolve more quickly)
- ¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon pureed strawberries, add more to reach your desired spreading consistency- This is approximately 3-5 strawberries depending on size.
- 1 teaspoon (4g) strawberry extract (optional) use if the buttercream needs more strawberry flavor
Instructions
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 ½ cups
We have more Strawberry Fillings to Share!
My Cake School Online Cake Tutorials and Delicious Cake & Frosting Recipes!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you’ll give this strawberry buttercream a try– whether you’re frosting a fresh strawberry cake for a birthday party, or using it as a strawberry filling for chocolate cupcakes, or another of the hundreds of possible flavor options, we hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as we have! We’d love for you to share your comments or photos below!
For more great recipes, make sure to scroll through our entire Recipes Section! We have so many cakes, fillings, and frostings to share!
If you’re interested in cake decorating- we’d love for you to visit our Free Cake Tutorials section, which also includes our Free Cake Videos section for creative cake decorating ideas.
I just made this tonight and wanted to thank you for sharing this! Absolutely delicious and fresh, strawberry taste – I put it on a yellow cake.The best! Thanks again
Hi Cathy, Thank you for posting your thoughts on the recipe. I am very happy that you like it!!
This Frosting was absolutely delicious! It
Tastes like Breyers strawberry ice cream!
Thank you for this recipe!
Thanks Pamela! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the recipe! Thanks for your feedback! xo
This frosting is amazing, I just made it today with a yellow cake, I was wondering though, I’m not a fan refrigerating my cakes, but with pureed strawberries in the frosting, do you recommend refrigeration or will the butter prevent spoiling as it usually creates a seal? thank you!
-Tristan
Hi Tristan, I am happy you like the frosting! We were not sure how the puree would hold up so we did not leave this cake out overnight. We refrigerate and take out 1 hour before serving so it can warm up a bit
Hi, thanks for sharing this recipe. I was wondering if I could use strawberry jam/preserve instead of fresh puree. Thanks, Kay from Nigeria.
Can crisco be used instead of unsalted butter? I’m just a big fan of crisco instead of unsalted butter in my icings.
Hi, I made this with the lemon cake and it was SOOOO good. It was a huge hit!! Thanks so much for the recipe. I’m going to make it again for a dinner this weekend, and I was just wondering if you’ve ever tried using frozen strawberries to make the puree? Do you think that would work?
Thanks again! -Rebekah
Hi Rebekah, Wonderful!! We are thrilled you like the lemon cake!! I use frozen strawberries when making the strawberry cake, I haven’t used them for the strawberry frosting but they should work fine for you.
This recipe was incredible!! I had quite a bit left, how long will the extra frosting stay good for in the fridge?
Hi Candice, I’m happy you like the recipe! Frosting can usually be refrigerated for 2 weeks but since this has strawberry puree I think it should be good for a week. Another option is to freeze it, we have frozen this in an airtight container for 4 months, thaw in the refrigerator then remix adding a bit of milk if needed, and it was fine.
I am getting ready for a missions dessert Auction. How far in advance can I make the strawberry butter cream frosting and how should it be stored?
Hi Teresa, Since it is an Auction dessert and not knowing how long the cake will be kept before eating and because of the strawberries, I think I would make it only 1 to 2 days in advance. Refrigerate in an airtight container. The day you are going to decorate, let it come to room temperature. Remix with a spoon or with a hand mixer.
I noticed it is not fluffy. I’ll need it to hold up as I will transport
In the hot Tx. weather. I’m making your lemon strawberry cake. Can I advise on making i to a fluffy that has shortening? Sorry I am a beginner.
I noticed it is not fluffy. I’ll need it to hold up as I will transport
In the hot Tx. weather. I’m making your lemon strawberry cake. Can u advise on making it into a fluffy that has shortening? Sorry I am a beginner.
Hi Teresa, Yes, you can replace half or all of the butter with Crisco.
Hi. will this buttercream melt if not stored in the fridge? thinking of adding it as a filling for macaron and then ship it.
Hi Dory, I’m sorry but this would not be a good choice of frosting for shipping. The butter used in the buttercream will become very soft if it gets warm and the fresh strawberry puree is an issue also.
My frosting isn’t thinking up, what went wrong ??
Hi Michele, you can add powdered sugar bit by bit until it reaches a consistency that you like.
This site is better than I went to Culinary school. To be fair all we did was make pies and bread. I wanted to know if I can substitute High ratio shorting for all the butter in this recipe.
Hi Claudia, Thank you for your compliment. Yes, you can substitute high ratio shortening for the butter if you like. You will need to add additional strawberry puree as you will need more liquid when using high ratio, or you can supplement with part strawberry puree and part milk. Hope all goes well.
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!
Can you use frozen strawberries in syrup for this icing?
Hi Denise, You can puree the strawberries in syrup, but you will only need 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon, possibly more to reach the spreading consistency you like.
hi .my place here its quiet hot and humid.how can i stabilize the buttercream without adding extra sweetness to the recipe.Or is there any alternate buttercream
Hi Vimala, You can replace half or all of the butter with vegetable shortening. You will also refrigerate the completed cake in an airtight cover, otherwise it will dry out in the refrigerator. Take it out 1 1/2 to 2 hours before serving so the chill will be off the cake.
thnaks for the reply but here we dont get good veg shortening .the taste of the buttercream after adding the shortening available here is so greasy.is any of the SMBC or IMBC or ermine buttercream stable enough to sustain the humid temperature?
Hi, when I mixed sugar and strawberry puree with the butter it got separated when mixed. Please tell me the reason and how to fix it.
I would like to have a strawberry cream cheese icing? Can I combine your two recipes somehow?
Hi Tabitha, Typically cream cheese recipes don’t have liquid because it makes the frosting too soft. I think you could adjust our Cream Cheese Buttercream recipe by decreasing the cream cheese, using 1 1/2 packages instead of 2 packages. Puree or crush 2 large strawberries or 4 small. Also, add 1 teaspoon strawberry extract for more strawberry flavor. Add a touch (using a toothpick) of food coloring if you want more of a pink color. If you use the Pipeable Cream Cheese recipe you could add the strawberries and add an additional cup of powdered sugar if needed. Don’t over beat the frosting or it will become too soft. If it does, just refrigerate and short while, maybe 10 minutes and it will firm up.
***I just wanted to add that we actually do have a Strawberry Whipped Cream Cheese Filling- We’ve used our whipped cream cheese fillings/frostings from time to time- the flavor is very good but the consistency is more of whipped cream rather than our usual frostings. So, if you are looking for a really smooth finish to the frosting, it probably isn’t your best bet. However, if you would be happy with more of a swirled or textured look, it would be fine for that!
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/strawberry-whipped-cream-cheese-filling/
I was wondering if I can add food gel or coloring want the strawberry flavor but not the color
Hi Simphiwe, You can add food gel coloring to the buttercream, it is optional. We did not add any coloring to ours.