If you’ve seen my cake recipes, you know that I LOVE a really good frosting. I haven’t been putting them on the site separately, but figured it’s about time to do so because there’s endless ways to use frosting.
This recipe was specifically made for my chocolate strawberry cake (coming tomorrow!) but it would also be delicious on your favorite brownie recipe, cakes, cupcakes, cookie sandwiches and more. Check out all my ideas below. xo!
What is buttercream?
Buttercream is a type of frosting made with, of course, butter, plus sugar and milk or cream. It’s super fluffy and great for decorating cakes & pastries because all of the ingredients are whipped together until smooth but hold a nice shape.
Unlike “icing,” which is made from mostly powdered sugar and a liquid fat like milk, traditional buttercream recipes use about a 2:1 ratio of sugar to butter. Some recipes use other fat sources like margarine or shortening as well. In this recipe, we’re infusing a delicious vanilla buttercream frosting with wonderful strawberry flavor.
Ingredients in strawberry buttercream
This easy strawberry buttercream recipe uses just five simple ingredients for a perfectly fluffy, strawberry frosting you’ll make again and again. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Butter: our fat source in this recipe is good old fashioned butter. I prefer to use salted butter because it has more flavor, but unsalted works perfectly.
- Powdered sugar: we’ll use plenty of powdered sugar to sweeten the buttercream.
- Freeze dried strawberries: to get that delicious strawberry flavor, you’ll actually blend up freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder.
- Vanilla: for an extra boost of flavor.
- Milk: feel free to use any milk you’d like to thin the strawberry buttercream just a bit.
Why use freeze dried strawberries?
I tested this strawberry buttercream recipe many different ways and found that using freeze dried strawberries, as opposed to strawberry jam or even fresh strawberries, gave the frosting and even deeper strawberry flavor (and color!) Unless you have very ripe, sweet strawberries, fresh ones potentially won’t give your buttercream the strawberry flavor you’re looking for.
Bonus: you can make this easy strawberry frosting all year round, even when strawberries aren’t in season!
Easy ingredient swaps
- Make it dairy free: feel free to use vegan butter.
- Use unrefined sugar: feel free to try using my homemade paleo powdered sugar or your powdered sweetener of choice in this strawberry buttercream recipe and let me know how it turns out! I have only tested it as is though.
How to make strawberry buttercream frosting from scratch
You won’t believe how easy this strawberry buttercream recipe is!
- Blend the strawberries. You’ll first blend your freeze dried strawberries in a blender or food processor until they become a very fine powder.
- Cream the butter. Next, whip your softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy.
- Whip everything together. Add the freeze-dried strawberry powder, powdered sugar & vanilla extract to your electric mixer and beat for 2-3 minutes more. Add in a few tablespoons of milk to thin the frosting out, beat again until smooth.
How do you make buttercream frosting fluffy?
The key is to whip together all of the ingredients slowly and increase the speed of your electric mixer as you go. This will create beautiful peaks in the frosting and make it super easy to frost your favorite treats. Don’t forget to add a little bit of milk at a time as needed, this will also help to make the frosting easier to spread.
Ways to use this strawberry buttercream
The options are truly endless. Here are some of my favorite ways to use this frosting:
- Double the strawberry fun with this Almond Flour Strawberry Shortcake Cake
- Add a layer to my famous Grain Free Tahini Brownies or my Flourless Almond Butter Brownies.
- Did someone say strawberry banana? Put a dollop on these Healthy Soft Banana Bread Cookies
- Decorate one of these Almond Flour Chocolate Sugar Cookies or make a fun cookie sandwich for Valentine’s Day.
How to store homemade buttercream
- At room temp: this strawberry buttercream will stay good at room temp for about a day on a cake.
- In the fridge: feel free to keep the frosting in the fridge for up to a week if you’re looking to prepare it ahead of time. Let the frosting come to room temp before using it. After you’ve frosted your cake or another dessert, I also recommend storing the cake in the fridge after one day.
Can you freeze buttercream frosting?
Actually, yes! You can freeze this strawberry buttercream frosting for up to 3 months in an airtight container or freezer-friendly bag. When you’re ready to use it, simply let it thaw in the refrigerator, let it come to room temp, and then re-whip it in your electric mixer.
I hope you love this easy strawberry buttercream frosting recipe! If you make it be sure to leave a comment & a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 heaping cup freeze dried strawberries*
- 1 cup butter (I prefer salted, but unsalted also works!), at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons milk of choice*
Instructions
- Add your freeze dried strawberries to a high powered blender (or a food processor) and blend until they become a fine powder.
- Next, in the bowl of an electric mixer, add the softened butter (or vegan butter) and whip on high until light and fluffy.
- Next, add the freeze-dried strawberry powder, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and beat for 2-3 minutes more, starting on low speed and slowly increasing to high.
- Add in a few tablespoons of milk to thin the frosting out, beat again until smooth. Spread on your favorite cake, cookies or whatever your heart desires!
Recipe Notes
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
97 comments
How much freeze dried powdered strawberries to use if I buy the powdered strawberries instead of sliced?
Looks like about 3/8 cups of powder after I blended the freeze dried strawberries
Awesome!
Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks Monique Volz for this “strawberry buttercream frosting” recipe. Definitely going to share this recipe with my colleagues. Love everything I see here and cannot wait to try your recipes out.
Absolutely! I hope they love it and that you find more recipes here that you love, too!
Hi Monique, May I ask how many packs of freeze dried strawberries I need to buy to make 1 cup?
I recommend using probably around .5 oz.
This is my new FAVORITE frosting! I can’t wait to try it with more AK baked goods. It was very straightforward to make.
So happy to hear that!!
I just made the frosting because the freeze dried strawberries are cold it caused my fluffy butter to pump up. Any tips? The flavour is devine
Hi! Freeze dried strawberries shouldn’t be cold (they’re not actually frozen, they’re shelf-stable) did you by chance use frozen strawberries?
The strawberry flavor of this frosting is unreal!
So glad you love it!
This is THE best strawberry frosting. My husband, who usually always prefer the cake part to frosting said the frosting was his favorite. It’s a perfect strawberry flavor!
This frosting is sooo good! The flavor is unreal. I don’t bake much and decided to use a regular bowl with a handheld mixer. It was doable but I will say it took a really long time and there was frosting everywhere 🤣 so my tip is to use a big bowl or just give in and get your kitchen aid mixer out and use that. I’m sure it would have come together much faster. I used my nutibullet to make the powdered strawberries. Also found the freeze dried strawberries at Aldi!
So delicious and great strawberry flavor! I hadn’t worked with freeze-dried strawberries before, and may have ended up using more than necessary, but used the whole 1.2 oz pkg from Aldi, and realized as I was making it that I didn’t quite have the 2.5 c of powdered sugar, so maybe the excess helped even things out lol. I made the Inside out Chocolate Cake recipe as cupcakes, and they’re almost like brownies with strawberry topping. Perfect for Valentines’ Day!
This is by far the best strawberry buttercream I have ever tasted. So much strawberry flavor!
This is THE best frosting I have ever had. It’s SO delicious. Had a hard time saving enough of it to frost the cake lol
So easy to make and came out delicious!!!!!! I definitely recommend!!
So beautifully delicious!
I’m not much of a fruit-flavored dessert person, but this frosting was the perfect complement to the chocolate cake!
The butter whipped well but when I added my dry ingredients, it all mixed powdery – thankfully once I added a little milk at a time, it went back to a frosting texture and turned out delightful!
Thanks for another wonderful recipe, Monique!
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
Honestly, I have never tried a better frosting in my life. Made it DF, and ohmyGOODNESS I’m mad at myself for not making it sooner. You actually taste that fresh strawberry and my mom who rarely eats sweets devoured this.
So happy to hear that!
I don’t *love* chocolate cake, but my husband does so I wanted to try this out! THE FROSTING IS SO GOOD WITH FREEZE DRIED STRAWBERRIES-LET ME JUST MAKE THAT KNOWN RIGHT NOW! I only had 9×9 pans so I think the cake was more spread out and flatter, seeming like it was not as moist as I’d like it to be- next time I’m going to use the smaller pans. I highly recommend this recipe!
Such a yummy strawberry frosting! I’ll be using this again in the future 🙂 Easy to make too.
Glad you loved it!
OBSESSED!!! This frosting is so easy and so, so yummy. I made it with the inside out chocolate strawberry cake and it was perfect. It tastes just like strawberry ice cream and I think it would go well with many different kinds of cakes. I can’t wait to try it again and again!!
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
Incredible frosting!!! Doubled the recipe so I could enjoy it even more. I paired it with AK’s Healthy Birthday Cake Recipe and WOW. Perfect fresh strawberry taste!
Love that!!
I was wondering if the dried strawberries would really add that much flavor but they damn sure do! It’s SO GOOD! You could easily add this to other things – it could elevate a box cake mix, swirl it into some ice cream, sandwich it between to graham crackers for a quick strawberry cookie, eat it off the spoon and beaters (when they’re turned off and disconnected, of course). It’s delicious on the chocolate cake, but I can imagine this would also be outstanding on a vanilla cake!
Absolutely! So many ways to enjoy!
Mmmmmm! Paired this with your gluten free almond flours strawberry shortcake and wow is this delicious! And the pink color is just beautiful!
Love that idea! Glad you enjoyed!
I followed this recipe entirely and I wouldn’t change a thing! Loved using the 3, 6” pans for the triple layer effect. It was so so yummy. Made it for Valentine’s Day with my toddler and my hubby and other kids were thoroughly impressed with the taste abs presentation. Thanks for a delicious dessert!
Absolutely! Perfect dessert 🙂
How big of a cake with this icing? Thanks!
This will cover a cake using two 9-inch round cake pans or three 6-inch ones (like in this recipe!)
Made this cake for a girls night and it was a hit! Everyone loved it & lots of comments on how good the icing is!
The perfect treat! Glad everyone enjoyed 🙂
How many tablespoons of powdered strawberries does a cup make? I have no idea and I have the powdered strawberry powder. Thanks a bunch in advance!
that might be more concentrated so I would suggest starting with 1/4 cup of strawberry powder and see how the frosting tastes, you can always add more!
I liked this recipe a lot!! I used it on meringues and it turned out perfect. I love making this, but I had one question. Can you use regular strawberries instead of freeze-dried ones?
That sounds amazing! Check the full post for my note on other strawberry options 🙂
This frosting is incredible! We used it on a chocolate cake and recently made a mini version of it for a brownie.
Love it! That sounds incredible.
Will this frosting work in a piping bag to decorate a cake?
Yes it should!
Would this icing work with powdered maple sugar?
I haven’t tried it but I think so as long as it’s very fine!
Does this make enough for a three tier 8” layer cake? Or should it be doubled?
Hi, there! I use this recipe for my Inside Out Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake, which is three 6″ cake layers. You might need just a bit more frosting for three 8″ cakes, so I’d recommend doing 1.5x the frosting!
Thank you!!
This is my absolute go-to for strawberry buttercream. It tastes just like biting into a fresh strawberry! It pairs perfectly with a chocolate, vanilla or even lemon flavored cupcake! Big hit with my friends and family!
Right?! So much yummy strawberry flavor 🙂 Glad you guys loved it!
It worked exactly how she described!
Yay!! So glad to hear that 🙂
Another amazing recipe from AK! The strawberry flavor is so unreal and this recipe is so easy to make. I doubled the recipe for a 2 layer 9 inch chocolate cake and it was terrific. Thank you!
YAY!! Happy you loved it, Emily!
Hi, do you know around how many cups of frosting this makes?
I’ve never actually measured it so I’m not entirely sure, sorry! Maybe close to 2 cups?
This sounds delicious, and want to try making it, but I was wondering if you can use the pre-packaged dried strawberry powder. Do you think the flavor would be compromised? I see only an organic brand being available so it made me wonder about the flavor…
Hmm I’d have to see the brand/product to see what’s in it! I also linked the ones I use above in the blog post, which can be found at Trader Joe’s or on Amazon through that link 🙂
I didn’t want to make the entire Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake so I made a small batch of this recipe to put on the famous almond butter brownies and WOW is all I can say! I used powdered coconut sugar and a tad too much almond milk so it was more like a thick glaze – a mistake that totally worked on brownies, especially straight from the fridge. Might have to try making this as a cream cheese frosting next!
Oh nice!! I’m so glad you loved it 🙂 And glad the thinner glaze texture worked well on the brownies.
I didn’t love this recipe. I actually added a cup and a half of butter because I love buttery buttercream, but I should’ve added even more because it still doesn’t taste buttery at all. I also ended up putting more like 3-4 cups powdered sugar and two tsp vanilla. Even after those changes it has an overly strong strawberry flavor and is not really sweet (which some people may like). Personally, I don’t love it- especially because I’m pairing with a chocolate cake that is also not sweet. I would add just half a cup of strawberry powder if I made again
Sorry you didn’t love this one, and thanks for the feedback! Did you use salted butter? That should help bring out the flavor. Totally fine to adjust the amount of strawberry powder 🙂
I’m so glad that I found this recipe! Can you tell me how much this recipe, as is, will yield in cups. I plan on pairing this with a pink champagne cake for my niece’s wedding. There will be 3 9″ layers in the tier. I want to make sure that I make enough but not over do it, lol.
Thanks!
Nevermind 🙂 I found the answer
This the absolute best strawberry buttercream out there. I went the route of using vegan butter and it worked great! (I was also about half a cup short on powdered sugar and it still worked out, so if you failed to plan ahead like me rest assured this recipe will still be your favorite!!)
Nice!! I’m so happy you loved it, and good to know about the powdered sugar 🙂
I love the 3 tbsp of milk consistency for the batter. This was so good and easy. Thanks for sharing, Monique!
Hi! I was wondering, about how many cups does this make? I need something a little more specific than “Serves 16”. Thanks!
Hi! I haven’t measured it out but I think it makes around 2 cups 🙂
Thank you!
Nevermind, please delete this comment
Nevermind again 😅
Would you happen to know the weight of a cup of freeze dried berries? All the ones I’ve found go by grams and I’m wanting to try this weekend.
So sorry, I don’t! I just measure out a heaping cup from the bag.
The strawberry is very strong and packs a punch. I only ended up using maybe 3/4 cup and it was just right anymore and it wouldve been almost sour. If you are icing a 2 layer 9×13 cake you will need to double or even triple the recipe as this was only enough to crumb coat. No worries as I picked up some strawberry oil as backup bc I had a feeling I didn’t have enough Strawberry powder. Always make sure to taste as you go. But it was great! Thanks. Will definitely keep in my pocket.
Good to know! I haven’t found that so I’m wondering if the brand you used was a little more tart? Thanks for the feedback!
If I want to use freeze dried strawberry powder (already in powder form when purchased) how much do I need?
Another follower has said about 3/8 of a cup!
Hi. I was looking for a great strawberry buttercream frosting recipe to use between layers of lemon cake for my daughters birthday. I have no idea where to get, or how to make freeze dried strawberries. Can I just use frozen/thawed strawberries I buy at the store in a bag? They always have a great strawberry flavor. If you would advise, how much would I use?
Thanks!
I made this icing and I haven’t served the cake yet it tastes delicious and I can only imagine the cake will be amazing. Not sure though if I did something a little different (didn’t think I did) but mine is a much deeper pinkish/red color than picture here. It taste exactly like a very sweet strawberry.
Made this is icing for my devils food cake. Next time I will double the recipe so there is enough to do full cake and sides. The icing is very good and will make again
Hi Monique! I’m a regular Ambitious Kitchen fan and make your incredible recipes on repeat! However, I am lactose intolerant but also trying to watch my consumption of seed oils in products like earth balance. I would so LOOOOOOVE to make this strawberry buttercream and am most def making inside out strawberry cake today for my son’s 11th bday….I even bought the freeze dried strawberries! (they were hard to find here in Toronto, Canada) Ok, all this to ask, is there anyway I can make this frosting with coconut cream or coconut oil? And if so, what would be your suggested ratios? Any guidance would be so wonderfully appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your recipes….they have so helped me and my family eat healthier while still ENJOYING the decadence of these wonderful treats!!!
Hi! So happy to hear that you’ve found lots of great recipes! Unfortunately, I haven’t tried out this recipe using coconut products and I’m not 100% sure if the texture will hold up. I do have a chocolate frosting made with coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk here that would be great on a cake, but the chocolate chips are what give it a nice sweetness and I’m not sure if the freeze-dried strawberries would work out well. Let me know if you give it a try!
Monique! I made the whole cake just as you instructed in your recipe and it came out BEAUTIFUL, mind you, not as beautiful as yours! Will post a pic on IG soon and tag you! (I didn’t want to risk using coconut cream so I just wolfed a whole bunch of digestive enzymes to enjoy the buttercream frosting) The cake was a hit with the whole familia! I will venture to try with coconut cream one day and let you know how it turns out. The cake was so divinely delicious! Thank you!!
YUM! I am so excited to hear that you are loving this cake and it turned out great for you, Paula!
I just made this and it is downright delicious! The buttercream has a great balance of tarte and sweet. Also, this was my first time making buttercream and it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
AH yay! I am so excited to hear that you are loving this frosting and it turned out great for you 🙂
Dangerously good! I made this with Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks and freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s. It’s sweet, fluffy, packs a delicious punch of strawberry flavor, and is a pretty pink color. By far the best – and first ever homemade – frosting I’ve ever had. Will be making this a staple for baked goods.
Prior to the winner batch I tried making a batch with paleo confectioners sugar. Cornstarch + coconut sugar. It was pretty bad in comparison. I blame the ingredients, not the recipe. I do not recommend a coconut sugar substitution in this buttercream.
Ah thank you SO much for sharing, glad you’re loving this recipe and it turned out great for you ❤️
Is it okay to cut the powdered sugar in half or more than half? I would prefer a frosting that is a lot less sweet? Thanks
That might work, but you’ll want to adjust the liquid as well or it’ll be too watery.