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Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Name: Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature); 1/4 cup strawberry puree (about 5 large strawberries food processed until they are a thick, seedy liquid); 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2 cups powdered sugar

Published 6/29/2020, Last updated 2/8/2022 by Stef

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With a lovely flavor and a naturally soft pink color, strawberry buttercream frosting is perfect for piping on all sorts of desserts. I make mine with pureed fresh or frozen strawberries and a few other basic ingredients, and the whole recipe easily comes together in about 10 minutes.

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Ingredients

This frosting blends up in an electric mixer with just a few simple ingredients: unsalted butter, strawberry puree, powdered sugar, and salt.

I highly recommend that you use fresh berries to make the puree, but you can always use frozen ones if it’s not strawberry season. Make sure you defrost them first and strain off all of the liquid before pureeing, as I show below.

How It’s Made

Start with room temperature ingredients. You should be able to lightly press into the butter with your finger and leave an indentation. It’s too soft if the butter smooshes completely down when you press it.

Tip: You can bring butter to room temperature by microwaving it. Microwave the butter for five seconds at a time until it reaches room temperature.

Butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachement

First, make strawberry puree. Wash and remove the tops from fresh strawberries. Then, puree them in a food processor [paid link] until you have a thick, seedy liquid.

Liquefied strawberries in a food processor

If berries aren’t in season, you can defrost frozen strawberries to make the puree.

Before food processing thawed frozen berries, use a sieve to strain off all of the extra liquid. If you skip this step, your frosting will be way too wet!

strawberry juice being strained off of strawberries using a sieve — Straining berries with a sieve is only necessary if you use frozen berries.

Beat your room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or using an electric mixer) on high speed for about three minutes to completely aerate it.

Whipped butter in the bowl of a stand mixer

Next, mix in the strawberry puree and salt.

Adding strawberry puree to strawberry buttercream frosting

Finally, in multiple additions, mix in the powdered sugar. Mixing it all in at once will result in a kitchen covered in it!

Tip: As with many other frosting recipes, use the listed powdered sugar quantity as a guideline. Add more or less as needed to make the frosting a consistency that you like.

Adding powdered sugar to strawberry frosting

Expert Tips and FAQs

a cupcake frosted with strawberry buttercream frosting and topped with a strawberry

How can I store this frosting?

You can leave this buttercream out on the counter for up to three days. But, if you aren’t going to be using it right away, store it in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to a month.

Always bring it back to room temperature by first putting it in the refrigerator overnight and then leaving it on the counter for a few hours. You will need to re-whip it before using it.

Which cupcakes does this frosting work well on?

I love it on both my chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes – both recipes have been extensively tested and you can’t go wrong with either. If you’re a true strawberry lover, pipe a healthy swirl onto strawberry cupcakes. It would also be amazing on devil’s food cake or strawberry cake!

One strawberry cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting

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