The Best Strawberry Buttercream Frosting for Cake

It is strawberry season and we all know what that means! We need to bake as many strawberry-flavored cakes as possible! Or at least a few so we can soak up all the best flavors that strawberries give us when they are in their peak season. So, to help us get into the spirit of strawberry-themed desserts, I thought I’d share with you the best strawberry buttercream frosting for cake. I know you’ll love it!

There are a few tricks to getting this strawberry buttercream frosting recipe just right for your cakes, and I go over those throughout this post. But I’ll just tell you right now that one of the best things you can do when making the strawberry buttercream is to beat it on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes after all the ingredients are added. This will help to really blend all of the ingredients which will lighten the texture of the buttercream so it’s not too dense.

the best strawberry buttercream frosting for cake. www.cakebycourtney.com

The Best Strawberry Buttercream Frosting Recipe

I have used my strawberry buttercream frosting recipe on several different cakes, and I must say it gives a delicious finishing touch to each one. I love adding strawberry jam (rather than strawberry emulsion or something similar) to the buttercream because it gives that authentic strawberry flavor you want to taste in the buttercream.

To make the strawberry buttercream frosting, you will need:

1 ½ cups (327 g) unsalted butter, slightly cold
¼ cup (40 g) freeze-dried strawberries, pulverized
⅓ cup (76 g) heavy cream
2 tbsp. strawberry jam
4 cups (500 g) powdered sugar, measured and then sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Side note: This recipe makes enough to fill and cover a cake, so if you want to pipe your cake, you will need to make an extra ½ batch.

You will first cream your butter for about 2 minutes in a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. This will help soften your butter without it having to be warm. Next, add your sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time while your mixer is on low speed. Make sure to mix it a little in between each cup of powdered sugar.

Next, add the freeze-dried strawberries and the strawberry jam. Once mixed in, add your whipping cream and vanilla while your mixer is on medium speed. Turn your mixer on medium-high speed and beat for an additional 5-7 minutes. The strawberry buttercream frosting is ready once it becomes lighter in color and texture.

Another thing to take note of is that freeze-dried strawberries tend to thicken the buttercream. To help offset this, I reduced the amount of powdered sugar and added more heavy whipping cream used in the recipe. If you find your buttercream to still be too thick, I recommend adding more heavy cream and beating it a little longer.

The Best Strawberry Buttercream Frosted Cakes

I thought I’d showcase three of my strawberry buttercream frosted cakes just to give you some ideas on how you could use this buttercream on your own cakes. These are some of my absolute favorites! And even my husband is a fan when he normally isn’t one who prefers a cake with fruit in it. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosted Cake #1: Biscoff Strawberry Cake

strawberry biscoff cake recipe. www.cakebycourtney.com

My Biscoff Strawberry Cake is inspired by an ice cream flavor at Rockwell Ice Cream in Utah. It features Biscoff cake layers, Biscoff filling and cookies, strawberry buttercream, and fresh strawberries. Biscoff somehow pairs so well with so many flavors and strawberry is definitely one of them!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosted Cake #2: Strawberries and Cream Cake

the best cake using strawberry buttercream. www.cakebycourtney.com

This Strawberries and Cream Cake has quite the natural strawberry flavor, thanks to the freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry puree reduction. This cake also features a whipped cream filling that I stabilized with gelatin. I think you’ll have a lot of fun with this one! And, I have to say I made this cake in celebration of the Steel Magnolias movie, which you can read more about in the original post for this cake!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosted Cake #3: Light and Fluffy Strawberry Shortcake

strawberry short cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. www.cakebycourtney.com

My Strawberry Shortcake is exactly what you hope it would be! It’s made up of the most tender and fluffy vanilla cake layers, filled with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries, and covered in strawberry buttercream. I know strawberry buttercream isn’t typically included with a strawberry shortcake, but I think it was a risk well worth it! The buttercream is super light just like the cake!