I used to steer clear of using fresh strawberries in buttercream recipes simply because I believe using freeze dried berries yields the best consistency and most flavorful buttercream. I still think it’s much easier to use freeze dried fruit when flavoring buttercream, but after years of chatting with people making my recipes all over the world, I realize that not everyone has access to it. So, I took to the kitchen determined to find the best way to make strawberry buttercream with fresh or frozen berries. And guess what? I came up with a recipe that is flavorful and easy to work with for filling, frosting, and decorating cakes and cupcakes. Plus, just look at this naturally beautiful color!

How to Use Fresh or Frozen Strawberries for Buttercream

Fresh and frozen berries contain a lot of liquid. That’s why you can’t just blend them up and add them into your buttercream – it will ruin the consistency to the point of no return! Instead, the secret to creating the best flavor + consistency is to first purèe the strawberries and then reduce them into a jam-like consistency over the stove. This reduction process keeps all the flavor intact while getting rid of the unnecessary liquid content. 

Making the reduction is super simple, but does take a little time. You’ll purèe the strawberries using a food processor, then transfer them to a small saucepan set over medium heat and bring them to a boil. Once this happens, turn the burner down to low and simmer the strawberries for 10-15 minutes, until the majority of the liquid content evaporates from the rest of the purèe. This leaves you with a jam-like consistency that you can add right into the buttercream to flavor it (once it’s room temperature, that is). 

Why Reduce the Pureè?

After purèeing your strawberries, they will be extremely liquid in consistency. Adding too much liquid to your buttercream causes it to curdle and thin to the point where it’s soupy and unusable. By cooking that purèe to the point of reduction, you’ll be able to remove as much liquid from the strawberries as possible and amplify the flavor of the berries by getting rid of all that extra water. This yields a much smoother, more flavorful buttercream in the end. 

Best Cake Pairings for Strawberry Buttercream

This strawberry buttercream goes perfectly with pretty much any cake flavor. Here are some of my favorite flavor pairings to date: 

• Strawberry Cake
• Strawberry Lemonade Cake 
• Chocolate Cake
• Vanilla Cake 
• Lemon Cake 
• Funfetti Cake
• Matcha Cake 

Whatever you end up pairing it with, I hope you love this fresh strawberry buttercream as much as I do!

Print

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

A silky smooth strawberry buttercream made with fresh or frozen berries. Perfect for pairing with layer cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and more!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings 3 Cups

Ingredients

• 5 Oz (1 Cup) fresh strawberries, chopped* see notes if using frozen berries
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 1/2 Cups (420g) powdered sugar
• pinch of salt

Instructions

Make the Reduced Strawberry Purèe

• Using a food processor, purèe the chopped strawberries (you’ll end up with about ½ Cup after this). Add the strawberry purèe into a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it becomes jam-like and has reduced by half. You’ll end up with about ¼ Cup of reduced purèe after this step. Let it cool completely to room temperature (either in the refrigerator or on the counter) before moving on in the recipe.

Make the Strawberry Buttercream

• With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy, about 5 minutes. 
• Add the powdered sugar about a cup at a time and mix on low speed, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl and paddle as needed.
• Add the (room temperature!) reduced strawberry purèe and a pinch of salt. Continue mixing on low speed until fully incorporated and smooth, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed, 1-2 minutes.

Notes

*Frozen Berries: if using frozen berries, thaw and dry them completely before purèeing in a food processor. Because of the extra liquid content the ice adds, you may need to cook the purèe for slightly longer than 10-15 minutes to get it to a jam-like consistency. 

Make Ahead Tips: This buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-mix in your stand mixer on low speed to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency. 

Yield: This buttercream makes enough to:

• Frost 12-15 cupcakes with a piping bag
• Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch cake
• To have enough for frosting and decorating as well, double the recipe. 

Did you make this fresh raspberry buttercream? I want to know what you paired it with and what you think! Let me know in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!

The post Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

This strawberry buttercream recipe has been my go-to for years, and it’s about time it gets its very own recipe post! Up until now you might have seen this beautiful buttercream on my strawberry cake recipe and my strawberry lemonade cake recipe, but this frosting deserves to be a star all on its own. It’s silky smooth, bursting with strawberry flavor, flecked with bits of berries, naturally pink, and so easy to whip up. If you’ve been on the hunt for the perfect strawberry buttercream recipe, this is it. 

Let’s talk about the amazing flavor of this strawberry buttercream. After many experiments with fresh strawberries, frozen strawberries, strawberry extract, and freeze dried strawberries, there is a clear winner when it comes to creating the perfect strawberry flavor without sacrificing the consistency of the buttercream. It’s freeze dried strawberries for me. Not only do they add powerful flavor to this frosting, they don’t add any additional liquid which keeps the buttercream consistency perfect for filling, frosting, and decorating cakes and other baked goods. 

What are Freeze Dried Strawberries?

Freeze dried strawberries are strawberry slices that have been through a special drying process that removes all the liquid from the berry. This process amplifies the natural flavor in the strawberry slices while perfectly preserving them. Since they’re extra dry, they can be ground into a fine powder before adding to buttercream. The result is powerful yet organic strawberry flavor, the most beautiful all-natural color, and the ideal buttercream consistency for cake decorating. 

You can usually find freeze dried strawberries at your local grocery store in the snack section. I’ve had great luck at Trader Joe’s, Fred Meyer, New Seasons, Whole Foods, and Target. If you can’t find freeze dried strawberries locally, here’s a link to get them on Amazon. Be warned though, once you realize how amazing freeze dried fruit is for flavoring buttercream, you’re going to want to try all the flavors. In my humble opinion, there’s no better way to create fruit flavored buttercream. 

Strawberry Buttercream Flavor Pairings

This strawberry buttercream goes perfectly with pretty much any cake flavor. Here are some of my favorite flavor pairings to date: 

• Strawberry Cake
• Strawberry Lemonade Cake 
• Chocolate Cake
• Vanilla Cake 
• Lemon Cake 
• Funfetti Cake
• Matcha Cake 

This strawberry buttercream will enhance any baked good you pair it with. It’s perfect as a cake filling or frosting, pipes like a dream for cupcakes, and is just the tastiest strawberry frosting recipe ever. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Print

Strawberry Buttercream

My favorite strawberry buttercream recipe for decorating cakes, cupcakes, and more! It's silky smooth, packed with strawberry flavor, the perfect amount of sweet, and the prettiest natural pink color ever.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Servings 3 Cups

Ingredients

• 1 Cup (23g) freeze dried strawberries
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp (45ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 3 1/2 Cups (420g) powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt, or to taste

Instructions

• With a food processor, grind the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder and set aside.
• Whip the butter using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until it’s creamy and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add the strawberry powder, vanilla, and milk. Continue to mix on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping down the bowl and paddle afterwards.
• Add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time and mix on low speed until fully incorporated, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition. Add the salt and continue mixing on low speed until the buttercream is fully combined and silky smooth.

Notes

Make Ahead Tips: This strawberry buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer on low for one minute to bring it back to frosting consistency.

Yield: This buttercream makes enough to:

• Frost 12-15 cupcakes with a piping bag
• Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch cake. To have enough for frosting and decorating as well, double the recipe. 

Did you make this strawberry buttercream? I want to know how it went! Let me know in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create with my recipes!

The post Favorite Strawberry Buttercream Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

A few years ago, I created this Strawberry Lemonade cake that became an instant hit: cake flavored with fresh strawberries (pureed and reduced), filled with strawberry buttercream, topped with lemon buttercream – basically Summer in cake form! It’s been on my list to write an all-strawberry cake recipe ever since, and after getting a request for one via Instagram DM, I knew it was time. I took to the store for a pound of fresh strawberries and a package of freeze dried strawberries to give you the ultimate flavor profile. I promise, it’s as delicious as it is pretty to look at! 

I know what you might be thinking: why fresh strawberries and freeze dried strawberries? After tons of testing, fresh strawberries are hands-down the best way to flavor a cake, while freeze-dried strawberries are hands-down the best way to flavor buttercream. Trust me, there is no way around it. The good news is that most groceries stores carry both, but if you have a hard time finding freeze-dried strawberries, you can always order them on Amazon (these are the ones I use, but I get them from my local Trader Joe’s).

When it comes to flavoring a cake with fresh strawberries, it’s not enough to just chop them up and add them to your batter (you’ll just have a vanilla cake with weird strawberry chunks). It’s also not enough to simply puree them, since the excess liquid tends to water down the flavor. Instead, you must puree and reduce the strawberries to intensify the strawberry flavor while evaporating most of the liquid. 

For this fluffy and flavorful strawberry cake, I started with my favorite Vanilla Cake recipe as a base and adjusted the leavening agents to accommodate the acidity in the strawberries (aka I reduced the baking soda slightly). After the reduced strawberry puree hits room temperature, I whisked it together with the whole milk in the recipe and added it in at the end. Reducing the strawberries does make this recipe a little bit more involved, but it’s so worth it for the incredible flavor! 

Remember how I said freeze-dried strawberries are best for flavoring the buttercream? This is because adding fresh (or even frozen) strawberries to buttercream will add way too much liquid and not enough flavor. As opposed to simply freezing strawberries, the process of freeze-drying eliminates all of the liquid from the berry, leaving only the intense flavor. After grinding those freeze-dried berries into a fine powder, adding them to buttercream is the only way (in my humble opinion) to get that refreshing, pure flavor you imagine when you think of strawberry buttercream. 

After filling and frosting these beautiful cake layers with tasty strawberry buttercream, I decorated with pretty piping (using Wilton Tips 1M for the rosettes and 4B for the stars), fresh strawberries, and chamomile flowers. The flowers were an impulse on the way out of the store – I couldn’t stop imagining them on my final cake design and felt safe to use them because they’re 100% edible (although I would not recommend eating them because they don’t taste the best). They did make this cake look extra cute though! 

However you decorate, one thing is for sure – this cake is a strawberry lover’s dream! And bonus if that strawberry lover also is a big fan of the color pink.

Print

Homemade Strawberry Layer Cake

Layers of fluffy, flavorful strawberry cake and strawberry buttercream. Flavored with the perfect combination of fresh and freeze-dried strawberries.

Ingredients

Strawberry Layer Cake

• 3/4 lb (12oz) fresh strawberries, pureed and reduced to 1/2 cup
• 3/4 Cup (180ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 2 1/2 Cups (265g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 2/3 Cups (350g) granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 Cup (75g) sour cream, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 drops pink food coloring, optional

Strawberry Buttercream

• 2 Cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups (34g) freeze dried strawberries
• 6 Tbsp (90ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

Make the Strawberry Layer Cake

• Start by pureeing 3/4 lbs of fresh strawberries with a food processor. Afterwards, you should be left with about 1 cup of puree. Place the strawberry puree into a saucepan over medium-low heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you’re done with the reduction, you should have about 1/2 cup (if you have more, keep cooking!). Place the reduced puree into an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, or until it reaches room temperature. Then, whisk it together with the whole milk and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and fitting the bottoms with wax or parchment paper circles. In a medium sized bowl, place the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk to combine. 
• In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the butter on high for one minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium for another 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is incorporated before adding the next, then turn the mixer to high and beat for 1 minute.
• Turn the mixer to low and add the vanilla and sour cream until incorporated. Keeping the mixer on low, add all of the dry ingredients at once until just combined, then add the strawberry milk mixture and pink food coloring (if using) until just combined, about 30 seconds. Give the batter a few stirs by hand to make sure everything is incorporated without over-mixing. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, no more than 2/3 full.
• Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for five minutes, after which you can turn them out and continue to cool them on a wire rack or sheet pan for several hours.

Make the Strawberry Buttercream

• With a food processor, grind the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder and set aside. Whip the butter using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until it’s creamy and light in color (5-10 minutes). Add vanilla, milk, and strawberry powder and continue to mix on medium for 1 minute.
• Add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition. Add the salt and mix on low for another 30 seconds.

Assembly

• After cooling and leveling the strawberry cake layers, fill and frost with strawberry buttercream. To create the look pictured, create a smooth buttercream finish with the strawberry buttercream. Then, divide the remaining buttercream amongst two piping bags – one fitted with Wilton Tip 1M and one fitted with Wilton Tip 4B. Pipe rosettes and stars in a crescent moon shape on top of the cake and as accents on the side of the cake. Finish the look by garnishing with fresh sliced strawberries and chamomile flowers.

Notes

Make Ahead Tips: 

1. You can make the reduced strawberry puree up to one week before using in the cake recipe and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make the cake. Just bring it back to room temperature by letting it sit on the counter for at least an hour. 
2. The cake layers can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can wrap them and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and decorating. 
3. The buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer on low for one minute to bring it back to frosting consistency.

To make this recipe as cupcakes: fill tins no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350ºF for 15-17 minutes. 

Did you make this cake recipe? I want to know how it went! Leave me a comment below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!

The post The Tastiest Strawberry Cake Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.