Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Soaking: 15 mins
Total: 25 mins
Servings: 12 servings
Yield: 1 pint
Bring summer sunshine into your cakes and bakes with this ultra-easy fresh strawberry buttercream recipe. You heard that right — there are no artificial flavors or colors to be found here, just the sweetness of ripe berries, and their beautiful rosy hue.
Use the freshest seasonal fruit for maximum strawberry flavor and sweetness. Avoid frozen berries for this recipe, as they change consistency when they thaw, resulting in runny buttercream.
Pipe your strawberry buttercream on cupcakes, use as cake frosting, or use to fill sandwich cookies or macarons. It will also add extra decadence to a fudgy chocolate brownie. The subtle, floral flavor of rose pairs beautifully with strawberry, so feel free to add a small amount for an extra-special finished product.
Ingredients
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1 cup fresh strawberries
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2 tablespoons granulated sugar
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1 cup unsalted butter, softened
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2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted, divided
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1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
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1 teaspoon lemon juice
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1/2 teaspoon rosewater, optional
Steps to Make It
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Gather your ingredients. Wipe the berries with paper towels and remove the hull. As these strawberries are going to be puréed, you can chop the tops off with a kitchen knife. Roughly chop the fruit, place in a mixing bowl, sprinkle with the sugar, stir and leave for 15 minutes.
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Transfer the strawberries into a food processor and pulse to create a thick purée. The purée can be used unstrained but if you prefer a smoother frosting, push the purée through a fine sieve (keep in mind that this will also remove some of the texture and a little flavor). Put aside.
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Beat the butter and 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar in a stand mixer using the paddle beater on low speed. Add the strawberry purée, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and rosewater if you are using it, and whip until light and fluffy.
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With the mixer turning (still on low or you may disappear into a cloud of sugar!) gradually add more confectioners' sugar until the mixture is the thickness you want — buttercream for frosting a cake should be stiffer than for piping onto a cupcake, for example.
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The buttercream is now ready to use in your recipes, it will keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for five days. It also freezes well for up to three months.
Try other berries
- Don't stop with strawberries — many soft fruits will also work well. Raspberries are easy to use, but you'll want to strain them before finishing the buttercream, as they have a lot of seeds.
- Any berries pureed with their skins (like blueberries) must be strained, as the skins will affect the buttercream's texture.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 12 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 444 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 15g | 20% |
| Saturated Fat 10g | 48% |
| Cholesterol 41mg | 14% |
| Sodium 4mg | 0% |
| Total Carbohydrate 79g | 29% |
| Dietary Fiber 0g | 1% |
| Total Sugars 77g | |
| Protein 0g | |
| Vitamin C 9mg | 43% |
| Calcium 8mg | 1% |
| Iron 0mg | 1% |
| Potassium 29mg | 1% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
