Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting is thick, silky, and bursting with strawberry flavor thanks to a special ingredient…crushed, freeze-dried strawberries!
I know a certain little 4-year-old who adores all things strawberry. Strawberry smoothies, strawberry ice cream, strawberry muffins, strawberry cake…if it starts with strawberry, she’s a fan. She’s requested strawberry cupcakes for her last couple of birthdays, and I’ve typically just topped them with my family’s favorite Classic Cream Cheese Frosting recipe with some fresh strawberry puree blended in.
The problem is that fresh strawberry puree tends to be pretty watery. And that means that adding too much makes for thin, runny frosting. But adding too little means the strawberry flavor gets overpowered by the cream cheese. So what’s a cream cheese frosting-loving mom with a strawberry dessert-loving daughter supposed to do???
Secret Ingredient!
Well, I’ll tell ya what she’s to do. She’s to procure a bag of magical, freeze-dried strawberries. And she’s to dump them into her blender or food processor and pulverize them into a bright red, strawberry-packed powder. And then she’s to whip that powder into her tried-and-true cream cheese frosting recipe!
This recipe is super easy to whip up and it’s good enough to eat with a spoon. It’s thick and silky. It has a strawberry flavor that’s big and bold. And take a gander at that gorgeous color!
This frosting is a beautiful, scrumptious complement to strawberry cakes, cupcakes, or cookies, but it’s equally delicious on vanilla or chocolate treats. I mean, how good would this stuff be slathered on a rich, fudgy pan of brownies?!
And can I let you in on a little secret? The beauty of this recipe is that you can take the general concept and flavor your cream cheese frosting with different types of freeze-dried fruits! Peaches, cherries, mangoes, pineapple, bananas, blueberries, blackberries…a wide variety of freeze-dried fruit is readily available these days.
Just be sure you’re using freeze-dried fruit — which can be easily crushed into a fine, dry powder — as opposed to dried fruit — which is chewy and leathery and won’t turn into a powder now matter how much you beat on it. 😉 Also, since freeze-dried fruit is always available, you can make fruit flavored frosting year-round, without worrying about what fruit happens to be perfectly sweet and in-season.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting will make your desserts happy. It’ll make your family, friends, and bake sale recipients happy. And I can guarantee that it’ll make any and all 4-year-old strawberry lovers verrrry happy.
Tips & Tricks
- The longer you whip this frosting, the lighter and fluffier it will become.
- As depicted in a couple of the photos in this post, I like to scoop my frosting into a gallon-sized plastic baggie, snip off the corner of the bag, and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes in a spiral, starting from the outside perimeter and working towards the center. Piping the frosting as shown in these photos requires a lot more frosting than spreading it with a knife, so in that case, plan on making a double recipe of frosting for 24 cupcakes.
- The small amount of almond extract gives the frosting a nice, but not overpowering, undertone. However, if you don’t have any almond extract on hand, the frosting will still be delicious if you leave it out.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sliced freeze-dried strawberries, about 1 ounce
- 1/2 cup 1 stick salted butter, softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, depending on your desired consistency & sweetness of frosting
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract, optional
Instructions
- Pour freeze-dried strawberries into a blender or small food processor. Pureé until crushed into a fine powder (with some small lumps remaining). Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and the cream cheese. Slowly and gradually blend in the powdered sugar and vanilla, then beat until smooth and well-combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Slowly blend in the strawberry powder, then beat on high until it's completely incorporated.
Notes
More Strawberry Sweets
- Strawberry Pretzel Chocolate Swirl Bark
- Nutella Strawberry Granola
- Strawberry Banana Popsicles
- Strawberry Lemon Shortbread with White Chocolate
Julie Bussis says
This may be a dumb question but where do you get freeze dried strawberries? Im thinking they are different than a regular bag of frozen strawberries? This looks delicious!
Christine McGee says
Whole Foods has them – the 365 brand sliced freeze-dried strawberries in 1.2 oz bags. They are $4.49 in CA so they aren’t cheap (because Whole Foods) but there ya go.
Pam says
Target carries them. I made this frosting, using the 4 cups powdered sugar. I also piped it on, using a #4FT tip, and one recipe was enough to frost 24 cupcakes. Wish I could post my photo!
DP says
Walmart has them too.
Kathryn Grace says
Your cupcakes are beautiful and I totally want to grab a hunk of that frosting and taste it!
Lori Eldridge says
This frosting Is awesome!! My whole family loved it on white cake and cupcakes for my daughter’s 12th birthday. Especially her. 🙂
To the poster looking for the strawberries, I found mine at Target in the snack- bag dried fruit and raisin area.
Renee says
Well…..I’m not sure what I did or didn’t do. I tried this recipe and the frosting was waaay too thin. I even tried adding extra confectioners sugar and chilling it for a brief time. Against my better judgement, I attempted to frost my cake with it, and it all just went running down the sides of my (cooled) cake. So bummed and frustrated. It was meant to be a homemade cake for my son’s first birthday tomorrow.
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
I’m so sorry to hear that, Renee. I’m honestly perplexed, as there’s nothing in this frosting to turn it runny. The only thing I can guess is that perhaps you made a modification to one of the ingredients? If you used real strawberries instead of freeze-dried, the moisture in the strawberries would thin out the frosting too much and cause consistency issues (ground-up freeze-dried strawberries actually make the frosting thicker). The consistency of the frosting also could have been altered by using low-fat/fat-free cream cheese or alternative butter. I know when I made my kids’ first birthday cakes, I was avoiding dairy and I used a vegan butter in my homemade frosting, which made it turn out very slimy and runny…my little one was hesitant to even dig his fingers in it when it came time to smash it — ha. Made as directed, however, this frosting recipe should be thick and glossy, as it is in the photos. Adding more confectioners sugar and chilling it should have thickened it further. At any rate, I’m sorry that this recipe didn’t turn out for you and I hope some of these tips help you figure out what may have gone wrong. 🙂
Gayle says
Just a question, this recipe calls for “freeze dried” strawberries. I have strawberries that I have dehydrated (not freeze dried) I am assuming I can use those?
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
Hi Gayle! Freeze-dried strawberries have a very different texture than dehydrated strawberries, as you can see in the photos in this post. Freeze-dried strawberries can be ground into a powder, which is what gives this frosting its flavor, color, and smooth texture. (If you do a quick search on Amazon, you can see some of the brands available…I’m able to find Karen’s at my regular grocery store and additional brands at natural foods stores.) Dehydrated strawberries (more along the line of raisins) are more leathery, so I don’t think this frosting would turn out the same, though you could certainly try using them. The strawberry flavor would be there, but I’m guessing the color and texture of the frosting would be different. Hope that helps!
Denise says
My consistency came out nice and thick but holy cow this frosting was sweet. I only did 3c of powdered sugar instead of 4…my strawberry powder was the culprit I think. Next time I may try sweetening only with the strawberry powder as I prefer a more cream cheesy taste.
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
You can definitely cut back on the powdered sugar and add more strawberry powder for a less sweet frosting, Denise! 🙂
Mary says
Yummy! Even better when made the day before. Aldi’s sometimes has the freeze dried strawberries.
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
So glad you enjoyed it, Mary!
Maribel says
Can I use less powdered sugar? So it won’t be that sweet and will it melt if cup cakes are left outside the fridge . Can I do it a night before using it ?
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
Hi Maribel! Yes, you can definitely use less powdered sugar, though the consistency of your frosting may turn out a little looser. This frosting definitely softens at room temperature, and especially in the heat. You can make the frosting and frost your cupcakes the night before, but after frosting them, I’d recommend keeping your cupcakes refrigerated until just before serving. Hope that helps!
Greg says
Strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting has been long-time, often-requested favorite at our family and social gatherings. I’m making one for a weekend get-together and decided to look for a solution to the ubiquitous “runny strawberry cream cheese frosting” problem. I found this tip in a search and decided to give it a shot. I put it together last night and it immediately proved much more sturdy than my usual concoction. After a night in the cold box, the flavor has ripened to taste as good or better than frosting I’ve made with fresh or frozen berries. I’ll bake the cake later this afternoon, , and if anything, I may need to stir in a touch of milk or strawberry puree to make it more easily spreadable. Thanks for a great tip!
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
I’m so glad this frosting worked out for you, Greg! 🙂
Amir says
It is a must try! I used this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake and it worked beautifully. Delicious!
Veronica says
How long does this hold? Do you think I could make it the night before?
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
The frosting will get pretty firm once chilled. So as soon as you make it, I recommend using it to frost your cake or cupcakes. And at that point, yes, the already-frosted cake/cupcakes could be refrigerated overnight and they would hold just fine.
On the other hand, if you make the frosting the night before and pop the bowl it in the fridge, you’d need to let it come to room temperature again the next day before you’d be able to spread it on anything.
Hope that answers your question either way! 🙂
Katie says
Can I use frozen strawberries instead of freeze-dried or will the recipe not work out?
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
Hi Katie! Frozen strawberries would contribute liquid to the recipe and would probably make for a much looser frosting. Freeze-dried strawberries are what keep this frosting stiffer. So I’m not sure of the results using frozen, but good luck if you decide to experiment! 🙂
Debra says
Found the strawberries at aldis. What a recipe. Delicious. Thank you for the recipe and hints on finding the freeze dried berri÷.
Nicole says
I made this frosting tonight for my daughter’s first birthday smash cake, the only difference is I used less powdered sugar and I did a combination of freeze dried strawberries and banana chips. It came out a little too thick with the banana chips so I added a tsp at a time of whole milk to thin it out, I believe I added 3-4 tsp but for future reference I’ll try less banana chips. The end result, it tastes like a thick yogurt. I iced a mixed berry muffin mix that I baked in a mini cake pan and topped it with fresh slices of strawberries and bananas. Very pleased with this recipe even though I altered it a bit, I wanted the color without dying the baby pink with food coloring and this was perfect, freeze dried strawberries is a genius idea!
Sara Marsh says
Hands down, the best strawberry icing recipe that I’ve been able to find. Thanks!
Christie says
This frosting is absolutely delicious especially on devil’s food with dark chocolate chip cake. Tasted like a dark chocolate covered strawberry. Everyone raves about them. I did however, modify the recipe since I do not like overly sweet frosting. I used only two cups of sugar and 2 packages of cream cheese instead of one ( the rest of the recipe stayed the same). The color of the frosting is a beautiful shade of Mauvey pink. Truly a hit and a do over.
Tiffani lawyer says
Omgeeeee.. this is the best frosting. So much strawberry flavor I’ll never mess with fruit puree.. cooking straining. Cooling .. when freeze dried is amazing real strawberry flavor.
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
Yay, Tiffani! Isn’t using the freeze-dried fruit such a great shortcut?! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Lourdes says
Hi, this frosting will be great, cant wait to make them. I can use unsalted butter instead to salted butter and add 1/2 tsp of salt?
Thank you
Samantha at Five Heart Home says
Hi Lourdes! You can definitely use unsalted butter in this frosting, but I’m afraid that adding 1/2 teaspoon of salt would be way too much. A pinch of salt (no more than 1/8 teaspoon) will probably be plenty. 🙂
Lisa says
This is the best strawberry cream cheese frosting recipe I have ever tried. The freeze dried strawberries were the right solution. I’ve tried so many other recipes that used fresh or frozen strawberries and the frosting was just too runny.
I made this frosting to top a strawberry cake for a birthday party. It got rave reviews and was quickly devoured. The actual store bought birthday cake never had a chance!
Thank you for sharing!!!
Susan says
Mmmmmm! A nice thick, not too sweet cream cheese frosting! I like that one could use different freeze-dried fruits. They are usually found in the baking aisle or raisin aisle. Definitely use the vanilla and almond extracts. They play off of each other for great flavor. I try to use both in any recipe that calls for them. If a recipe calls for 1t vanilla, I would use 1/2t vanilla and 1/2t almond.