Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
This tangy strawberry cream cheese frosting calls for just five basic ingredients and is so simple to prepare. Freeze-dried strawberries give the frosting a bold strawberry flavor without watering it down or making it runny!
My classic cream cheese frosting is given a strawberry-flavored makeover in this quick and easy frosting recipe.
Just like my strawberry buttercream frosting this recipe uses freeze-dried strawberries to flavor the frosting without thinning it out. Since we’re not using fresh berries there’s no need to cook anything down on the stove and you can also make it year-round!
There are so many delicious ways to use this homemade frosting, but I personally love to use it on my strawberry cake and strawberry cupcakes. It can even be made a few days in advance and freezes beautifully too!
See How It’s Made
Ingredient Notes
Freeze-Dried Strawberries
These are pretty easy to find in supermarkets, they’re usually by the dried fruit. Just make sure to buy freeze-dried strawberries, not dried strawberries! They should be thin, crisp, and easy to blend into a powder.
Cream Cheese
Buy a foil-wrapped brick of cream cheese and not cream cheese spread, which is too thin to use for this frosting. You’ll also need to soften the cream cheese beforehand so it mixes evenly into the butter and powdered sugar.
How To Grind The Freeze-Dried Strawberries
Grinding the freeze-dried strawberries takes all of 10 seconds if you use a blender or small food processor.
Simply add 1 ounce of the strawberries to the canister and blend until they resemble a fine powder, like the picture above. That’s it!
Tip: You can also buy freeze-dried strawberry powder that’s already ground up. If you do, you will need 3 to 4 tablespoons (or you can weigh out 1 ounce).
The Order Of Your Ingredients Matters
When you’re whipping up this frosting, it’s important to mix each ingredient in the correct order:
- Softened butter
- Powdered sugar (preferably in two batches!)
- Ground up strawberry powder + vanilla
- Cream cheese (cut into cubes for easier mixing)
Mixing the butter and powdered sugar together first coats the powdered sugar in fat and prevents it from absorbing a bunch of moisture from the cream cheese. This results in a thicker, pipeable frosting that holds up really well (I actually learned this while testing my lemon cream cheese frosting recipe!).
Adding the cream cheese last also helps to prevent over mixing, which can lead to a super soft or even runny frosting. Long story short, don’t try to mix everything together all at once.
Can I Use Another Kind of Freeze-Dried Fruit?
Absolutely! Just keep in mind that other kinds of freeze-dried fruits may have a stronger or lighter flavor than strawberry. I would start with less and add more as needed.
How Much Frosting Does This Recipe Make?
This recipe will give you a little more than 3 cups of frosting, which is enough to generously frost 14 to 16 cupcakes or one 9×13 cake. For a layered cake, I would increase it by half.
This frosting goes really well with just about any flavor of cake or cupcakes, but it’s delicious on cookies and SO much more. Here are a few of my favorite desserts to pair it with:
- Strawberry cake or strawberry cupcakes
- Lemon cake or lemon cupcakes
- Coconut cake or coconut cupcakes
- Chocolate cake or chocolate cupcakes
- Cut-out sugar cookies
- Fudgy chocolate brownies (some chocolate ganache would be delicious on top too!)
I hope you love this frosting as much as I do! I would love to hear how you end up using it, and what you thought of the strawberry flavor!
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ounce freeze-dried strawberries (28 grams)
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened (170 grams; 1 ½ sticks)
- 3 cups powdered sugar (360 grams)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces brick-style cream cheese softened and cubed (226 grams; 1 block)
Instructions
- Add the freeze-dried strawberries to a blender or food processor and blend into a fine powder. Set aside.1 ounce freeze-dried strawberries
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth (about 30 seconds).¾ cup unsalted butter
- Mix in half of the powdered sugar on low speed until well combined, then mix in the remaining half of the powdered sugar.3 cups powdered sugar
- Add the freeze-dried strawberry powder and vanilla extract and mix on low-medium speed until fully combined, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add half of the cubed cream cheese and continue mixing on low speed until fully combined, then mix in the remaining half of the cubed cream cheese. I recommend stopping a few times to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. If needed, you can mix for 30 seconds on low speed to ensure that the cream cheese is fully mixed in and no lumps remain. Just make sure not to mix the frosting too much after you add the cream cheese or it will become softer.8 ounces brick-style cream cheese
- Use to frost cupcakes, cakes, etc.
