Fluffy Vegan Strawberry Frosting (With Real Strawberries!)
This quick vegan strawberry frosting is naturally colored (and flavored!) with real strawberries, and is so easy to make!! Naturally dairy free, and perfect for frosting cakes, cupcakes, cookie bars, and more!
The most perfect strawberry buttercream frosting- vegan and dairy free!
Vegan buttercream is honestly one of the most magical creations of vegan desserts these days. It truly tastes AS GOOD AS (I think even better) than traditional dairy buttercream frostings, and it’s just so easy to make.
This vegan strawberry frosting is an ode to any spring dessert that you need. It’s a beautiful cross between my classic vegan vanilla buttercream and vegan cream cheese frosting, with loads of REAL strawberries for both the beautifully vibrant pink color and strong strawberry flavor.
You only need 6 simple ingredients, and trust me- NO split frostings. This is because we’re using freeze dried strawberries (but there is an option for using strawberry preserves, like in my blueberry frosting!) and combining it with a touch of heavy vegan dairy free milk to yield the most lush and creamy strawberry frosting.
And don’t think you just need to use this strawberry frosting for strawberry cake- I have TONS of ideas for how to incorporate this strawberry frosting into any fruit and spring recipe. You can even pipe it in tandem with my peanut butter frosting for a PB&J style cupcake or cake!
You’re just going to LOVE it!
6 Simple & Easy Ingredients Needed:
- Vegan butter: I recommend using salted vegan butter here- the additional salt will help to balance the sweetness!
- Vegan cream cheese: I personally LOVE a strawberry and cream cheese flavor. If you don’t want the cream cheese, simply swap in more vegan butter.
- Freeze dried strawberries: To incorporate into our vegan strawberry frosting, you’ll blitz these into a fine powder. If it’s a little clumpy, no problem- I actually think that makes a delicious texture!
- Powdered sugar: I recommend a high quality powdered sugar, like Florida Crystals. It’s naturally vegan and tastes LOVELY (also no cornstarch!). I buy mine at Publix.
- Vanilla extract: To balance out the strawberry!
- Heavy dairy free milk: I like using a heavy vegan cream (such as Silk or Country Crock’s plant cream), but you can also use soy milk or almond milk!
How to make vegan strawberry frosting step by step photos:
Can I use strawberry preserves instead?
If you can’t find freeze dried strawberries (usually they’re in the dried fruit and nuts section of any grocery store!), you can make a similar frosting to my blueberry frosting. Simply swap out the blueberry preserves for strawberry preserves instead!
How many cups of strawberry frosting does this recipe make?
About 8 cups of frosting- enough to frost a two layer 8″ cake or a three layer 6″ cake!
What recipes can I use this vegan strawberry frosting with?
I of course love my vegan strawberry cake and vegan strawberry cupcakes with this frosting. However, here are a few more of my favorite ideas!
- Vegan vanilla cake
- Use half of the recipe on my small chocolate cake or small vanilla cake
- Easy vegan chocolate cake
- Lemon pound cake
- Vegan sugar cookie bars
- Small batch lemon blueberry cinnamon rolls
- Vanilla cupcakes
- Lemon poppy seed cake
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Fluffy Vegan Strawberry Frosting (With Real Strawberries!)
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups 1x
- Category: Frosting
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This quick vegan strawberry frosting is naturally colored (and flavored!) with real strawberries, and is so easy to make!! Naturally dairy free, and perfect for frosting cakes, cupcakes, cookie bars, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) salted vegan butter, room temperature
- 1/2 (113 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 4–5 cups (480–600 g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 ounce (one 23g package) freeze dried strawberries
- 3–4 tbsp dairy-free milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prep: Make sure that you’ve brought the butter and cream cheese to room temperature. Please read through the blog post on this- it shouldn’t take more than 1.5-2 hours!
- Blitz the strawberries: In a food processor, blend the strawberries until they reach a powder.
- Cream the butter and cream cheese together: In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment or in a bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the vegan butter and cream cheese.
- Finish the frosting: Add in the strawberries, and mix until incorporated. Then add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, along with the dairy free milk to help achieve that fluffy texture, mixing in between intervals. Once you reach a fluffy and light texture (be careful not to add in too much milk too soon- it’s okay if you only need 1-2 tbsp!), add in the vanilla extract and mix.
- Use in your recipe! Frost your vegan strawberry cake, vegan strawberry cupcakes, or even another cake recipe, like a vegan chocolate cake or vanilla cake! Enjoy 🙂
Notes
Please read blog post for full tips and tricks!
Really yummy frosting! Made it to go with the strawberry cake recipe (I made into cupcakes instead).
This is so wonderful!! So so happy to hear it!! Now I’m craving the cupcake version 🙂 So glad you enjoyed, thanks for the review!
All of the packages of freeze dried strawberries I have found are 1-1.2 ounces approximately. Can you give the amount of freeze dried strawberries in grams, so I can confirm please?
Hi Jordan! Yes, it should be about 23-25 g!
Perfect! Thanks so much!
Baking cake now! If I put this on the vegan strawberry cake, how long will it last in a covered cake storage container? I want to bake and frost today (Friday) as early as possible but still be fresh for Sunday.
Once the cake is baked and cooled, then you can wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store at room temperature! But please make sure the cake is fully cool before wrapping!
This sounds amazing! Can I use fresh strawberries instead of freeze dried?
Yes you can! But only as a jam-you need to make the fresh strawberries into a jam, otherwise if you were to integrate fresh strawberries into the frosting, the frosting will split!
Sorry if this is mentioned in the post and I’m missing it, but can this icing be made a day or two in advance?
Hi Heather! Yes, you can do that! Store the frosting in an airtight container in the fridge. Then about 1-2 hours before you need to assemble the cake, allow it to sit at room temperature. I also like to then take a hand mixer and just to 1-2 minutes of creaming again just to get that fluffy texture once more!
Hi! So if I want to add no cream cheese do I just do the same amount of butter as I would’ve for the cream cheese? Thank you!!
Hi Gabby! Yes, exactly! Just swap in the same amount 🙂 Enjoy!!
I see that this recipe has been updated with regard to the freeze dried Strawberries. Unfortunately, I printed it with the 6 oz amount listed and made this yesterday for my daughter’s birthday. This was horrible sadly and such a waste of money and ingredients. Accidents happen, I understand.
Hi Victoria, I’m so sorry to hear this but the frosting never contained fresh strawberries- it actually always contained freeze dried strawberries! I’m not sure if there was an error in printing? I’m so sorry that the cake didn’t turn out- the strawberries should have been pureed for the cake and not used in the frosting.
This was so easy to make!
Hello,
What if i would like to use regular cream cheese. What would be the proper amt i can use?
Hi Ava! You can use the same amount 🙂 Though I think for regular cream cheese, you might want to try the block of cream cheese rather than the one in the container that’s spreadable!
hello britt, can i use pure from fresh fruit instead of dried freeze strawberries?
Hi Stella! Your frosting is going to split if you just use fresh pureed strawberries. I recommend making the strawberries into a jam and letting the jam cool before using it in the frosting!
Can this icing be frozen?
Yes definitely! I do that all the time- then simply transfer to the fridge the night before to thaw and then let sit out at room temp 🙂 Enjoy!!
I used this frosting for a strawberry cake I made and it was delicious! So good. I also made a second batch that was made with homemade puree that was a bit more strawberry flavor but not as pretty. I think I will use both next time.
That’s wonderful! So glad you loved it 🙂 Thank you for the review!
This frosting taste absolutly delicious!
So so happy to hear it 🙂 Thank you so much for the review!! Enjoy!!
Hi! Is Toffuti cream cheese ok for the vegan cream cheese?
Hi Megan! Yes! Toffuti Cream Cheese is a great choice!
Maybe I am missing something, but I don’t quite understand how much cream cheese to use in the frosting recipe. Could you possibly give me oz./gram weight information? This is the only part of the recipe I don’t understand. The problem with vegan cream cheese is that the containers/sizes are not always the same. It varies from brand to brand. Thanks.
Hi Kathy! Thank you so much for the question! This recipe calls for 113 g of vegan cream cheese. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Perfect, Thanks!
What brand vegan butter and cream cheese is best? I have access to all brands. Thx
I really like miyokos for vegan butter and kite hill or tofutti for cream cheese! 🙂
hi there,
can I use freeze dried strawberry powder instead? and would it be the same 23g?
i don’t have a blender lol
Yes absolutely!! You can definitely do that!