Easy Vegan Strawberry Frosting

Why You’ll Love this Vegan Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

This simple strawberry frosting is the perfect way to top vegan strawberry cupcakes, a layer cake or even sugar cookies. You only need a few ingredients and a couple minutes to whip it up. Here are a few reasons we love this frosting recipe and you will too:

• 5 Ingredients and 5 Minutes: That’s all you need to make this recipe!

• Perfect for Strawberry Season: If you’re like me, then you love berry season! Spring and Summer are great times of the year to incorporate strawberries into your baking.

• Bold Strawberry Flavor: Freeze-dried strawberry powder that infuses into the the frosting for the BEST flavor.

• No Curdling or Separation: Because this recipe uses freeze dried berries instead of fresh or frozen strawberries, the frosting doesn’t separate or curdle. Acid in the fresh berries can cause this. 

Ingredients

One of the best parts about this vegan strawberry icing (besides the flavor!) is that it’s made with only 5 simple ingredients. You’ll need the following to make this vegan buttercream:

• Salted Plant Butter, like Country Crock Plant Butter or Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
• Powdered Sugar, also called icing sugar
• Vanilla Extract
• Freeze Dried Strawberries
• Almond Milk

Substitutions and Ingredient Notes

• Dairy Free Milk: If you don’t have almond milk, feel free to swap in another unsweetened plain dairy free option. My favorites are soy milk, coconut cream, or oat milk for frostings. 
• Vanilla Extract: This can be substituted for vanilla bean paste or you can scrape the insides of a real vanilla bean pod. 
• Freeze Dried Strawberries: While I highly recommend using freeze dried berries, if you’re in a pinch you can substitute in about 2-3 tbsp of store-bough strawberry preserves. 
• Vegan Butter: This recipe calls for salted dairy free butter because it is readily available in most grocery stores. I’ve found that it is more difficult to find unsalted vegan butter, however unsalted butter can certainly be used in this recipe! Just add a pinch or two of salt to taste when mixing the frosting up.

why freeze-dried strawberries?

This plant-based frosting is made with freeze-dried strawberries instead of fresh or frozen strawberry puree. But why is this?

Have you ever made a fruit-flavored icing only to have the butter/fat curdle as soon as you add the fruit? Well, by not using fresh strawberry puree we avoid the risk of curdling our frosting but still get all of the great flavors!

If you don’t have freeze-dried strawberries, you can try making your own dehydrated strawberries instead!

Helpful Equipment

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Hand Mixer or a Stand Mixer + Whisk Attachment

Step by Step Instructions

STEP 1: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the softened plant butter until fluffy. Use an electric mixer for the best texture.

STEP 2: Then you’ll slowly whip in the powdered sugar. Once the frosting is well mixed, light, and fluffy, you’ll mix in the vanilla and the freeze-dried strawberries.

STEP 3: If you’d like to thin out the buttercream, add in 1 tablespoon of dairy-free milk at a time until you reach your desired creamy consistency. And voila! It’s done!

📌 TIP: The freeze dried strawberries create a creamy pretty pink frosting, however if you’d like a bolder color feel free to add a few drops of food coloring.

Serving Ideas

Use this vegan buttercream frosting on cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more! You can substitute this recipe for any regular buttercream. Below are some ideas of ways to use it:

• Chocolate Cake: Swap out the chocolate ganache for this frosting in this recipe for a chocolate strawberry cake. 
• Strawberry Crunch Cake: I use this exact recipe on my vegan strawberry crunch cake!
• Lemon Sugar Cookies: Lemon + strawberry is one of my favorite flavor combinations! This frosting would be amazing on these vegan lemon cookies.
• Air Fryer Sugar Cookies: Spread a tablespoon or two of this frosting onto these simple cut-out sugar cookies.
• Lemon Poppyseed Muffins: Use this frosting on top of lemon poppyseed muffins to turn them into a sweeter treat! 
• Fudgy Vegan Brownies: If you’re a fan of frosted brownies, this vegan buttercream would be too good on my vegan brownie recipe!

Storage

Long Term Storage. I recommend storing this frosting in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 1 weeks. 

Short Term Storage. If storing for a short period of time (say a few hours), you can just cover the mixing bowl with some plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge until ready to use.

The frosting will firm up when chilled. To make it fluffy again, I recommend re-whipping it an adding dairy-free milk as needed to make it fluffy.