Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Published 6/4/2022
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This Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting is perfectly creamy and tangy — a delicious complement to any sweet treat! Plus, it’s only 4 ingredients (and no food coloring!). Dessert is served!
Best Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe!
Is there anything better than a buttery cake or cupcake topped with strawberry frosting? The flavors of this strawberry cream cheese frosting are sweet and decadent with a hint of strawberries.
Our recipe comes together with 4 simple ingredients — cream cheese, powdered sugar, salted butter, and strawberry jam. You won’t be finding any red food coloring in this recipe, but you’ll still get that beautiful pink color thanks to the strawberry preserves.
Love chocolate? Try our chocolate cream cheese frosting instead!
Ingredients
- Full fat cream cheese: we recommend using a block of cream cheese for this recipe.
- Salted butter: a little bit of salt brings out all those yummy strawberry flavors.
- Powdered sugar: powdered sugar adds sweetness and helps thicken the frosting.
- Strawberry preserves: you’re more than welcome to use fresh strawberries/strawberry puree, but we found the water content is a bit too high. Plus strawberry jam gives just the right strawberry flavor!
PS: if you’re feeling fancy, you can add a teaspoon vanilla extract.
No Runny Cream Cheese Frosting!
If you follow ONE rule in this recipe, it’s to make sure you use a block of full-fat cream cheese. Low fat cream cheese and spreadable cream cheese will leave your strawberry cream cheese frosting TOO runny, and really difficult to keep its shape when you’re frosting desserts. Spreadable cream cheese is great for bagels, but not making frosting.
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How to Make Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
This strawberry cream cheese frosting is oh so easy to make! Grab your stand mixer and 4 ingredients, and you’re off and running (or shall we say, off and frosting):
Grab your Stand Mixer
Place softened block cream cheese and softened butter into a large stand mixer and beat on high using the whisk attachment until smooth and creamy.
You’re more than welcome to use a different electric mixer such as an electric hand mixer, but a stand mixer is truly the easiest.
Add Strawberry Preserves
Add the strawberry preserves to the mixture and beat on medium/high until combined. Then, say hello to your beautiful pink strawberry cream cheese frosting!
Time for Powdered Sugar
Next, slowly add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl at a time and beat on low. Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. Pro tip: beating on low will avoid a cloud of powdered sugar in your kitchen!
Whip it All Together
Finally, beat the strawberry cream cheese frosting together for 2-3 minutes on high until the cream cheese frosting can hold its form.
Frost to Your Heart’s Content!
You can pipe this frosting, or frost with a knife on to desserts. OR, no one’s judging if you want to dip graham crackers or cookies right in the bowl of frosting 😀
How to Pipe Cream Cheese Frosting
If you’re hoping to pipe this frosting, we suggest chilling it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to piping to help firm it up a bit. This will also help it retain its shape on your desserts once it’s piped. Don’t have a piping bag and tip? Fill a Ziploc bag with your frosting, and cut one corner off to your desired piping thickness.
Pro tip!
Because cream cheese is much more firm when refrigerated, this frosting won’t be as stable as buttercream or other more dense frostings at room temperature.
How to Store Frosting
This cream cheese frosting will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days when in a tightly sealed container.
Hoping to freeze frosting? This frosting will keep in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Once thawed, make sure to whip in a stand mixer briefly to regain the texture you’re looking for.
What to Use Cream Cheese Frosting On
The perfect cream cheese frosting isn’t super sweet, but it packs a little bit of tangy deliciousness and is super creamy! This frosting is just that, and can be used for any of the following:
- Cupcakes: cookies and cream cupcakes
- Cake: birthday cake, strawberry ricotta cake, or cream cheese pound cake
- Cream cheese sugar cookies
- Banana bread
- Brownies
- Dipping graham crackers (YUM!)
- So much more
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz. full fat cream cheese, softened
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons strawberry preserves
- 6 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Place cream cheese and butter into a large stand mixer and beat on high using the whisk attachment until smooth and creamy.
- Add the strawberry preserves to the bowl and beat on high until combined.
- Next, slowly add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl at a time and beat on low. Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine.
- Finally, beat the cream cheese frosting together for 2-3 minutes on high until the cream cheese frosting can hold its form.
- Remove and use on baked goods and desserts!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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