Strawberry Frosting (Swiss Buttercream)

My kids get to decide on their birthday dessert, and I try my best to make their wish a reality. My daughter asked for chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting this year. We always make the same cupcake recipe (since 2010!) but I did a bit more research to find a good frosting.

From past experience, a buttercream flavoured with fresh berries tends to separate and weep. Mixing jam into the frosting works a bit better, but the flavour is muted. So I was pleased to find this Stella Parks recipe that calls for freeze-dried strawberries.

In the US, Trader Joe’s is a reliable place to get freeze-dried fruit, but up here, I ended up buying some from an unlikely source: soursopstore.ca Even though it’s twice the cost of TJ’s, it was still far less expensive than the prices I saw on Amazon. For future price comparison, they were $10 for 50g, purchased in a 5-pack.

Making the Swiss meringue worked exactly as the instructions described, and I was careful to measure the temperature of my ingredients at each step. There’s quite a bit of butter to incorporate, but it came together without any problem. The final step of adding the pulverized dried fruit was delightful, turning the mixture a light pink.

At the party, I was quite surprised that about half the kids did not eat the frosting. “Too buttery”! And perhaps not sweet enough 🤔. What do they know?