Raspberry Buttercream for Sugar Cookie Decorating

When I think of Valentine’s Day flavors, I think of raspberry. And this raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries is the perfect topping for your Valentine’s Day sugar cookies.

Using freeze dried raspberries is key to this raspberry buttercream recipe. Raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries will create the perfect consistency needed for stable buttercream.

This raspberry buttercream is also a crusting buttercream and an American buttercream. This means that the frosting is perfect for piping and decorating.

Follow along for the raspberry buttercream recipe that everyone will be begging you for the recipe. You are welcome to share it, of course. If you want to pretend it’s a long lost family recipe, I suppose I won’t mind either.

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How to Make Raspberry Buttercream With Freeze Dried Raspberries

Preparing the Freeze Dried Raspberries

You can go about this raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries a couple of ways:

1. Use freeze dried whole or sliced raspberries, either store bought or homemade OR
2. Use powdered freeze dried raspberries

Using already powdered freeze dried raspberries will save you a step, but the powdered form tends to be more difficult to find in stores.

If you freeze dry your own raspberries or want to buy freeze dried raspberries, you will need to grind them up first.

To grind the raspberries up into a powder, use a food processor. Simply process the raspberries until they are a fine powder. The finer, the better. If you don’t mind larger bits of raspberry in your frosting, then it doesn’t have to be super fine.

Do keep in mind that if you are using whole raspberries, you won’t be able to decorate cookies with a small tip size, such as a Wilton #5 or smaller.

For this reason, I prefer to purchase already ground freeze dried raspberries. I was easily able to decorate some chocolate heart sugar cookies with raspberry buttercream using a tip #5. No clogging at all!

You will use a third to a half of a cup of freeze dried raspberry powder in the buttercream.

Making the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

Take two sticks of unsalted butter out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. Two sticks of butter is equivalent to one cup, or 8 ounces.

Alternatively, you can use salted butter or even half salted and half unsalted butter. This will depend on how sweet you want your frosting. Skip the salt for more sweet and use salt for less sweet.

While you wait for the butter to come to room temperature, make the powdered/ground up freeze dried raspberries if needed.

If you have powdered freeze dried raspberries already, you can skip this step.

Once the butter has come to room temperature, add it to a stand mixer and beat it with the paddle attachment on medium speed.

Cream the butter until it is lighter in color and all of the lumps are gone.

Turn off the stand mixer and add in four cups of powdered confectioner’s sugar. Four cups is a lot, yes. However, I promise the flavors will all balance out.

We use four cups of powdered sugar in order for the frosting to form a slight crust. All that means is that the outer layer of frosting will dry to the touch. This helps keep fingers cleaned when picking up the cookies & cupcakes.

With the four cups of powdered sugar, add in a third of a cup of powdered freeze dried raspberries, one tablespoon of of vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of milk.

Cover the stand mixer with a clean towel or a paper towel and mix on low/stir. Once the frosting is coming together, remove the towel and keep mixing.

If the frosting is thicker than a creamy peanut butter consistency, add more milk. Keep in mind, the freeze dried raspberries will create a thicker buttercream since the raspberries are pulling for moisture, so you will add more milk than usual.

Do not turn the mixer higher than low. If needed, use a rubber spatula to stir the frosting. Overmixing buttercream can cause air bubbles. If you do overmix, here’s a post on how to fix it. I promise it’s not terribly hard to fix, but, as always, prevention is better.

Now for the best part – perform a taste test. Is the raspberry flavor strong enough for you? You can add up to a half cup (total) of the powdered raspberry powder. I find a third of a cup to be perfect for my taste buds, but we are all different!

Next, is the frosting too sweet for you? I am used to American buttercream recipes because I use it to decorate buttercream sugar cookies. However, some people find an American buttercream to be too sweet. If you want to cut the sweetness a bit, add in some salt.

Store this raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries in an icing bag on the counter for a few hours while decorating.

You can also store in an air tight container on the counter for several hours, in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to three months.

Raspberry Buttercream for Sugar Cookie Decorating

You'll love the fresh raspberry taste in this raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries. Top the raspberry buttercream on cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and brownies for an exceptional dessert.

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: All American Buttercream Frosting, buttercream icing, Raspberry Buttercream

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Mixing Time: 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 cups

Author: Leah Buehler

Equipment

• Food Processor
• Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
• Measuring Cups & Spoons
• Rubber Spatula

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature, can use salted butter if you want to cut the sweetness
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• ⅓-½ cup freeze dried raspberries powdered
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2-6 tbsp. whole milk

Instructions

• In the stand mixer, cream the butter until it is lighter in color and fluffier.
• Add in the powdered sugar, a third of a cup of powdered freeze dried raspberries, the vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of milk. Use the rubber spatula to mix the ingredients together a bit before covering the stand mixer and mixing on low until creamy.
• If the raspberry buttercream is too stiff for what you need to frost, add more whole milk and mix on low.

Notes

If you'd like more raspberry flavor, add in up to a half cup (total, not in addition to the 1/3 cup) to the buttercream.

If you have leftover freeze dried raspberry powder, it tastes delicious stirred into some vanilla ice cream or even water.

The raspberry buttercream with freeze dried raspberries will be thicker than usual, as the freeze dried raspberries are pulling liquid from the buttercream. Add more milk than you typically would for your preferred consistency.

If the raspberry buttercream is too sweet for you, you can add in a bit of salt or simply use salted butter. Do keep the four cups of powdered sugar so that the buttercream will form a crust. 

Pipe the buttercream immediately. The buttercream can be stored on the counter for several days at room temperature.

Store any leftover raspberry buttercream in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for a few months.

To use for sugar cookie decorating, add the buttercream to a piping bag. I decided to make some chocolate cut out sugar cookie hearts for this raspberry buttercream recipe. A perfect combination!

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