ATK Kids

For Better Strawberry Frosting, Use Freeze-Dried Strawberries

They have all the flavor but none of the moisture of fresh berries.
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Published Jan. 11, 2022.

Right about this time every winter, I start to get a craving for the taste of summer—and for me, summer tastes like sweet, mouthwatering strawberries.

At the same time, I do a lot of baking this time of year. Strawberry frosting, dolloped on cakes and cupcakes, would be the perfect way to combine my yearning for summer and my favorite winter pastime.

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But out-of-season strawberries can be bland, and it’s hard to pack their flavor into a batch of frosting. Luckily for me, the best strawberry frosting bypasses fresh fruit altogether, opting for freeze-dried strawberries instead.

Freeze-dried strawberries are dehydrated without heat, meaning that they still have all the peak summer flavor they started with but none of the moisture that can turn frosting into a runny mess. As an extra perk, they make the frosting a pleasing shade of pastel pink.

The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs

Think baking fun starts and ends with cupcakes? Think again! From breakfast to breads and from cookies to cakes (yes, even cupcakes!), kids can learn to bake it all with the help of this cookbook.  
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This frosting recipe beats the store-bought stuff every time, and it’s just one of several homemade frosting recipes from The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs. With this book, kids can make their own cakes and cupcakes, flavor frosting with everything from chocolate to Nutella, and learn how to frost like a pro.

Recipe

Strawberry–Cream Cheese Frosting

Freeze-dried strawberries give this supersimple cream cheese frosting loads of strawberry flavor and a pretty pink color.
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