This is my all-time favorite chocolate frosting recipe, and I think that once you try it it’ll be yours, too! Just 6 ingredients needed and it will easily frost a 2 layer 8″ or 9″ cake or generously ice a dozen cupcakes!
The Best Chocolate Frosting
Maybe you’ve seen this chocolate frosting recipe around here before. It’s made quite a few appearances, on my chocolate cake, vanilla cupcakes (pictured above), and my vanilla cake (just to name a few), and finally it’s getting its own place on the blog.
Use it to top off your favorite cake or cupcake recipe, or just enjoy by the spoonful (you’ll get no judgement from me!).
What makes this the best chocolate frosting:
Well, you’re going to love it because it:
- Is richly chocolatey, without being too rich. The chocolate flavor complements whatever you put it on without being overwhelming!
- Is soft, smooth, and creamy.
- Uses less sugar than classic buttercream frosting or chocolate buttercream, perfect if you think most frosting recipes are too sugary or sweet!
- Absolutely melts in your mouth.
- Pipes beautifully, or frosts a cake smoothly.
What You Need
Here’s what you need:
- Chocolate. Real melted chocolate gives my chocolate frosting its incredible flavor and firm but fudgy consistency once it’s cooled. Chocolate bars (my preference) or chocolate chips will work fine.
- Powdered Sugar. This thickens and sweetens the frosting. One thing I love about this frosting is that it uses less sugar than your average frosting recipe.
- Butter. I use unsalted then add a pinch of salt for best flavor. Your butter should be at room temperature. If it’s too cold, small bits of the chocolate may harden as your ingredients are being combined and you will have chocolate bits in the mix rather than a smooth chocolate frosting.
- Vanilla Extract. Added for flavor! Any good chocolate is enhanced with a splash of vanilla to add depth of flavor.
- Heavy Cream. The small amount of heavy cream is the other part of what gives this chocolate frosting its smooth texture and rich flavor.
SAM’S TIP: You can use dark chocolate, semisweet, or milk chocolate for this frosting. If you want to use white chocolate, see my white chocolate buttercream recipe instead
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe and all details, please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Frosting
- Chop chocolate into small pieces (only if you’re using a bar, no need to chop if you’re using chips) and melt in 15-30 second increments, stirring in-between, until completely melted. semi-sweet chocolate into same-sized pieces and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Let the chocolate cool until it’s no longer warm to the touch (but not re-solidifying) before continuing.
- Beat butter until creamy, then drizzle in melted (cooled) chocolate. Make sure the chocolate’s cooled, or the butter will melt and you’ll have a greasy chocolate frosting!
- Add the sugar in small amounts, stirring after each addition. Thoroughly stir in salt and vanilla.
- Drizzle in heavy cream and gradually turn up your mixer speed to high. Beat for 30 seconds for a light, silky smooth frosting!
Frequently Asked Questions
Make sure that your chocolate hasn’t begun to re-solidify before you add it to the butter. If this happens, small pieces may harden and you’ll have flecks of chocolate throughout the frosting. This will make piping the icing especially difficult.
If you heat the chocolate too quickly in the microwave, it could seize, giving it a grainy, rather than smooth, appearance. If this happens, toss out the chocolate and start over or your frosting will be pebbly.
While heat can make a frosting soft, melt-y, and even runny, with this recipe the culprit is usually that your chocolate was too hot. Stir it occasionally as it cools and make sure if you touch the melted chocolate or the bottom of the bowl it doesn’t feel warm to the touch.
Unfortunately I don’t recommend using cocoa powder for this recipe. If you’d like to use cocoa powder, see my chocolate buttercream instead.
More Recipes You Might Like
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!
Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 oz (170 g) semisweet chocolate² chopped into small pieces of roughly the same size
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt³
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) heavy cream
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Place your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well. Return chocolate to microwave and heat for another 15 seconds and stir again. Continue heating chocolate for 15 seconds, stirring after each, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth.6 oz (170 g) semisweet chocolate²
- Allow chocolate to cool for at least 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want chocolate to cool so that it is not hot to the touch, otherwise it will melt your butter and sugar and the frosting will not turn out.
- While the chocolate is cooling, place butter in a separate bowl and use a stand mixer or electric mixer to beat until creamy.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- Add melted, cooled chocolate and stir well.
- Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl occasionally so that ingredients are well combined.2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar
- Sprinkle in salt and vanilla extract, stir well.½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt³
- With mixer on low, gradually add heavy cream to frosting. Gradually increase speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.2 Tablespoons (30 ml) heavy cream
- Pipe or spread frosting onto prepared, cooled baked good.
Notes
¹How many cupcakes/how much cake will this frost?
This recipe will modestly cover 24 cupcakes or generously (as seen in the photos above) cover 12 cupcakes. You can also cover an 8″ or 9″ cake or a 9×13″ sheet cake. If you want to use the frosting for decorative borders around the cake, increase the recipe by 50%.²Chocolate
If you don’t have semisweet chocolate bars you can use 1 cup (170g) of semisweet chocolate chips instead.³Butter
I recommend using unsalted butter, but if you only have salted on hand you can use that, just leave out the salt in this recipe.Making in Advance
This frosting may be made in advance. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator with a piece of plastic wrap pressed firmly against the surface. When ready to use, let it come to room temperature then remove the plastic wrap and stir again to regain that smooth consistency before using.Piping Tip
I used an Ateco 848 piping tip to pipe the cupcakes seen in the photos above.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published January 8th, 2018. While the recipe remains unchanged, I’ve updated the text of the post photos and added a how-to video.
Jennifer
I just made this frosting and followed your recipe exactly and it was AMAZING!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Julia Zook
Hi Sam my name is Julia Zook I am making your vanilla cake & chocolate frosting recipe for 2 birthday parties at my son’s school my ,just recently turned 13 year old Solomon. said he wants vanilla call + I know he lived chocolate frosting my other son Josish turned 8 today I am excited God Bless you !!! Love Julia
Sam
Thank you for your kind comment, Julia!! I hope you and your sons enjoy the cake, and happy birthday to your son!! <3
Mary Rose
WONDERFUL Recipe – the cream is key!
I used presoftened baking chocolate, which left a bit of a coffee taste as well.
Used this on best white cake – also delicious.
Lauren
Can you use milk chocolate instead of semi sweet and cut the amount confectioners sugar?
Sam
You can use milk chocolate but if you want to use less sugar you may have to cut the cream down a bit too to keep the consistency right.
Dorothy Irre
I would just call this “Chocolate Silk Frosting”!!! It is absolutely wonderful – smooth and silky, just as you said. My family loved it – and I am using it on our son’s birthday cake tomorrow!!
Thanks so much for sharing this with the rest of us!!
Jane M Rousseau
I haven’t made this yet due to the fact you have an ad in the middle of the ingredients list. I specifically looked at this recipe in the morning to make sure I would have everything ready but missed seeing the butter needing to be at room temperature because I was only seeing the list of ingredients under the ad. Not a good place for an ad!!
Sam
I’m sorry about that, Jane, I’m going to talk with the company and see if I can do something about that, thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Sam
It really is distracting and interrupts the recipe way too much, It’s not coming up on all my recipes and I didn’t even know this was happening at all until you commented so I really do appreciate you pointing it out to me, and I’m sorry about that.
Jayma Vaughn
DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for a frosting without cocoa powder since I don’t usually have that. My family loves this frosting, and I will no longer buy the tub! We just finished a piece of cake with the frosting, and I’m trying to keep from going back into the kitchen for another piece…
Barb Neidigh
This was a delicious frosting recipe! So smooth, so silky, so light, so fluffy! I made a Tastefully Simple box mix of their Chocolate Pound Cake into cupcakes, and then made your frosting recipe for on top. Everyone said they were the best cupcakes they had EVER eaten. I laughed, because only half of the recipe is from scratch! But still, success was had, cupcakes were eaten, and I still have frosting left.
I TOTALLY understand how you can just eat it by the spoonful. This is risky business.
My substitutions (because of what I had on hand) included salted butter (I then omitted the salt entirely), and I had to use half and half instead of heavy cream, which was a fluke because I thought I had heavy cream. All in all, turned out great! Now I have to find other things to eat this frosting on.
I’ve always felt that Girl Scout Trefoil short bread cookies could use a big improvement… I think I shall use those as a frosting scoop!
Thank you for the great recipe! I always check your website first when I have the urge to bake and feel like making something different than I usually would. I love how much testing and trial you put into your recipes to get them just right! 🙂
renee roy
The most delightfull frosting I’ve tasted. Thanks for this recipe ! My colleagues loved it.
Sam
I’m so glad to hear it was a hit! Thanks for commenting, Renee! 🙂
Cassandra Hale
Can I ditch the salt altogether? I have a kiddo with Lupus who can’t have any added salt, so I use unsalted butter as well.
Sam
You can leave it out.
Paige
This was probably the most delicious chocolate frosting I’ve ever had! Just curious as to how it should be stored. I stuck my cake in the fridge but the frosting got quite hard (presumably from the chocolate) even though I let it sit out for 30 min. before serving. I’m going to make this for my nephew’s birthday cake in a few weeks and just wanted to see what I should do!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it so much!!
Honestly, I don’t usually refrigerate this cake/frosting, now it’s always eaten within a few days, so if you were trying to store it for longer than that I’d probably recommend refrigerating, as for the frosting hardening if you let it sit at room temperature for a few hours before serving it should help with that. Enjoy!
Debbie
Can I use regular milk instead of heavy cream?
Sam
I think it would be OK, but start with just 1 Tbsp and check the consistency with that before adding the second.
judi
if using chocolate chips how many do i use
Sam
Hi Judi! 1 cup of chocolate chips. I hope you love the frosting 🙂
Shannon
I made this when I made your chocolate cake and never went back to regular buttercream since. Thnx for the great recipe
Lisa Huff
Oh wow, this looks so good!
Sam
Thanks so much, Lisa!! 🙂
Skyla w
Yes I know and I am just about to try it