Last year I posted my recipe for Classic Vanilla Buttercream. It’s the recipe I use for decorating cupcakes and birthday cakes, especially if I know kids will be the ones eating it. For wedding cakes I like to use a more silkier type frosting that I’ll share with you in the near future. But for everyday cake frosting, the vanilla buttercream is what I use. From that post, I received many comments and emails requesting a chocolate buttercream frosting which could also be used to frost cakes and for piping decorations.
I often referred readers to my most favorite chocolate frosting I use for glazing, frosting, filling, and piping. As you can see from the picture above, chocolate ganache is very versatile and best of all it is made with heavy cream and chocolate. But this frosting is also heavy and very decadent, unless you whip it. Some people would write me and tell me they didn’t want ganache but wanted a more true buttercream. So by popular request I made a batch of American chocolate buttercream over the weekend to share with you. It is great for frosting cupcakes and cakes. It can also be used for frosting brownies or cookies. Like its name suggests, it is more buttery, creamy, and slightly sweeter than ganache. And like ganache, it pipes decorative borders very nicely.
You will need to make sure your butter is soft enough to cream. Do not be tempted to softened it in the microwave unless you know how NOT to melt the butter. Melted butter will not work for this frosting. But if you do use your microwave, I like to place cold sticks in the microwave for 8 seconds. If it’s still too firm, I will microwave it for 2 more seconds.
Next, you’ll want to cream the butter and then then add sifted sugar and cocoa.
This is my daughter Mimi. She likes to help me in the kitchen whenever chocolate is involved. I’ve taught both of my daughters about the baker’s reward philosophy. If you help me in the kitchen, you also get to lick the spoons. Oddly enough, they never seem to want to help me when I’m cooking vegetables. Those stinkers.
Be sure to start your mixer on slow speed after adding the dry ingredients. Otherwise you will have cocoa and sugar fly everywhere landing on everything within a couple feet of you. Your frosting will look strange like clumps of clay. Don’t worry. Once we add some cream it will transform into beautiful chocolate buttercream.
When deciding on whether or not to use milk or cream, I prefer cream. It just makes the frosting… well.. more creamier. Half and half works too. But if you do use milk, it is better to use whole milk for the added fat content. I also prefer to use almond extract when making frosting. It enhances the flavor so nicely and a little bit goes a long way. But if you only have vanilla, use it!
As you can see by these photos, this frosting pipes really nicely. The frosting can be refrigerated to use later. Just make sure it’s in a lidded container. Allow the frosting to warm up to room temperature on the counter before using. Happy cake decorating!
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
- 3½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
- Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.
Here’s a great short video tutorial I did for PBS on how to pipe these beautiful frosting flowers using vanilla buttercream on cupcakes, but you could easily do this with the chocolate one from this page. If you enjoy the video, please like it so I’ll be able to do more!
And here’s another short PBS video tutorial I did on how to make Cookie Monster Cupcakes.
Sue says
Alice, I LOVE this recipe! My family and friends also love it and I have been asked on various occasions for the recipe. I found the recipe about a month ago and am very happy you have shared this! Thanks!
angelichigo says
Hi, I would like to know if you can replace heavy cream with whipping cream instead? It just happens that I have whipping cream in the fridge and don’t want it to go to waste. Do you know how many cups it is needed to fill and crumb coat an 9″x 9″x 2″ cake? Thanks
Nicole says
Do you have a specific piper you recommend?
Dirt Road Girl says
Yes, the higher amount of dry (powdered sugar & cocoa) to wet ingredients (butter & milk) will cause the buttercream to crust.
Kathy says
I’m new to cake decorating and have been told to use a crusting” buttercream recipe; would you consider this a “crusting buttercream”?
Leslie Walsh says
This is the best chocolate buttercream I have ever tried! I will use it for all my cakes from this day forward. It is creamy and delicious. I love the bit of salty taste that comes through too making not as sweet as other chocolate buttercreams.
Alice Currah says
Hi Baiba,
You can always go online and find a conversion calculator.
Baiba says
Hi.
This is my first time when im frosting cake. Still have alot questions about this……
I was wondering, what do you mean ”cup”? You are measuring everything into cups. Im not english so why your measurement isn’t clear for me. How one cup goes into grams or ml?
Thanks! 🙂
Pam says
Does the cake need to be refrigerated because there is milk or heavy cream in the frosting?
Katy says
Is this recipe good to use on cakes that are sitting out at room temperature?
Alyssa says
Hi! I am hoping to try this recipe with some cupcakes I’m making. I’m just wondering about how many cupcakes can I cover with this? I like the frosting to be piped just slightly less than in the image that shows the “whipped” version of the ganache frosting. How much frosting should I plan to make per dozen? Thanks so much for your help!
Rodney says
Awesome!!! Thanks for the reply!
Alice Currah says
It will last weeks.
Rodney says
How long can I keep the frosting in the chiller before it expire?
Alice Currah says
Hi P Harris:
Sometimes this happens because of the sugar. For whatever reason, the sugar itself is the culprit. Remember, powdered sugar is basically granular sugar which has been processed at a high speed. Grainy frosting has nothing to do with the butter or milk.
P Harris says
I have made the buttercream and I do sift the powdered sugar but my icing taste a little powdery if you know what I mean. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
Alice Currah says
Hi Maggie,
Glad you liked it!
maggie says
Dear Alice, thank you so much for your amazing recipe. I had to make it twice, because the cake was a bit bigger than I thought. The icing tastes almost like ganache! It is light and fluffy and works so well on the cake. I plastered it like a professional builder around that cake! It was the easiest icing I have ever made, I will never use any other icing again! You are truly awesome! I wish I could paste a picture here. I can’t wait for her birthday tomorrow. Thank you!
Alice Currah says
Hi Maggie-
As long as the fondant is thick enough (just under 1/4″ thick but more than 1/8″), you will not be able to see the chocolate buttercream underneath. The most important step for you is to make sure you cake is properly crumb-coated so you don’t get any pesky crumbs when you do your final buttercream coat. You can use salted butter but you should know that different companies use different quantities of salt in their butter. Some use more, others less. If you want to control the salt content, you should use unsalted but I use salted all the time because it brings out the sweetness and flavors of other ingredients. It really is a personal preference. Hope this helps. Alice
Rachel Meeks says
This is such a yummy frosting ! I can’t wait to try all the wonderful variations listed above ,especially the mocha and using darker cocoa(Valrona makes an amazing one w/a lovely smoky quality !)! I made a large cake for a catering project last year at my work and was not happy with how the frosting recipe I used turned out.They asked us to do it again this year so I went on Pinterest and found this lovely one,I will be using it from now on ,super creamy(I used the H. cream ),not too sweet and full of chocolate flavor ,YUMMM ! Thank you so much 🙂 !
maggie says
I am busy making a cake for my friend’s birthday. I want to cover it with fondant. Have never worked with fondant before, but I made some calla lilies and they are absolutely beautiful! Now to cover the cake! I want to use this frosting, since it is a chocolate cake, to cover the cake before I put the fondant on. The fondant will be white. Will the dark icing be visible through the fondant? Can I use salted butter and leave out the salt in the recipe? Except for the taste, what is the difference between salted and unsalted butter? Your icing looks divine! And you have a beautiful daughter. She is privileged to have a mom like you! And thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
Ashley says
Best frosting EVER!!!!!! I put it on my raspberry cupcakes and my family devours them!!! Definitely never making another type of chocolate frosting again.
Alice Currah says
Use unsweetened… the pre-sweetened cocoa has a lot of additives and sugar.
Isa says
I was wondering if I should use the bitter coca or sweet cocoa like the one used for hot chocolate for children?
Sally Dee says
you are not supposed to use caster sugar ..the recipe clearly says POWDERED sugar 🙂