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.
Cecily says
Are you melting your butter? You need the butter solid, but soft. Hand mixing just incorporates less air and so it will be less fluffy
Sheila says
Delicious recipe. I made it on the fly at the last minute for my son’s graduation cake. I made it twice, once with cocoa and once without. They were both wonderful and had great spreading consistency. Will make again soon.
Kristina says
This was so good on my brownies! I will however use slightly less vanilla it was a bit overpowering with the real vanilla.
Lisa Noteboom says
My son has allergies to milk, eggs, and all nuts, so I adapted this recipe with soymilk, left out salt, and used vanilla along with Scharffen Berger cocoa powder, and Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks. This was the best frosting yet to go on the old fashion wacky cake recipe. Many thanks for a great recipe 🙂
Myrtle says
excited to try this recipe for my choco-banana cake which is already a best seller.. can’t wait. thanks a lot..
Milo says
Hi, this is a super easy recipe with a very nice consistency, I was wondering if I can use sweetened chocolate instead of coco to enrich the taste, will it work? and how much chocolate should I use? thanks for this great recipe!
Emily says
This is amazing!! This will be the only recipe I will ever use for chocolate icing. A blue ribbon winner hands down. Thank you for sharing ;)!
Shannon says
Will try this today. I don’t have unsalted butter, will use regular and leave out the salt. Hoping this will work.
Juli says
Can this be made in advance and stored in an air tight container in the fridge? I have a ton of cupcakes to make for a fundraiser and it would be so much easier to make the frosting in advance.
Barbara says
I want to try this recipe but do not like unsalted butter. Does it matter if I use salted?
Echo S. says
I did mine by hand at first since I only did 1/4 of the recipe as a test batch (and it’s great, anyone reading! It’s delicious!) and my handheld mixer just clumps that amount of butter in the beaters and does not whip or cream it. I used a silicone spatula to smooth the butter, then mixed in the cocoa and sugar until combined well and it was… flat? But not ‘runny’. I could have frosted a cake with it happilly. Beating it just gave it a lot of volume.
Jessica says
As in no machine what so ever? If that’s the case, that could be exactly why your frosting failed. Believe it or not, incorporating air into a frosting or even a cake is actually a leavening agent or a thickening agent. If you don’t get enough air into the butter or the all around mix in some recipes the never thicken or rise.
Jessica says
Anxious to try this for my mom’s Mother’s Day cake – will post how it turns out. Looks like a good recipe to try. =)
Erin says
Made this frosting for a party today (it went onto a peanut butter cake) and it was SO good. I prepped the frosting last night and put it in the fridge. I started to worry because it was so thick even after letting it sit out for like an hour, but I just added a couple tablespoons of heavy cream and hit it for a couple of minutes with the beater and it was perfect. I will definitely be putting this one into rotation!
mikeyt says
Thanks for a delicious buttercream frosting…just finished frosting a moist, delicious chocolate cake. One of the best frosting recipes I’ve found. Thanks again.
Camille says
I just finished making this super easy buttercream, but I added about a tablespoon of King Arthur Black Cocoa. It’s so fluffy, and tastes rich and sweet. Piped so well, too! Thank you 🙂
Lizzy T says
I’m so glad I found this recipe! I’m not a big icing fan, but this is amazing. I used it in my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cake posted on my blog. Thank you!!!
AwwShucks says
Heavy cream and whipping cream are the same. I hope someone answered you by now!
angelichigo says
hello, although I did not get a reply from you to my previous comment/question. I still went ahead to follow this recipe for my Candy Crush cake. I just wanted to share with you that it was a success and the frosting was delicious and easy to make. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Rochelle Boyd says
Trying this for the first time this week for my nephew’s Birthday
Pat says
This is a great recipe. I am the neighborhood baker (so to speak) and while my wife loves chocolate, she dos not like coconut. Today I made a birthday cake (German Chocolate) for a friend and I made an extra cake and used this recipe to frost the extra one for my wife. Let’s just say that I scored major points. Thanks!!
Michelle says
I doubled this recipe tonight to pipe 3 dozen cupcakes and the frosting was delicious!!! Fluffy and it has the right consistency I loved it!! Will always use for my cakes! My cupcakes are packaged and ready to go!
Britt says
I tried this recipe and everyone loved it! I added a tad extra heavy cream and whipped it a little longer than suggested to get it a little fluffier. Such an incredible buttercream recipe. Thank you!
Ginny says
No matter what I did, this recipe stayed too liquidy to frost a cake. I added a ton of powdered sugar and then even a little extra butter, and still very runny. Could the fact I had to hand mix it be the problem?
Amy says
This is by far the best chocolate butter cream recipe I have ever made. I’ve tried at least 10 others and this one is my keeper.
Thanks for creating it.