Easy Chocolate Frosting is the best foolproof frosting for spreading and piping beautifully onto any kind of cupcakes or cake. It’s essentially a rich and smooth, easy to spread chocolate buttercream frosting that uses simple ingredients. There are a lot of frosting recipes out there, but I’ve found that this one is the best classic chocolate frosting.
This creamy chocolate frosting recipe yields about 3 cups of frosting. That’s enough to frost 24 cupcakes or to frost a 9×13-inch cake. I like to double the recipe if I’m frosting a layer cake. I’ve tested a lot of chocolate frosting recipes, and this is the perfect frosting my chocolate wedding cake or chocolate wedding cupcakes. And if you need a white frosting, my wedding cupcake buttercream is what I use for my white wedding cake and white wedding cupcakes.
Don’t use store bought frosting because this frosting is a huge improvement over the canned stuff! I promise that you can make chocolate frosting homemade and that it’s not difficult. Only 6 ingredients are needed to make this easy chocolate frosting, and it’s so much better than store bought. There are no preservatives in the ingredients, and it tastes 100% better! My go-to chocolate frosting recipes for all of my cakes and cupcakes are this one and the classic Hershey’s chocolate frosting. They’re both insanely good, but this one is made with a little bit of cream cheese added in and it uses melted chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder.
Ingredients Needed:
- Powdered Sugar: Also known as confectioner’s sugar, you can run it through a sifter or a fine sieve, but it’s really not necessary. The lumps will disappear as you mix the frosting.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter for frosting. A little bit of salt balances out the sweetness. The butter should be at room temperature but not melted or super duper soft.
- Cream Cheese: Use room temperature, full-fat cream cheese.
- Chocolate Chips: This recipe calls for using dark chocolate chips. You can certainly experiment with using other flavors.
- Milk: Any kind of milk or cream will work just fine for thinning out the frosting. I tend to use whole milk or cream for a more rich frosting flavor.
- Vanilla Extract: Use the good stuff. No imitation vanilla extract is allowed!
How to make Easy Chocolate Frosting:
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and cream cheese until well mixed and nice and smooth. Then add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, and then mix in the milk and vanilla.
- In a glass bowl, heat the chocolate chips in the microwave on short bursts of power until melted and smooth. Let sit for a few minutes so it’s not so hot. Then gradually mix it into the bowl, and BAM you have your bowl of the best chocolate frosting ever!
- Check for consistency. If it’s just right, then go ahead and use it for your cake or cupcakes or brownies. If it’s a bit too thin, put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it up a little more. This frosting can be spread on, or it can be spooned into a piping bag and piped on in a decorative fashion.
Recipe Tips
- Scrape down the bowl as you’re mixing, so you incorporate all of the ingredients into the frosting.
- If using a stand mixer, use the beater blade instead of the whisk for a better frosting texture.
- Here are some tools that are helpful for making this easy chocolate frosting: an offset spatula, a piping bag and a 1M frosting tip.
- If the frosting turns out to be too thin, mix in a small amount of powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, mix in a small amount of milk.
- Use leftover frosting sandwiched in between graham crackers for a delicious sweet treat. My Mom always did this when I was little!
Can frosting be made ahead of time?
Yes, this easy chocolate frosting can be made ahead of time. Just store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When ready to use, remove it from the fridge and use an electric mixer to whip some air back into the frosting (about 30 seconds) to make it light, fluffy and creamy again.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- You will love the flavor and consistency of this frosting.
- It’s super easy to make, and it’s a hard recipe to mess up.
- You will love that it’s versatile- you can either spread it or pipe it, and it works both ways!
Best Recipes to Use for this Easy Chocolate Frosting recipe:
- Use it to frost our White Wedding Cake.
- It’s delicious on our Yellow Cake too.
- Use it to frost the Best Chocolate Cake.
- It’s a great frosting for our Emergency Blender Cupcakes.
- And Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with this easy chocolate frosting is amazing.
Easy Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- One 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- One 16-ounce package powdered sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Increase speed to medium, and slowly add milk and vanilla, beating until smooth.
- Microwave the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl at MEDIUM 1½ to 2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30 second intervals.
- Gradually add melted chocolate to mixture; beat until blended and smooth. If the frosting is too soft for piping, cover and refrigerate for a few minutes until it firms up a little bit. Otherwise, spread frosting on top of cupcakes and decorate as desired.
Notes
- If you are preparing this recipe as gluten-free, just be sure to use a brand of chocolate that is known to be GF.
- Makes enough for 24 cupcakes or a 9×13-inch cake.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi, made your cupcakes for a wedding last weekend and everyone loved them. I had extra frosting and need to make a birthday cake this weekend. I have it in the refrigerator, do you think it will be ok? Assume I just need to bring to room temp and re-mix? Thanks!
It should be!
Can I add nutella to the mix to get a chocolate hazelnut flavour?
Would I use half melted chocolate and half nutella in order to maintain the consistency of the frosting?
I haven’t tried it, so I’m afraid I can’t recommend anything specific!
i am doing a two tier wedding cake , but I have white buttercream how do I make it to look ivory buttercream, please let me know…thks
I’m not sure– maybe google your question? I’m not super skilled at that sort of thing!
I think I’d try caramel drops…? Good luck
My son loves chocolate on chocolate! Does this recipe make enough frosting to cover your three layer chocolate wedding cake?
I “think” so… but you should definitely do a trial run to see if you’re happy with the amount of frosting!
This was the third chocolate buttercream recipe I tried today. Third time is a charm, it’s wonderful! I used semi-sweet chocolate because it’s what I had on hand. Thank you so much for the recipe, this will definitely be my go to chocolate buttercream!
So glad to hear you like it so much!
Hi there,
Can I use this frosting under my fondant on a cake?
Regards
I’m not at all familiar with how to use fondant, so I’m afraid I’m not any help!
LOVED this frosting! I used milk chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate and it literally tasted like a Wendy’s frosty! My coworkers loved it! Thanks for such a wonderful recipe!
Used this recipe with a few alterations (because I got the wrong butter and chocolate)for my mothers wedding reception cupcakes and the icing was wonderful!!