Everyone needs a “go-to” chocolate frosting and this is now mine! One of the most popular recipes on Our Best Bites is this vanilla Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling. Its velvety smooth texture combined with the not-so-sugary bite is perhaps the perfect thing on top of almost any cake or cupcake. One of the most commonly asked questions on that post is, “Where’s the chocolate version??!!” I experimented a lot with adding chocolate to that recipe without much luck. I came up with a lot of things that tasted amazing, but there were always slight problems with the consistency. I knew I had seen similar recipes in chocolate before but I couldn’t seem to find one until one of you dear readers pointed me to a recipe on Sugar Plum. Sure enough, it was just what I was in search of! I adapted the recipe slightly by using plain ol’ salted butter and omitting added salt. And then I added extra chocolate to get a richer color and flavor. Once you try this chocolate frosting you’ll be hooked!
Ingredient Notes
- Sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Milk
- Butter
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Chocolate Frosting
- The recipe starts by cooking flour, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder in a sauce pan until it thickens, much like the first step in the beloved white frosting. You’ll strain the mixture so you don’t end up with icky flour lumps in your frosting, because who wants icky flour lumps in their frosting??
- While that mixture is cooling off, melt some chocolate chips in the microwave. I found this to be the key to having the frosting remain stable- the melted chocolate seems to bind it. Then we whip real butter with our chilled chocolate mixture until it’s light and fluffy.
- At this point it’s much like the results of just adding cocoa powder to the white frosting. But the secret is adding in the melted chocolate. Isn’t chocolate always the secret?? Whip that up and then give it a taste. If you want a richer chocolate flavor just add more cocoa powder. I added about 4 Tablespoons extra to get my frosting looking and tasting like this (I also found the color of the frosting darkened as it sat). It pipes beautifully, and tastes amazing!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store unused frosting in fridge and bring to room temperature before using again. If needed, beat with an electric beater before using.
- Note that the longer this frosting sits, the darker it appears. For darker, more intense flavor, use a chocolate chip with a higher cocoa content.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! There is enough here to generously frost 24 cupcakes or to frost and fill an 8 or 9 inch 2-layer cake.
Check out this post on How to Frost Cupcakes to help you achieve the perfect cupcake!
Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup real butter softened
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- Optional: Additional cocoa powder as needed
Instructions
- Melt your chocolate chips if you haven’t already and set aside to cool. You obviously don’t want it so cool that it hardens, but you can get it close to room temperature and still have it be soft and stir-able.
- In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1-3 minutes or until thickened like a thinned pudding. Remove pan from heat and strain mixture into a small bowl. Cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.
- When chocolate flour mixture is cooled, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined fluffy, about 1 minute. Finally add in melted chocolate and beat again until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. If desired, add additional cocoa powder to taste, up to 4 tablespoons more. Spread or pipe frosting on to cupcakes or cake.
- Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes or to frost and fill an 8 or 9 inch round 2-layer cake.
Questions & Reviews
Wow. This is the best chocolate frosting I’ve had in years. I live in Asia, so I used candy bars instead of chocolate chips. I prefer semi-sweet to milk chocolate, but even with milk chocolate, this frosting was delectable. I was doubtful – but this frosting has made a believer out of me!
I tried this recipe today and it turned out great, really smooth and tastes yummy! Thanks. X
I made these, DELICIOUS, but the frosting is very light, is there a way to make it stiffer ?????
Glad you liked it, you could always add a little powdered sugar if you want to make it stiffer, but it will add more sweetness too so keep that in mind.
This looks awesome! I tried your white version of this, and it was great! Your cupcake looks beautiful! If you don’t mind…what tip did you use to pipe? Thanks! 🙂
Hello from Germany 🙂
I’m so glad I finally found a chocolate frosting that tastes really good and not just really sweet. I put it on a yellow cake and we even froze some of it (frosted cake) and it still tasted great. I did change a lttle bit, I used half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate and used 100 gramm of each, so a little bit more than the recipe asks for.
Thank you
I somehow totally messed this up. I had all the ingredients right, but maybe my timing was off. The chocolate “pudding” was super thick and the melted chocolate chips wouldn’t incorporate. I’ll try it again, but for this cake, I think I’m going to go with plain old buttercream!
It’s not a recipe problem, just thought I’d share my mishap in case someone else had trouble. The recipe is great–I’ve made the white icing before and it turned out wonderful!
I made a 6 inch cake and frosted it with your chocolate frosting. I kept the left over in the fridge for 5 days and the frosting got richer and it just melts in your mouth. I just cut down on the butter to 1/2 cup, the sugar to 1/3 cup and the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup.
I just want to know why do I get a grainy consistency all the time? I tried to whip it more but it formed into clusters. I tried to use the 1 cup butter but it was too creamy and buttery for my taste. The color was so light & it didn’t look like a chocolate frosting that I have to re do it again then cut my butter to 1/2 cup. What did I do wrong?
Hi
I think this is the best frosting recipe I have ever tried. I would also like to convert this into various flavours such as mocha, caramel, etc. Any thoughts and advice on that.
Many thanks
Rosalind
For caramel, try palm sugar (also known as coconut palm sugar). It has a caramel taste. I subed it in some cream cheese frosting and it had a nice caramel taste. It added a caramel color to my icing, but since this recipe uses less sugar it won’t add as much color.
Could you please post a link to the original recipe? I can’t find it on the Sugarplum website. But the only reason I want that is because I really need to know how much salt to add if I don’t use salted butter. I never keep salted butter in my house, but when I made the white frosting with unsalted butter, I thought it needed a little salt. I’m not good at adding anything “to taste.” Thanks.
I’m not sure- you’ll have to search around for it over there, sorry!
This chocolate frosting is the best same as the white frosting. It’s more than perfect. I’ve made the chocolate frosting today and the white frosting yesterday but my only concern is it’s not that stiff for piping. Mine turned out literally like a whipped cream not that similar to the pictures so I was wondering where I probable went wrong. Do you have any tips on how to make it more stiff for piping? Thanks for the recipe! 🙂