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
I love these recipes that you make they are delicious. 🙂
I just made this frosting for my sons chocolate birthday cake and swirled the cake with hot fudge before I cooked it and then after I frosted the cake, I melted some high end german milk chocolate bars and drizzled t over the frosted cake and allowed it to set up before I served it. I must say, it was amazing!!!! Not to say that it even needs the milk chocolate drizzled on it because its awesome without t too, but it really was a fantastic addition because the frosting snt too sweet so it can be done without overkilling it like with other chocolate frosting recipes that are just too sweet to begin with!!
Also wanted to thank you for this recipe – I just found it a couple days ago when looking for a chocolate version of the flour recipe. This was AMAZING! Also wanted to share with my slight change: Instead of using semi-sweet chocolate chips, I used Baker’s Bittersweet chocolateeeee (66% cacao) – same amount as called for the chips. It had a wonderful deep chocolate flavor and did not need extra chocolate powder.
Thank you!
Just wanted to thank you for this recipe. It’s a keeper! I wanted a chocolate version of Mom’s vanilla flour frosting, one that would pipe well on cupcakes. I landed on yours here and so glad I did. Now, will you please develop a peanut butter version? 🙂
Can we use raw sugar instead of granulated?
Like the coarse, raw sugar? I probably wouldn’t use that here, unless you don’t mind some texture in your frosting 🙂
Trying the flour choc icing. But it’s not getting thick and fluffy. Can I add some powdered sugar
Sure, go ahead 🙂
Just tried your chocolate version of the tastiest frosting I ever ate and not sure what I did wrong but the icing started to separate, not to the point where there was oily residue but enough that it looked like it was speckled or streaked, if that makes any sense. I had piped it into some cupcakes before I noticed but it still tastes delicious, so I did add a couple tablespoons of gran. sugar and it helped a little. I did follow the recipe. Because I have made the white version twice before this using store brand butter I didn’t have any trouble with consistency either time. The consistency was good this time too, almost like whipped cream, maybe a touch too thin. I would love to be able to make this again without failure, do you know what I might have done wrong, I didn’t use semi sweet chocolate chips, I used a belgian chocolate and mixed both milk and dark chocolate and didn’t use quite one cup. The other variation I used from previous times was I used 1% milk instead of 3.5%, so I guess you might say I really didn’t follow the recipe to a tee, anyway just wanted to drop this comment and see what others might offer for next time, and there will be a next time, this stuff is dangerous to my girlish figure. Thanks for posting this great recipe
Awesomeness. My mom always made a flour frosting (thank you Mrs. Ciolino, who shared it on Fourth of July 1974! A family favorite for 40 years!). This frosting is even better. Mom’s recipe uses butter and Crisco and powdered sugar. All butter makes me feel better about eating it! By the spoonful, of course…
I remember going to a little restaurant called “The Europa Cafe” run by a Swiss man. His tortes were grand…the “icing” not tooth-ache sweet as most stuff around at that time. He said the recipe was based on a pudding (like your flour-milk base?!). So glad to find this on your site, I will be making it soon. The Dr. Oetker cookbooks have a similar recipe (using their pudding packets)…the most important step is to have everything at room temp to ensure smooth blending! Thanks so much for this.
Loved your plain flour buttercream very much! I ate 12 cupcakes in 2 days….MYSELF! With this choc buttercream, do you mind coverting your measuresments to grams as I live in Australia and our cups and tablespoon measurements are slightly different