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With over 2 million views and counting since 2013, this Chocolate Frosting Recipe is my most popular frosting recipe on my website. Using simple ingredients, it’s simple to whip up and the best frosting for any kind of cake, especially birthdays!
There are thousands of homemade chocolate frosting recipes out there. This is the one that continues to be requested for every birthday, special occasion or just because! Just take a look at the 600+ reviews in the comment section at the bottom of this post and you’ll see that it’s a favorite for many others as well. Be warned, this frosting is so gosh darn delicious it may disappear before you even get to frost your cake! Move over store-bought frosting because this recipe is about to knock your socks off.
Homemade Chocolate Frosting ingredients
This Chocolate Frosting recipe is essentially a chocolate buttercream because it’s made with:
- softened butter – salted or unsalted will be just fine
- powdered sugar – sifted
- cocoa powder – sifted
- vanilla extract
- milk – amount to be adjusted to your liking. f you’re going to pipe this recipe, you’ll want it more stiff so it holds its shape, if you’re wanting to frost a cake, you’ll want it slightly thinner and more easily spreadable.
Pro Tip: Before you get started, make sure you are using very soft butter, sifted powdered sugar, sifted cocoa powder and be prepared to adjust the thickness of the frosting with a little more milk or a little more powdered sugar.
How to make Chocolate Frosting
I assure you this is one of the easiest recipes in the entire world you can make. I promise you can do it!
- Whip butter and cocoa powder together until smooth in large bowl.
- Stir in vanilla extract and powdered sugar.
- Slowly stream in milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.
- Scrape sides and whip again until light, fluffy and smooth, 1-2 minutes.
Need more chocolate in your life? Try these tasty treats: Actually Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Cake Extreme, Chocolate Cobbler, Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.
Can I make this Chocolate Buttercream Frosting ahead of time?
Absolutely! This chocolate frosting will last for one week in the fridge as long as it’s in an airtight container. If you plan on using it to frost a cake, you’ll want to bring it to room temperature for 3-4 hours first and then whip it for a quick 20 seconds to get it light and fluffy again before using.
Chocolate Icing Tips and Tricks
Time and time again, I get comments on this recipe saying it was either way too thick or way too thin to use. Here’s the secret though: not everyone measures cocoa powder or powdered sugar exactly the same. So all the frostings you make using the exact same recipe will vary and you will have to make minor adjustments.
- If your frosting is too thick, slowly add in milk little by little to get the consistency you want.
- If your frosting is too thin, add a little extra powdered sugar little by little to get the consistency you want.
- If you want to use this frosting to cover a whole cake, run a butter knife through the finished frosting. If it holds its shape but is still really easy to spread, it’s perfect. I’d highly recommend using an offset spatula for frosting a cake.
- For pipeable frosting that holds its shape, you want to make sure the frosting will hold its shape and not fall, so slightly stiffer than for frosting a whole cake. These disposable piping bags are great! Also, this 1M Wilton frosting tip is the one I use to get those gorgeous mountains of frosting on top of cupcakes.
This frosting is too sweet!
Friends, frosting is supposed to be sweet! I know when you see 5 cups of powdered sugar, your eyeballs jump out of their sockets, but trust me, it will be just fine. Especially since this chocolate frosting recipe makes a ton: enough to frost an entire 9-inch cake with leftovers or 24 cupcakes.
If you find that the frosting is too sweet, try to sprinkle in a little salt. If you want to reduce the powdered sugar by 1-2 cups, you are welcome to do so, but know you will have to reduce the milk as well.
How to use Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Besides licking this right from the spoon, I have lots of cakes and cupcakes recipes to make with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
- Classic Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Flourless Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Candy Cane Cake
- Vanilla Cake – this combo is to die for!
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting FAQ
No, not at all. Cocoa powder is notoriously lumpy and it definitely helps to sift, but not totally necessary. You might not even have a sifter available to you, which is fine! Also, powdered sugar has cornstarch mixed into it to help prevent lumping. As you whip the ingredients for the frosting together, most of the lumps should come out. *Should* come out. They might not, which is all the more reason to sift. But again, don’t lose sleep over this if you can’t sift.
Yes! I actually prefer using salted butter for all my desserts and baked goods. I know, I know, sacrelig! Either unsalted or salted butter is absolutely fine to use interchangeably in this recipe.
Love Cake Decorating? Try these other frosting recipes:
- Vanilla Buttercream
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Royal Icing
- Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
- Whipped Chocolate Ganache Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Mousse Frosting
More Favorites from Lauren’s Latest
So, there you have the easiest, tastiest chocolate frosting recipe! Hope you absolutely love it! Be sure to pin, save, bookmark and share this recipe because it’s a good one! Have a great day, friends!
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened, both salted or unsalted work fine
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 5 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Whip butter and cocoa together until smooth in large bowl. Stir in vanilla extract and powdered sugar.
- Slowly stream in milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Scrape sides and whip again until light, fluffy and smooth, 1-2 minutes.
- Frost your cake or cupcakes*!
Video
Notes
- If your frosting is too thick, slowly add in milk little by little to get the consistency you want.
- If your frosting is too thin, add a little extra powdered sugar little by little to get the consistency you want.
My mom has used this recipe for a long time and now I use it too! Our family and friends LOVE it!!! Thank you for sharing
Simply amazing! Easy to make, fluffy, delicious!
I’ve never made frosting before but came across this recipe and it was super easy to make! I did half the recipe for a 2lb loaf cake and still had half left which I’ve popped in the freezer. Hoping it freezes ok! Haven’t had with the cake yet but from a lick of the spoon it’s yummy. I used half salted and half unsalted butter so it isn’t too sweet.
I like this chocolate frosting it’s so yummy and easy to piping too. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this cake and it’s super moist and yummy. My family loved it so much. Thanks for the recipe
This will now be my favorite recipe. It is so smooth and flavorful I just can’t believe that a recipe that taste so good is this easy.
Rating mostly on the ease since I didn’t exactly follow the recipe. Doubled the cocoa and dropped the sugar by 1/3rd (still too sweet in my opinion). Probably also doubled the vanilla since I just splash some in. And finally, I didn’t soften the butter enough.
Of the four static ingredients, I messed up or modified all four of them so I refuse to rate based on the flavor.
Full disclosure: I don’t like sweet. But the sweetness seemed too strong for the chocolate. Case in point: even after reducing the sugar by 1/3rd, the desert hounds in my house still stole all the frosting I’d let them get away with.
Still, this recipe makes for an excellent first-timer’s attempt!
I just made this and I was pleasantly pleased. Very easy, very quick, and very good.
This is far too sweet for the amount of cocoa. the chocolate flavour is completely lost.
with this amount of cocoa you only need half the amount of sugar listed.
perhaps this is an american recipe. i’m english and it’s just too sweet.
this was so yummy. I did change some things tho.
I used salted butter, 2.5 cups of sugar (instead of 5), and I used unsweetened cocoa powder. I also used Almond mik (1:1) it’s very watery so I did not have to use 4-5 tbsp I only used 2.5 tbsp. Overall, this was so good and very easy to make! I had 22 cupcakes and just enough to cover all of them.
I also used this for piping not spreading with a knife.
where are the measurements
You can find the measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the blog post. 🙂
The frosting was amazingly fluffy and light, and my granddaughter loves it! She did a fantastic job and it was put easily spreadable. We cut the recipe in half for 9 cupcakes..
can I use nesquik chocolate instead of cocoa powder in my frosting or hot chocolate powder
Solid frosting, and very easy. Only thing is I stopped at 4C of sugar as it was plenty sweet. Also let the butter whip for 5 mins on medium before adding other ingredients to insure a light, fluffy frosting.
Glad I tried it with 3 cups of powdered sugar. It was the PERFECT amount. I only gave this 4 stars because 5 cups was highly recommended. It would be waaaay too sweet with that amount!
This is so, so GOOD!!!! I didn’t have salted butter so I used a margarine stick instead and only did half the recipe. I am about to make some more here in a few minutes. A keeper for sure and so easy to make
Just made this icing for my grandaughter’s 2nd birthday and it was a hit! Quick and easy recipe and so delicious; tastes like fudge. My grandaughter ate all the icing and left the cake.
I highly recommend this recipe.
Delicious, i halved it for a 8 in square pan, and had tonnes of icing to cover my squares!
Love this recipe
Thank you!
Absolutely the worst thing I have ever tried…. came out like water!!! Total garbage!! Had to throw the whole thing out! And I went through all my ingredients… what a waste of money.
This is the best chocolate frosting I’ve ever made . And the first pic that came up when I googled. So easy and yummy 😋 Thanks for sharing
why so much sugar I added 6 tablespoons of milk and 1 1/2 of powered sugar it tasted just fine
unsalted
Thank you for the recipe. I did make this. First I did forget to sift the first cup of powder sugar, second I only had about 4 cups of powdered sugar, so I used all that I had. It turned out delicious and I think the sweetness was perfect. Easy, quick and delicious.
I cut in half for small batch. Wonderfully easy and better than store bought. Love this easy recipe.
Beautifully delectable icing!!! Very easy to put together, better than store bought by 1,000%
1stbtime making frosting from scratch. 1st recipe I try. Delicious and easy to make
June 25/23
Easy & delicious but was enough frosting to generously do 24 cupcakes.
Do you have to store the cake in the fridge then?
This came out good…however the color was a lighter brown….I think I may have added too much confectionary surgar….thinking I added 6 instead of 5 cups…Do you think that would have done it?? Just curious…It was still delicious….:)
It is perfect for a chocolate cake! I made a stacker cake and it will be an awesome filling!
This chocolate icing was so easy and soooo yummy!,,
I’m sorry but this was sooooo sickly sweet it ruined the cake my daughter and I baked. complete waste unfortunately:(
The whole family (even toddlers) approved! Definitely saving to make again.
Just made these. Turned out amazing. I did not have buttermilk so i did the vinegar and whole milk substitute. Everthing I followed recipe exact. Made some chocolate frosting also. Great recipe will be making again. Thanks.
PERFECT recipe! I actually cut it in half and it was great plenty for an oblong plain white cake. I added mixed chopped nuts to the top, and it looks like something that came from a professional bakery…tastes even better! THANK YOU for this E-Z, DELICIOUS recipe! It’s my new go-to. 😉
Nice recipe I love this🥰🥰
Came together quick and was very good. Thank you!
What type of cocoa is better sweeten or unsweeten??
always unsweetened for baking unless otherwise stated
Amazing recipe. I’ve searched all over for it
This recipe is great! My only question is how do I store my cake after I frost it? I made a cake a few weeks ago with this frosting recipe and the frosting got hard quick, wondering if there’s anything I can do differently?
I halved this recipe for 12 cupcakes, turned out great. I did have to add more powdered sugar to thicken it like I wanted.
I’m not great with icings, but this one was simple, tasty, and actually turned out for me! THANK YOU!!!!
I’m looking for a frosting for cream puffs that don’t harden but stays soft enough to stack the puffs without getting frosting on the stacked puffs..