Creamy Chocolate Frosting
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This creamy chocolate frosting is so easy to make and tastes oh-so-good smothered on top of your favorite chocolate cake, cupcake, or brownie slice.
This melt-in-your-mouth creamy chocolate frosting recipe is three of my favorite things: delicious, budget-friendly, and family-approved. Now, we are going to make this delectable buttercream frosting from scratch. But to make the cake… if you are short on time then use whatever chocolate cake or brownie recipe you like and then the icing is a cinch. I highly recommend my big batch brownies though!
Now, let’s answer the most important question. Is this better than store-bought frosting? Heck yes! What differentiates this from the store-bought kind is, of course, that irresistible chocolate flavor. This homemade chocolate frosting is absolutely exploding with chocolate. It’s buttery, smooth, and causes everyone who tastes it to do a double-take. This is because by looking at it, you are expecting it to be store-bought canned icing but OH NO, none of that plastic, preservative-filled flavor here. This is the real deal my pretties!
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk
- Cocoa powder (dutch process, regular or unsweetened cocoa powder, the choice is yours).
- Softened butter
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar
How To Make Homemade Creamy Chocolate Frosting Step by Step
In a large mixing bowl, place the butter and powdered sugar.
Tip: How to make this chocolate buttercream frosting thicker and richer
Now, if you want this to be even richer and more decadent, you can use dutch process cocoa and you’ll end up with a dark chocolate frosting rather than a milk chocolate one. Either way, you’re pretty much set and don’t have to deal with melted chocolate (bonus)!
Add the cocoa and just a bit of milk.
Lost your tablespoon in the abyss of your drawer?
I don’t like to search for a tablespoon when I cook most of the time so I just use the cap of the milk jug and eyeball it. Two tablespoons? I figure about three caps full will do the trick. Feel free to use a tablespoon and be more accurate if you like. I’m setting a bad example but sometimes y’all need a bad example!
Mix all of that up using a until creamy. Now, this is gonna be really thick. At first, it will be lumpy but stick with it and it’ll get all smooth like this, although still very thick.
Add the remainder of your milk and confectioners sugar.
Mix that up well.
Add vanilla and mix again, until it’s all smooth, silky, and chocolaty.
Dip a spoon (or a finger, I won’t tell) to taste your sweet chocolate buttercream frosting.
Enjoy licking those electric mixer beaters too!
Frost your cake with this silky smooth bit of chocolate buttercream heaven.
Dig in! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into that chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting! YUM!
Storage
In an airtight container, this chocolate buttercream frosting recipe will last up to one week in the fridge and up to three months in the freezer. When you take it out of the freezer, thaw it in the refrigerator, and then beat it on medium speed for a few seconds to make it nice and fluffy again.
Recipe Notes
- Remember to ensure your butter has been softened at room temperature before attempting this recipe because it will make your easy chocolate frosting infinitely better!
- This recipe makes enough to frost about 12 chocolate cupcakes, as well as a standard one-layer cake or brownie slice. Just make sure your cake is cooled before adding the buttercream frosting.
- You can use either unsalted or salted butter. If you opt for unsalted butter, have a taste, as you might want to add a pinch of salt while the buttercream frosting is mixing to enhance the chocolate flavor.
Recipe FAQs
What is the difference between frosting and icing?
It’s all about consistency. Icing is thinner than frosting and is typically used as a glaze. Meanwhile, buttercream frosting uses butter to make it thicker and fluffier. You can top a cake with either icing or frosting, depending on your desired effect.
Why is my frosting not creamy?
If you find your buttercream frosting is too thick, add one to tablespoons of milk at a time until it reaches a smoother consistency. Alternatively, if your frosting is too thin, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until it becomes thicker and creamier.
You may also like these other frosting recipes:
Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting
Seven Minute Frosting Foolproof recipe
Rolo Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Peanut Butter Cake (From Scratch!) with PB Cream Cheese Frosting
Yellow Cake with Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Icing
Ingredients
- 3 cups confectioner's sugar powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup butter one stick, softened
- 6 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, place butter, 1 cup of sugar, cocoa powder, and two tablespoons of milk.3 cups confectioner's sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup butter, 6 tbsp milk
- Beat until mixed well and no longer lumpy. It will be thick. Add all remaining ingredients and beat the buttercream mixture until smooth and creamy.1 tsp vanilla extract
Nutrition
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Submitted by Southern Plate reader, Jay. To submit your quote, click here!
I made a white cake and topped it off with the chocolate icing this weekend. WOW! So easy and soooo good! It was a hit with my whole family. I will never do store bought again!
I know your hubby is not a cook like you, but how does he manage meals for the family when you are gone? Eat out? Visit grandma? Leftovers? Freezer meals? Or does he have a few “Dad’s famous” recipes?
Whenever I go out of town (which is pretty rare but usually once or twice a year..) I make up tons of food ahead of time.
I make some of the kids favorite meals and put them in individual containers so all Ricky has to do is heat them in the microwave. He has a bad habit of not thinking about supper until the kids are already hungry – whereas I have supper planned out and am putting it on the table by the time they feel their stomachs rumble! So I try to take this into account and fix it so he can easily feed the kids in under a minute or two.
I also make up homemade macaroni and cheese and put that in individual containers as well. I then make some pizza rolls (Ricky’s Fave) and cookies for snacking and even make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ahead of time and cut them into squares or triangles and place those in little individual containers where the kids can reach them so they can serve themselves a quick lunch.
You’d be amazed at how much cooking and grocery shopping I do whenever I have to leave my family, even if its just for two days. To top it all off, I place a list on the refrigerator listing all of the meal options I have left for them. Of course, there is always a pantry and a few freezers full of endless options but I swear I think I am the only person in this house who can so much as boil water. 🙂
Yes, in truth, I really do fear my family will starve without me!
That was a neat question to get asked!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Honey, if it bothers folks when you say “Whatever cranks your tractor” too much, just swap it up with “Whatever floats your boat”. Then maybe they won’t comment so much about your use of tractor-themed southern sayings.
On this note, I have a friend who works at the Days Inn here in Athens. She had a bunch of out-of-towners in for a conference. She was talking to one lady, and at the end of the conversation (when the lady was leaving the hotel), she told the lady to “Be careful”. She said that lady looked at her as if she had told her the world was ending today. She asked what my friend meant by that. My friend had to explain to the woman what “Be careful” means down here, and that we tell everyone that at the end of a visit. 🙂
I bet you ran into some of that out in California.
Martha says “It’s a good thing.” Rachel says “Yum-o.” Paula says–oh heck I don’t know what Paula says–but Christy says “Whatever cranks your tractor.” and “Easy/Peasy.” I’d say she oughta just go with it.
Kel,
You just mentioned me in the same sentence as Martha Steward, Rachel Ray, and Paula Deen!
Consider my tractor cranked!!!!!!!!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Is that Kraft t-shirt I spy Brady wearing?! hehe
And Katy always has the cutest bows in her hair.
Well Christy to the rescue again. I was going to the internet to look for a choclate icing recipe, and decieded to check my emails first thanks Christy this is just what I wanted! Your kids are very cute and the cats aren’t to shabby either!!!lol Thanks again
Welcome back to Bama – hope your trip outside the South was great and look forward to hearing about it! This frosting looks really good. I don’t recall ever making homemade chocolate frosting before so I’ve got to try it. Take care!
I like the idea of using Alphabits to spell things out on the cake! I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it, but the idea of TWO cakes is a great one, too. I have a 6-year-old and 4-year-old and I’m sure they’d agree! Thanks for sharing your kid-friendly ideas. Reading your e-mails is always a bright spot in my day.