Everybody needs a go-to recipe for The Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Whether it’s on your favorite cupcakes, chocolate cake, or smashed in between two graham crackers, you’re going to love this simple and delicious chocolate buttercream frosting.
This incredibly rich and silky frosting recipe makes enough chocolate frosting to generously cover a two-layer cake. It’s smooth and easy to work with whether you’re piping or spreading.
Making your own chocolate buttercream frosting is easier than you think. In fact, most homemade frostings are just a few simple ingredients mixed together until smooth. Some of my favorite cakes and homemade frostings are:
Yummy Cakes with Homemade Frosting
- Banana Bundt Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Ganache
- Best Ever Banana Bundt Cake Recipe
- Lemon Blueberry Sheet Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Out of This World Carrot Cake Recipe With Callie’s Cream Cheese Frosting
- Dream Toasted Coconut Bundt Cake
Making yummy homemade cakes is fun but I still like a good fast and easy cake mix too. This frosting tastes amazing on a yellow cake mix or your favorite chocolate cake mix. I recently made it with a chocolate cake mix for a friend’s birthday and it was delicious. The homemade frosting makes the finished product taste more like a professional cake.
How to Make The Best Homemade Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Use the whisk attachment on your stand mixer or a hand mixer to beat the room-temperature butter for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla.
- Mix on low for 30 seconds to combine and then increase to medium speed.
- Beat until nice and smooth.
- If frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon of cream. If it’s too thin, add up to 1/4 cup more confectioners sugar.
- Use immediately to frost cake or you can store it in the fridge with a tight lid for up to a week. Make sure to let it come to room temperature before frosting a cake.
Frequently Asked Questions
If i don’t have heavy cream, what else can I use for the liquid in this frosting?
Heavy cream is best but if you don’t have any, evaporated milk or regular milk can work. If you use regular milk, try and use whole milk or at least 2%. Also, if using regular milk do not use the full 3 tablespoons to start with. Start with 2 and check the consistency before adding the third tablespoon.
how many cupcakes can i frost with this recipe?
That depends on if you want to frost them with a raised frosting swirl or more of a flat, smooth design. You should be able to do about 12-15 cupcakes with the raised frosting swirl. With a more traditional, smooth design, you should be able to do between 24 and 30 cupcakes.
if i leave out the cocoa, will this make a regular buttercream frosting?
Yes it will. You will need to replace the amount of cocoa with confectioners sugar but it will definitely make a regular vanilla buttercream frosting.
do i need to REFRIGERATE cake after frosting with chocolate buttercream?
No. It is not necessary to refrigerate the cake especially if serving that day or the next day. You will want to keep it in a covered cake stand or cake container if not refrigerating. However, it is fine to refrigerate and if you do not anticipate serving it within 24-36 hours, refrigerating it will help it stay fresh.
Other Delicious Desserts
- 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 3½ cups confectioners sugar
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 3 tbs heavy cream
- ¼ tsp salt (if using salted butter, only add a pinch of salt)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Use the whisk attachment on your stand mixer or a hand mixer to beat the room-temperature butter for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla.
- Mix on low for 30 seconds to combine and then increase to medium speed.
- Beat until nice and smooth, scraping sides down occasionally with a spatulaif needed.
- If frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon of cream. If frosting is too thin, add up to ¼ cup more confectioners sugar.
- Use frosting immediately to frost cake or you can store it in the fridge with a tight lid or in a Ziploc bag for up to a week. Make sure to let it come to room temperature before frosting a cake.
I tried adding the espresso and oh my goodness what in the world have I been missing? This is absolutely scrumptious! Kudos to you for sharing! This is life changing! I have not been living!!!!! There aren’t enough stars to rate this properly. This right here is everything!!! I guess you can tell I really enjoyed this delightful recipe 😋
Wow Alicia! Thank you so much! I am so glad you feel as strongly about it as I do. 🙂
How much espresso did you add with cocoa?