Dark Chocolate Frosting Recipe

Monday, June 14, 2010

Dark Chocolate Frosting Recipe

I’ve been on the hunt for a great chocolatey frosting. When in doubt, I’ve always just gone with ganache. You can dip cupcakes in ganache for an easy slick cover. Or you can let it thicken up and spread it on with a spatula. But I wanted something I could pipe in pretty swirls on cupcakes.

Now I’ve tried the Hershey’s chocolate frosting and wasn’t a huge fan. I’ve also tried chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. I love SMBC but that stuff just wasn’t chocolatey enough. That’s where this frosting comes in.

I saw this recipe pop up on My Baking Heart and instantly perked up. It’s a humorous story about her Count Chocula obsession. I wasn’t so much interested in a Count Chocula cupcake, but the frosting on top looked like a great chocolate frosting. And boy, is it great!

When I made this frosting I actually didn’t have any milk in the house. It happens quite often around here. Since I’m lactose intolerant and Hubby isn’t a huge milk drinker, we just don’t keep it in the house. On a side note, when my brother A was here, he went through a half gallon in a day. I’m pretty sure he would have drank more if I had more in the house. But I digress. Back to this frosting. I had no milk, but I had some Baileys. So I subbed that in place of the milk. It was great. Feel free to use whichever you prefer.

Remember how I mentioned I had bought a boat load of pink sprinkles for really cheap. Yea, these are the same sprinkles again. I think I’ll be using them for years!!

Two Years Ago: Pina Colada Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Frosting

Yield: Makes enough for 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/3 cup milk (or Baileys)

Directions:

Cream butter and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture.

Slowly add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency, then beat another 5 minutes creamy.

Recipe adapted from My Baking Heart

Cupcakes, Dessert

36 comments »

36 Responses to “Dark Chocolate Frosting Recipe”

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1

Party Box Design — June 14, 2010 at 11:47 am

loving the baileys idea! mmmmm
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2

Jenni @ Project Cookie 365 — June 14, 2010 at 3:54 pm

I use the same recipe (I think, I’ve had it for years; a standby. I think it was called “Chocolate Fudge Frosting”)
Best thing EVER to do? add a bit of mint extract – it’s very easily my most popular cake filling.. and my favourite icing to eat by the spoonful lol.
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3

Erin — June 14, 2010 at 3:57 pm

I haven’t found the perfect chocolate frosting yet, so I’ll definitely have to try this one!
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4

hannah! — June 14, 2010 at 3:59 pm

i definitely, definitely have to try this soon. i can’t get enough of chocolate!
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5

Lollicake Bakeshop — June 14, 2010 at 4:03 pm

It’s funny about the no milk thing…I was making a new martini recipe that was super strong, so I thought cream would help it become drinkable – but I had no cream, but I did have Vanilla Caramel Coffeemate…it was great!
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6

Joanne — June 14, 2010 at 5:31 pm

Ironically, I almost never have milk and always have Bailey’s. Go figure.

Sometimes you really do need a seriously dark chocolatey frosting. This looks absolutely ideal.
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7

Justin — June 14, 2010 at 6:02 pm

you really got into the food styling there — cute pic with the cupcake in the sprinkles.
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Pegster — June 14, 2010 at 7:32 pm

This comment has been removed by the author.
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Pegster — June 14, 2010 at 7:33 pm

This sounds nice – I’ll have to try it one day! Jen, have you tried King Arthur Flour’s Supersimple Chocolate Frosting recipe? It is my favourite recipe (so far) for chocolate frosting – I’d definitely recommend it!

(Sheesh! deleted to fix a typo! Wish there was an edit function :))
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Jen — June 14, 2010 at 7:40 pm

Pegster – I have not tried the KA recipe. It looks similar to this chocolate frosting recipe which is delicious!

The think I love about this frosting is the stiffness and the fudgeness.
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11

Memória — June 14, 2010 at 11:30 pm

I like this frosting for when I want something quick. Otherwise, I like to use frosting that involves melted, good chocolate for those special occasions. YUM! I would gobble up your cupcakes in a second.
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12

steph — June 15, 2010 at 3:14 pm

Great call on the Bailey’s – my mom would love that icing. I am going to try this next time I make cupcakes.
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13

Elina — June 15, 2010 at 6:49 pm

I would never think to sub bailey’s for milk. Brilliant. I love my chocolate desserts to be super chocolaty – this looks great!
LOVE the super pink sprinkles too. So pretty
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Elina — June 15, 2010 at 6:50 pm

Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m hosting a giveaway. I wonder if it would come handy in this baking project…
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15

ajcabuang04 — June 15, 2010 at 9:07 pm

These look great!! I love your photos!! I’ve been searching for a good chocolate-y frosting and I think I might try this!!
Would you mind checking out my blog? http://ajscookingsecrets.blogspot.com/
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16

Samantha Angela — June 22, 2010 at 2:02 pm

I could have definitely used this recipe for my sourdough chocolate cake this week

http://gamereviewwiki.com/bikinibirthday/2010/06/21/day-158-binge-weekend/
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17

Kris — June 28, 2010 at 1:24 am

i just made this frosting today to go inside some cupcakes using your cone method. and i topped with vanilla buttercream, at my hubby’s request.

let me just say this was so delicious i had to take my whitening strips out early so i could lick my fingers, and then the bowl. then my 15 month old attacked me to lick the spatula. we were all sugar high and happy before dinner.

my hubby said “every day i am happier i married you because of things like this”

Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
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18

Jen — June 29, 2010 at 2:16 am

Kris – I love hearing comments like that! Thanks for trusting my recipes enough to try on your hubby!
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19

Xiaolu — September 19, 2010 at 4:00 pm

Mmm this looks fantastic, though the ingredients look similar to another delicious recipe I’ve used before that is pretty soft. I’m guessing it’s the butter temperature. Should it be room temperature here? Thanks!
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20

Jen — September 19, 2010 at 5:32 pm

You definitely want your butter at room temperature so it creams nicely.
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Jenn — October 18, 2010 at 5:13 pm

I have the Bailey’s..lol but I’m out of cocoa powder. Have you ever tried subbing it with melted chocolate? And if so how much do you use?
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22

Anonymous — January 15, 2012 at 2:58 am

Best frosting ever. Perfect taste, texture and color. It was divine. I will never use another chocolate frosting recipe ever again. Thank you very, very much! It is truly a gift.
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23

dncnqeen — March 17, 2012 at 3:46 pm

Jen,
I am a person who has been cooking from the age of 5 ….lol now i have certin likes loves and disliks lol however i found a revepie i wanted to make and it called for a fudge type frosting…. knowing i didnt have one i liked for this so i started looking friday night and didnt come across your recepie until saturday morning so i got out my ingreadience.. but i didnt have Balies or white milk i had some Cream de Mint and Choc. Milk so i straied a tad from ur recepie …. i used 1/2 stick of butter, and to get 1/3 cup of liquid i used aprox 1/4 cup of Cream de Mint and the rest Choc. Milk. Plus the res of ur ingreadience …..omg this is the best dark choc fudge frosting ive ever had!!!! And i used the best dk. Cocoa i know of !!!!!! Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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24

Neida — February 4, 2013 at 7:12 pm
I’m a baker and for the life of me I can’t find a thick chocolate fudge frosting. Is this frosting thick? I don’t want anything too creamy, like ganache when you let it sit. Help please!
- beantownbaker — February 4th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm
  
  This frosting is definitely thick. You can see in the pictures that it held up nicely to piping. It’s not as creamy as a ganache.
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25

Neida — February 4, 2013 at 9:57 pm
Thank you for responding! I see that some people use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder. Doesn’t it really matter?
- beantownbaker — February 5th, 2013 @ 10:13 am
  
  For this recipe, I always use cocoa powder.
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26

Teri — October 30, 2013 at 2:51 pm
If I make these the day before do I have to refrigerate them(since the recipe calls for milk)or can I leave them on the counter covered?
- beantownbaker — October 30th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm
  
  You can leave them on the counter. The milk in the frosting stabilizes so it won’t go bad. I’d put them in a covered container though.
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27

neeti — December 21, 2013 at 11:42 am
Hi. Is the butter you use salted or unsalted?
- beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:01 am
  
  I always use unsalted butter unless specified as salted butter.
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28

Corinne — December 29, 2013 at 11:33 am
This is absolutely THE BEST chocolate frosting recipe I have EVER tried. I used it to frost some homemade vanilla mint cupcakes and topped them with an Andes mint for my daughters sweet 16 party. I had complete strangers tell me I need to open up a bakery and sell nothing but those cupcakes! Thank you so much for posting this. It is truly amazing.
- beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
  
  SO glad you enjoy this recipe! Nothing beats a great chocolate frosting.
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29

Christina — April 25, 2014 at 1:38 pm
I can’t wait to try this! I LOVE the flavor of the hersey’s dark choc frosting recipe but its so thin that i can’t use it for cupcakes, only for a cake. I even tried refrigeration overnight to see if that would thicken it up and it didn’t. so i can not wait try to this one for my cupcakes!
- beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
  
  I agree. The Hershey’s one is just too thin for cupcakes.
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30

tess — December 26, 2014 at 6:24 pm

I made a variation on this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake yesterday and it was fabulous!

I’m still trying to figure out how 6T butter is enough though–I ended up putting in two whole sticks of butter and adding in the milk after the first addition (I added it slowly) of powdered sugar/cocoa combo–it was so thick and dry that my mixer was making new, horrible noises and I was sure it was going to die! LOL