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
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
OMG, I am in love with these cupcakes! They’re so awesome! I love HP, and I made owl cupcakes when the movie came out. I might need to give these a try before going to see the IMAX 3D movie.
How cute are those?! And i was wondering how you got the lettering so perfect – thanks for the step-by-step. Lol – I just dragged DH to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry – I’m sure he’ll be happy when the final movie comes out and he doesn’t have to hear about it anymore!
Great job, how lucky are your friends?
I’m so jealous! My two sisters are going to the exhibit this weekend. I thought about flying to Chicago to join them. Luckily I found out the exhibit is coming here in October. Whew!
These look fabulous! You did such a great job on them!
WOW JEN!! Those are fantastic!! Better than professional! Seriously, what talent you have to make those! 🙂
Aw thanks Katie – you’re making me blush.
I hate when cupcakes do that to me too. Instead of baking up they bake out! 🙁
Love your Harry Potter cupcake toppers! Very cute and creative!
~ingrid
Hi Jen! A friend of mine forwarded me your page for HP Cupcakes and I just wanted to drop in and say that I think they’re awesome and I want to run home now and try to create some fun hp themed cakes! I had done some in the past–cauldron cakes if you will, by buying mini cauldrons and cutting the bottom off so the tops sat just on the cakes and then used a bit of green frosting on the inside. You should join up with the HP-MA crew! We’ve been organizing some meet-ups for Boston Fans!
Sounds awesome Manda.
Oh my goodness, what adorable little cupcakes!
So so cute! And yeah, those “HPs” must have taken FOREVER. I have a fabulous vanilla cupcake recipe that never fails me here: http://annies-eats.com/2008/07/18/vanilla-cupcakes/. Also, I recently made Dorie’s perfect party cake into cupcakes and had great results with that as well.
I love your HP cupcakes! I too am a huge Harry Potter fan but I have to admit, I don’t think I’d be patient enough to make cupcakes and toppings as cute as yours!
These are so awesome!! I wish I would have seen them and did some of these with the HP cake I did!!