This American Chocolate Buttercream Frosting is silky, whipped, decadent, and chocolatey with just the right amount of sweetness. It has 6 simple ingredients and takes just 6 minutes to make.
This Chocolate Buttercream spreads and pipes beautifully over chocolate cakes and cupcakes so it’s perfect for all of your baking projects.
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We love homemade frosting recipes from Vanilla Buttercream to Cream Cheese Frosting and of course, this easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. In fact, we loved it so much that I even used it on my daughter’s Chocolate Birthday Cake in Natasha’s Kitchen Cookbook. Homemade frostings use higher-quality ingredients and taste way better than store-bought.
Chocolate Frosting Video Tutorial
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Chocolate Buttercream Recipe
This chocolate buttercream frosting is thick and fluffy. It holds its shape well, just like Swiss Meringue Buttercream so it’s great for decorating and piping. It also has a rich chocolate flavor.
How much frosting does this make?
Frosting Cupcakes? This recipe yields about 2 1/4 cups frosting and generously frosts 12 cupcakes or lightly frosts 24 cupcakes.
Frosting a Cakes? To frost a 9” 2-layer cake, increase the recipe by 50% (i.e. 1 1/2 cups butter, 4 1/2 cups sugar, etc).
The Key to Great Chocolate Buttercream
Soften Butter Correctly – For the best-textured buttercream, make sure the butter is at the correct temperature. Properly softened butter should be left at room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours, or watch our video on how to soften butter in 5 minutes.
Your butter should feel cool to the touch and you should be able to indent it with your fingertip. Never melt or over-soften butter for the frosting or it will become too thin and greasy.
Scrape down the bowl several times while mixing to ensure your chocolate and sugar are incorporated with the butter. If you don’t scrape down the bowl, your frosting will have streaks of cocoa and won’t be uniform in color. It will be especially obvious if you pipe the frosting.
Ingredients for Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Unsalted butter – should be softened at room temperature. Use unsalted so you can control the salt in the recipe.
- Confectioners sugar – also known as powdered sugar. This is measured before sifting (sifting is not necessary).
- Cocoa powder – natural unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch process.
- Heavy whipping cream – lightens up and thins the frosting.
- Vanilla extract – we use real vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Salt – balances the sweetness of the buttercream. It’s the secret ingredient in buttercream that makes it taste not too sweet. We use fine sea salt.
How to Make Chocolate Buttercream
The best Chocolate Buttercream is easier and takes less time than you think!
- Beat butter in a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment on high speed for 3 minutes until creamy and lightened in color.
- Add remaining ingredients – powdered sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Beat together on low speed until powdered sugar is incorporated then on medium/high speed for another 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl several times. Add more cream at the end if needed to thin the frosting.
Pro Tip:
Use a silicone spatula to scrape down the bowl several times while mixing to ensure the frosting is evenly blended and even in color and texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use unsweetened natural cocoa powder such as Hershey’s brand, or use Dutch process cocoa powder to make chocolate buttercream.
You can thin the frosting with milk instead of heavy cream, but you may need slightly less. Add it until you reach your desired texture.
You can easily double the recipe, increasing your mixing times slightly.
Funny story, I spent years sifting the dry ingredients for this recipe until I decided to skip the step one day and found it did not make a difference. The ingredients will be incorporated easily without sifting.
How to Serve Chocolate Buttercream
This frosting is delicious over cakes, cupcakes, sweet bread, cookies you name it! Here are some of our favorite ways to use Chocolate Buttercream frosting:
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Sugar Cookies
- Vanilla Cupcakes
- Honey Cupcakes
- Greek Yogurt Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cake or Vanilla Cake – scale it up by 50% for a 2-layer cake.
Enjoy this easy 6-minute Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. It’s one I’ve been making for years and I will never stop loving this recipe.
Make-Ahead
- To Refrigerate: Store in an airtight container or ziploc bag for up to a week (do not store near fish or meat as it may absorb those fridge odors). Bring to room temperature and re-whip to make the frosting fluffy.
- Freezing: Package the same way as for refrigerating, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight then bring to room temperature before re-whipping to a fluffy consistency.
More Homemade Frosting Recipes
If you love to bake, here are the frosting recipes that you should have in your recipe box. They are my go-to’s for cakes and cupcakes:
- Vanilla Cupcake Frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Ganache
- Cinnamon Roll Icing
- Blackberry Frosting
- White Chocolate Frosting
- Homemade Whipped Cream
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (6-Minute Recipe)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 3 to 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream, plus more to thin the frosting
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- With a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat butter on high speed for about 3 minutes or until creamy and lightened in color, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, 3 Tbsp heavy cream, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/4 tsp salt.
- Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated then increase to medium/high speed and beat for 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl several times to ensure everything is well blended. Add another Tablespoon of heavy cream if needed to thin the frosting.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I need to crumb cake frost and frost a double layer 9×13 cake will doubleing the recipe be enough?
Hi Heather! I am not sure. You could probably find a chart online that tells roughly how many cups of buttercream you’d need to frost a cake of that dimension. This roughly makes about 2 1/4 cups of frosting. I hope that helps!
So good! So easy!
This will be my go to.
I’m so glad you love it, Barbara!
Hi Natasha,
Can i use this measurement to frost only 2 layers of a 9 inch cake? Just for layering.
Thank you.
Hi Diane! I think that would work. One of my viewers uses this recipe to frost 2- 8” cakes.
I made 1.5 times batch. I had to use double of the heavy whipping cream as it was a little dry, but this turned out excellent. Great recipe will be my go to. My adult daughter is severely autistic and super picky. Once she stared at it long enough, she inhaled it.
I made the icing but it was not shiny and it didn’t look smooth. I beat it using your times and dekigently scraped the bowl so it would mix well. What did I do wrong?
Hi Linda! It could be the temperature of your ingredients, the temperature of the room, or how things were measured. Be sure to use softened butter (when you press on it, it easily leaves an indent). You can try beating it a little longer and using a bit more heavy cream to help with the smoothness.
This is the best frosting recipe, and it’s very forgiving. I messed up a bit with measurements and it still turned out amazing! Will save and use again.
Hi Natasha! Thanks for this amazing recipe. Will it be stable if I put less sugar?
Hi Mariz! The sugar helps to stabilize the frosting, so using less sugar would make it softer.
this was super easy to make!! the perfect amount of buttercream for my 12 chocolate cupcakes, since all other recipe make too much!! this is soo smooth and silky plus delicious with how chocolaty it is
Best frosting ever! Enough frosting for 2 8 inch cakes.
I’m so happy you loved it, Diane!
Any advice on how I could lighten the colour? I want chocolate icing but a lighter shade (possibly sand coloured?) for a themed cake I’m making. I don’t want to use artificial dyes so I’m struggling with how to achieve this.
Hi Dana! I’m sorry. I do not have a suggestion for that besides mixing it with vanilla buttercream until you reach the desired color, but it will also lessen the chocolate flavor.
My 10-year old son made the frosting today alongside your chocolate cupcakes recipe and it turned out delicious! I have a question regarding the calories, what is the serving size in your nutrition label? The whole thing, a tablespoon?
Hi there! Nice to hear that your 10year old is helping you out! Serving size for this recipe is 12 cupcakes!
This is my go to recipe for Chocolate Frosting It’s mine as well as my families absolute favorite. The only difference is I use Salted Butter bc it’s what I had on hand the 1st time since I seldom purchase unsalted. We like it best with Dutch Process (particularly Ghirardelli) and have used Evaporated milk if out of heavy cream. Definitely rich but delicious and pairs great with a butter recipe cake. I start with a box mix but always substitute water for Evaporated milk and use an extra egg per box.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Tara. That’s helpful!
Couple comments. Not sure what I did wrong, but 3 tbs of heavy whipping cream was not enough. I had to use about a 1/2 cup. Second, next time I’ll use a hand mixer. The whisk on the kitchenaid kept getting clogged. Other than these issues it came out great.
Hi! Thank you for the feedback. A couple of things that can help. The temperature of your room and butter can both impact this. Make sure your butter is soft at room temperature and not too cold. Cold butter will have a harder time incorporating and also cause the frosting to be more stiff. I would also watch my tutorial on how to measure ingredients, to ensure you’re measuring your dry ingredients correctly. If you use too much powdered sugar, it will be more stiff as well and you will need to add more heavy cream. This will likely help the issue with the whisk attachment and keep it from getting clogged. You may also try the paddle attachment, which will work just as well. I hope that helps for next time.
I watched your video (great one, by the way!) but you didn’t cover confectioners sugar in it?
HI Shi, we did use confectioners sugar both in the video and in the recipe. Confectioners sugar – i.e. Powdered sugar is correct in this recipe.
Loved the frosting ❤️ how can I store it? If its the fridge or freezer how long can I store it for?
Hi Larissa! I’m glad you love it. See the “make-ahead” section in the blog post for instructions on this.
Also, can i make the frosting the night before and leave it on my counter? Or does it have to be refrigerated, even if making it a day ahead of time?
Yes, generally butter cream can stay out at room temperature for 1 to 2 days. However, I like to refrigerator if I’m not going to use it within the first day. If you refrigerate it, you can let it sit out at room temperature until it’s often and then re-whippet to get it fluffy and smooth again.
Hi Natasha! Can you frost cupcakes a day ahead? Or would that not be good?
Hi Jessica! This frosting will hold its shape so you can frost your cupcakes early. I would keep them refrigerated and then let them come to room temperature before eating so the frosting has time to soften.
Hi Natasha, I’m about to use your icing recipe but I don’t have cows heavy cream but I do have Silk whipping cream alternative. Would that work?
Hi Marda! The cream is to thin out the frosting just a bit and make it fluffy. Using plain milk would work too so I think you can use Silk
Whipping cream alternative as well.
Hey, I am really interested in this recipe, but I don’t have heavy whipping cream. What could I use as a substitute?
Hi Sophie! The heavy cream is to help thin out the frosting. You can use regular milk as well.
This frosting recipe came out perfect everyone asked me for the recipe & so easy .
Thank You !!!!
I’m so happy to hear everyone loved this frosting, Dimitria! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Omg soooo good! I was beating the butter when I realized I didn’t have any more coco powder and so I put in some ground espresso beans. It’s was amazing! So light and fluffy, the espresso complimented the chocolate cupcake perfectly. 🥰