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
How many times should i make this recipe to frost a 12×18 sheet cake? I will be making this soon! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Hi Jacquelyn, I have never made this much frosting so 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!
I used 2% milk instead of heavy whipping cream. Turned out great.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, DLM!
Perfect! We had to use half and half so it was a little fluffier vs creamier, but taste was perfection. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Paula!
I tried this recipe today and it was the best Chocolate buttercream ever!! Although I had to add more than 4 tbsp of heavy cream to have the desired consistency but this is going to be my go to recipe. Not overly sweet and chocolate lay!!
It tasted good but it turned out really thick and made the cake start falling apart.
Hi, that usually means you should have added more liquid at the end until you reach the desired consistency. The amount can vary depending on how much sugar you used so add 1 Tbsp at a time until you reach the texture you like.
This was the best chocolate buttercream recipe I have ever used. It wasn’t too sweet it was just right.
Hello Mosey, thanks a lot for your great review. Good to know that you enjoyed this recipe!
This chocolate frosting recipe was DELICIOUS!!! Thank you so much Natasha!!
Love it! Thanks a lot for your wonderful feedback and review.
I cant see any measurements for the ingrediants? am i missing this?
Hi Emma, you may go to the recipe card by clicking Jump to recipe.
What alternative could I use if I dont have heavy whipping cream on hand?
Hi Carrie, I haven’t tested a substitution for heavy whipping cream, I don’t know that there is anything nearly as creamy causing the frosting not to set up correctly.
This recipe is the best! The chocolate comes through like a champ, but not too sweet. I didn’t have heavy cream, so I used unsweetened vanilla silk. Came out perfect!!?
Hi Elizabeth, great to hear that unsweetened vanilla silk worked well for this recipe too!
Perfect! Halved it because I didn’t have enough sugar, and it worked great for my quick chocolate cake. So light and fluffy! And I had cold butter to start (!!0.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Amanda!
can you whisk it by hand and not with an automatic whisker?
Thanks!
Hi Daisy! Whisking my hand would be very difficult to do in order to accomplish consistency, taste, and texture.
Would you double the recipe for 3 tier 9 inch cake? Thank you looks delicious.
Hi Trish, I haven’t tested that, but that may be best! I hope you love this recipe!
This is by far the best chocolate frosting I have ever had! Just follow Natasha’s instructions and you will have great success. From one chocolate lover to another—don’t lose this recipe!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
I made your chocolate buttercream frosting. It was easy and very quick. The longest time was softening the butter. My whole family loved it. It was very good the cake was even level.
Thanks for your good comments and feedback, Doris!
I would like to make this for my daughter’s birthday. My question is would the leftover frosted cake need to be refrigerated or can it be left out?
Hi Marilyn, you can 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.
Hi, I’m thinking about making this today. I’ve made a 3 layer, 8 inch cake that I want to generously frost. Would a double batch be enough? I saw that 1.5 batches for a two layer cake. Thanks!
Hi Charlotte, I haven’t tried this frosting with a 3-layer cake to advise on the amount of frosting needed. If you happen to test that, I’d like to know how you like this recipe!
When making the buttercream chocolate frosting, Can I substitute salted butter and leave out the salt?
Hi Debbie, that should work! I hope you love this recipe!
Does this crust enough to pipe rosettes or other decorations? Or should I sub out some of the butter for high ratio shortening?
Hi Robin, this frosting spreads and pipes beautifully. I haven’t tried rosettes specifically, but if you look at the main image in the recipe, the piping holds up nicely.
I made this chocolate buttercream frosting for my husband’s cupcakes on his birthday and they were unbelievable! The taste is phenomenal!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Hi ! I have kids that have to be lactose free, will this recipe work with the country crock plant base ” butter ” ? Does it have to be heavy cream or can it be milk? They have to be nut free as well 😔 so I can’t use the lactose free heavy creams on the market.
Thanks !
Hi Mary, I haven’t tested anything that is non-dairy. I know canned coconut milk can be whipped, but you will need to do a google search to see if it can be turned into a chocolate frosting.