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
The frosting is super thick! I even added more heavy cream to thin it out and then it became to wet looking. It’s not the typical fluffy buttercream one would expect
Hi Kim, if your butter is too cold, it would make this frosting hard to mix and thick. Butter should be soft enough to leave an indent but not overly soft. Click on this link for how to measure your ingredients, if you use too much powder sugar, it can become thick. Lastly, be sure to let it “beat well” as this is what makes the buttercream super fluffy and soft. I hope these tips help.
How long can this sit at room temperature once on cupcakes? Any testers with heat? I need a pipable chocolate frosting my my nieces outdoor grad party where the temp could vary from 50°-90°. NY lol
Hi Melanie. Buttercream will keep well for a day at room temperature but should be refrigerated if longer than that. I usually refrigerate the cake/cupcakes and take them out 1-2hrs prior to serving. They should be kept out of direct sunlight. If you are wanting a more stable buttercream, I would look for a recipe that uses shortening. In most cases, it’s fine to replace 1/2 the butter that a recipe calls for with shortening but I have never tested that myself to advise if it works well with this buttercream. I hope that helps.
I have never found a buttercream recipe I have truly loved. Made this for the first time for a yellow cake, I used nestle toll house cocoa powder and hazelnut coffee creamer since I didn’t have heavy whipping cream….wow!! This is the recipe to use!!!
Yum! I’m so glad this recipe was a hit! It sounds like you have a new keeper! That’s so great, Josie!
I made this for my sons first birthday- first time he had chocolate and boy can I say he LOVED IT!!! So did the rest of the family. So creamy and fluffy and the perfect taste of chocolate!!! I used my stand mixer for the second time to make this, your instructions were so easy to follow and this was seriously so delicious I had to hold myself back from eating spoonfuls lol! Thank you Natasha for sharing this!
Hello Sammi, that makes my heart happy. Thanks so much for sharing, glad the recipe was a huge hit!
Is this enough to frost a 2 layered cake or would I need to double the recipe? (:
Hi Justine, see the recipe notes above for “how much frosting does this make?” 🙂
You have more than enough for a layer cake—I just make half this recipe for my bundt cake and it was plenty
Natasha,
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it tastes amazing!
You’re so welcome, glad you liked it!
This is some great frosting! Super good! I made it for my volleyball team and they loved it! Thanks Natasha!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I have always bought frosting from the store, but this was so easy and so delicious that I’ll always male homemade from now on!
So glad to hear that, Melody! I agree, it’s easy and so much better than store-bought!
Could one add espresso powder for a little coffee taste in the frosting? Would it mess up the recipe?
Hi Daina, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe!
This frosting was quick and easy to make. It tastes amazing as well. I made it the night before my event and stored it in a tupperware bowl with the lid. I let it set out several hours before i tried to fluff and decorate my cupcakes, but it would not mix using the mixer and would not pipe onto my cupcakes. It was soft but it was just not pliable, I’m not sure what I might could do differently in the future. Any suggestions?
Hi Rhonda, did you make any substitutions in this recipe? I would look through the recipe again to make sure you did not miss anything. This frosting is stable at room temperature for several hours so it should not be too soft to use. You stated you left this out for several hours… if the room was too warm it could have caused the frosting to become too soft. All you need to do is bring it to room temperature and re-whip it to make the frosting fluffy. If the buttercream is too soft from being overheated, you can refrigerate it again for a little while and take it back out and whip it up. Also, be sure to use a higher-quality butter that has a higher fat content and lower water content as this will produce the best buttercream possible. I hope this helps.
I think I would’ve used the frosting right away. When you refrigerate it I think it takes away the flavor.
Wow, this is amazing frosting! My wife loves chocolate peanut butter frosting on her birthday cake. In the past when I added peanut butter to my other frosting recipe it gets very thick, quickly. Do you think this recipe could stay fluffy with peanut butter added?
Hi Glenn, I don’t have one currently but thank you for the great suggestion! If you happen to test that out, I’d love to know how you like it!
I did add one more egg to the cake and on the icing a changed the heavy whipping cream I add oatmeal milk and it came out great thanks for the recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Stephanie!
Do you refrigerate the buttercream frosting after it’s done and once I frosted the cake does the whole cake go into the frigerator
Hi Sandy, you can store it in an airtight container or Ziplock bag for up to a week in the refrigerator (do not store it near fish or meat as it may absorb those fridge odors). Bring to room temperature and re-whip to make the frosting fluffy. If you are frosting the cake, you can put the frosted cake in the refrigerator and take it out about 1-2 hours prior to serving.
So yummy! Made it for my husband’s birthday topping a peanut butter cake. Just finished licking the beaters. Everyone is going to love it.
I hope it becomes a hit!
Easy, delicious, and nice and chocolatey. Tested and made with both almond milk and 1% and both worked vs the cream.
I had about 1&1/8 cup butter and added slightly more of the rest of the ingredients. Made enough to lightly frost an 11×15 single sheet cake. Perfect!
Thanks for the awesome feedback, Sarah!
I have looked so long for an easy and perfect chocolate frosting recipe. My search is over!! It reminded me so much of my grandmother’s chocolate frosting she always made for the birthday cakes she’d make for me. The frosting is fluffy, easy to spread and rich. I’m printing this recipe and putting it in my personal cookbook aka binder with favorite recipes. ☺️ Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe!
Hi Lynne! So happy you found a favorite. Thank you for the review.
You are pretty much the only blogger I follow and use your recipes. Thanks so much for all your work it must take to keep it going day after day.. I love your sense of humor as well. God bless you…Pam
Aww! You’re so nice! Thank you, Pam! you just made my day!
I do not have unasked butter. Can you substitute salted butter and omit the salt?
Hi DeAnna, yes, if you use salted, you need to either eliminate or use less salt. I hope you love this recipe.
no, you should never use salted butter when baking cause you never know how much salt is in it
I was looking for a chocolate cupcake recipe and I saw your recipe, I will try it.
Thanks for sharing
You’re very welcome. I hope you love it. Come back and let us know how it turns out for you.
Today is my granddaughters birthday, she’s 3, and I’ve searched and searched for a good chocolate frosting recipe and this one is perfect! Thank you
You’re welcome! I hope she loves it too! Happy birthday to your Granddaughter!
First time making buttercream frosting and I did it with my granddaughter. I will never buy frosting again! Incredibly easy, fluffy and spreadable. Love the flavor! Just awesome!
Thanks for sharing, Kim. I’m so happy to know that you loved the recipe!
I made this frosting for the first time tonight and oh my goodness it’s the absolute best tasting frosting. I did end up using about 7-8 tablespoons of the heavy whipping cream to get the frosting where I wanted it. A friend of mine who doesn’t like chocolate and said she doesn’t care for frosting in general was eating it with a spoon. Yes, it’s that good, I highly recommend this recipe. It’s definitely a keeper for me and I can’t wait to try some other flavors of this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing. 😁
Wow! That’s when you know it’s good! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!