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
Lovely flavor and consistency. Not to swet and perfectly delicious!
I’m so glad you loved it, Mare! I too don’t like overly sweet treats, I feel we found the perfect balance with this recipe!
I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa, and only 2 cups of powdered sugar. I substituted 3 2% milk for the heavy cream, and the frosting turned out perfect, sweet, but not cloying with excellent spreadability. I already added the recipe to my personal cookbook.
Thanks for sharing, Mary! I’m glad you found a keeper recipe.
Spreadability and pipeability are two very different things. I am making this for a banquest and need it to be pretty (piped) not spread for my family.
This recipe is amazing! I made chocolate-coffee cupcakes with this buttercream icing. Normally my buttercream icing separates, but using this recipe made the icing come out so delicious and fluffy. I’m using this recipe again!!
So great to hear that you liked this recipe, Kylee!
Delicious buttercream frosting – big hit with my family for my husband’s birthday…a definite keeper! I froze half of my cupcakes unfrosted and plan to freeze the frosting in small, quicker thawing segments to use later for my cupcake loving grandkids- any reason that won’t work?
Hi Nancy! Thank you, I’m glad you loved this frosting. It freezes well. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight then bring to room temperature before re-whipping to a fluffy consistency.
What should i replace for heavy whipping cream? Thank you so much. Let me know if this is possible.
Hi Maggie, 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.
Very good and very easy to make. I accidentally used my paddle instead of my wisk and it turned out fine.
This is the best buttercream frosting I’ve ever had, normally I only eat whipped icing. Kids approved too!!
Wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing that with us, Samantha.
Perfect. I am a cream cheese icing kinda gal who avoided butter cream because I thought it was too sweet. I’ve made this twice now and my guests rave about it, and it is just right . Basically bowl licking good! It is now my go-to chocolate icing.
That’s wonderful! I’m so glad to hear that, Marilyn. Thank you for sharing.
Can i leave the cake out at room temperature if I use this frosting? I’m considering using evaporated milk instead of heavy whipping cream. Is that a good idea? I like to eat cake at room temperature and keep it out of the fridge.
Hi Rachelle, this recipe is best stored in the fridge.
Holy cow! This is the best chocolate icing I have ever made!! Normally my icing tears up the top layer of my cake, but this one goes on smooth. Love everything about it
So glad to hear that! 🙂
Oh my goodness! This chocolate buttercream icing is so amazing! I used it with the Easy Chocolate Cupcake Recipe and they are the BEST cupcakes! I’ll definitely be making them again!
That’s wonderful, Beth! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for the review. 🙂
This icing is delicious!! It is now my go-to recipe – thanks for sharing! 😀 One question: what piping tip do you use to get the large, puffy-looking icing on the cupcakes?
Hi Emily, I believe this is my 1M wilton, open star tip.
I made this to put on a chocolate zucchini cake and it was absolutely heavenly!!! Everyone loved it. Definitely a keeper for the recipe box!!
That sounds delicious! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Instead of using 1 cup of butter, could you use 1/2 cup of butter and half cup of shortening?
Hi Morgan! I have not tested this but I have seen many recipes that replace 1/2 the butter with shortening for stability in wedding cakes.
I really hate shortening. Could you use cream of tartar for stability along with the butter?
Hi Zelma, I do not use shortening in my frostings but have seen many online like this. I also have never tested cream of tartar in buttercream. This recipe buttercream does not have cream cheese and it is already pretty stable as long as it’s not in direct heat. It will hold at room temperature for several hours.
I have a family favorite butter cream frosting without cocoa which calls for eggs. Could you add an egg to this recipe?
Hi Peter, no, I would not add eggs to this. You may want to search for a chocolate swiss meringue buttercream as it uses egg whites.
The frosting was amazing. I absolutely loved it. It was so smooth and not too thin. I used 2 1/2 tbsp of milk instead of heavy cream and it came out delicious. Thank you for a great recipe. I will definitely make it again.
So glad to hear that, Sandy. Thank you for sharing.
I had baked a chocolate cake for my husband but realized I didn’t have any canned icing. So, I did what any good wife would do, I did a Google search for highest rated chocolate icing recipe. I stumbled on this one and I’m so glad I did.
I will never use canned icing again! This will be my go to icing recipe from now on. My husband absolutely loved the creamy and light texture. Thank you for such a great recipe. 🙂
I love that! Thank you for sharing that with us, so happy that you found and loved our recipe!
Would salted butter make a big difference? That’s all I have unfortunately.
Hi Terri, that will work, but please note that if you use salt, you need to eliminate or use less salt in the recipe. I hope you love this recipe.
Natasha,
This buttercream frosting is AHHHMAZING! So glad that I came across it. Thank you for sharing. The best chocolate buttercream that I have come across. I made this for a chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache & it was beyond bakery worthy!
So glad to hear that, Jackie. Thank you for sharing. I’m happy you found this recipe.
I halved the recipe, used milk instead of heavy cream, & added in like half a cup of shredded coconut after mixing the frosting. Yum yum! It’s so good
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Sarah!
Hi Sarah, thank you for sharing that with us. Good to know that some of the changes that you made worked so well in this recipe!
This was easy and absolutely delicious!! I will definitely be using this recipe a lot.
So glad you enjoyed it, Kathy! Thank you for the review.