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 will preface this by saying I am not a huge chocolate frosting fan, but my son wanted this for his birthday. I made this frosting tonight and it is AMAZING. I have found a go-to chocolate frosting recipe!
That’s awesome, Kate! I’m so glad it was a hit.
Good piping consistency but the frosting comes out a bit gritty and Is overly sweet.
Hi Alicia. Buttercream frosting is generally very sweet but it shouldn’t be gritty. Did you make any substitutions? Was your butter softened to room temperature? Not using softened butter can cause it to be gritty, or using too much sugar and not enough liquid. Different types of sugar can also affect the texture. You may need to beat it a little while longer for the sugar to have time to dissolve. I hope that helps trouble shoot. If you prefer a less sweet frosting, you may try a whipped cream based frosting, or Swiss meringue buttercream.
I love all of your recipes no matter the dish, all come out delicious!!! Thank you! One thing that would be really nice for us watchers (I personally think would be a great idea) is to have a separate page with all your links to the cookware/bakeware (utensils, dishes, pots, mixers, baking necessities) you use and recommend.
Hi Ellie, thank you for your good comments and feedback. I have a separate page for all of the kithen coool that I am using, here’s my Amazon Affiliate Shop.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting is so, so delicious.
My question is:
Do I have to refrigerate the frosted cake if it will last for a few days?
Hi Mary! It should stay refrigerated.
Can I use whole milk if I don’t have heavy whipping cream?
Hi Julie! That would be fine.
I may have a different pellet than you as well. My frosting was too sweet for me. I wish it had a darker color and better texture as well, more like a thick cloud, if you know what I mean. Sorry, I didn’t like it.
Hi Rose, the way you are describing it, you may enjoy our chocolate ganache more which you can also whip into a frosting once it has cooled.
Oh my goodness!!!!! I made your chocolate buttercream frosting and we all went crazy over it!!!!! I made a yellow cake with it on Sunday- it is gone!!! I am now making a chocolate cake with it now!!! Thank you so much for the recipe!!!! Mmmmmm (Also, oops! – I didn’t realize I needed to refrigerate it? Of course, it didn’t last too long to go bad anyhow!!! lol 🙂 ) Hugs to you!!
Yay! That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Janet!
With all the positive reviews, I thought I found a winner. I was looking for a truly delicious frosting and this just wasn’t it. Fortunately, I had made two different cakes for a large dinner party yesterday. The banana cake went over fabulously. No one liked the chocolate butter cream cake and I tossed over half a cake into the dumpster. It wasn’t worth saving. Didn’t like the texture of the frosting either. Just not “restaurant delicious”.
HI Sherry, this is a popular recipe and I’m wondering if maybe you swapped any of the ingredients which could have affected the texture?
Hi Natasha, I did not swap any ingredients. I suppose it’s possible something went wrong, but it’s pretty simple so I’m not sure. Just not the exceptional, delicious, and impressive flavor I was seeking.
This could be a 5 star, but unfortunately I was left with a lot of air bubbles. Should I have switched to a paddle attachment after whipping the butter? The flavor was incredible, a tablespoon of cooled fresh brewed coffee gives a nice richness. Lol, no one noticed the air pockets but me. 🙂
Hi Antoinette! Yes, you can switch to a paddle attachment and let it beat on low for several minutes to help remove some of the air bubbles. Or you can use a spatula and give it a good stir by hand, pressing it up against the bowl. This will also remove some of the additional air bubbles.
I actually loved the air bubbles. It gave my cake a very cool texture. (But if you’re looking to frost smooth sides, I could see how it could be frustrating.)
I absolutely love this frosting! I’m making a bigger batch of cupcakes. Can this be doubled or would it be better to make separate batches?
Hi Martha, I address this under the Common Questions of the recipe post. See “Can I double the recipe?”
Such a moist delicious chocolate cupcake! 20 minutes was the correct oven temperature.
Delish!
Can I omit the cocao powder and add coloring to make a different color frosting?
Hi Rosaria, I would recommend using our Vanilla Buttercream recipe and add the coloring at the end a little at a time until you reach your desired color.
Hubby loves chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, the more frosting the better. Omg.
This was soo good. I cut the ingredients in half and baked an 8×8 for about 30 minutes.
Amazing. It will be gone tomorrow, it’s that good.
Thanks so much for this awesome review, Terri!
Super easy and so delicious! Highly recommend and will keep this one in my recipe box!! Thank you!
You’re welcome! Great to hear that you enjoyed it!
Im making my moms wedding cake. Im ok at it bc i make the family cakes for special event. Im stumped tho. My mom wants 3 layers. @ vanilla and 1 chocolate. All layers with 2 fillings :Chocolate mocha mouse and raspberry filling. My dilema is, What do i crumb coat with bc im doing fondaunt on all layers? Ur chocolate buttercreme sounds amazing bu ti dont know how it would pair with chocolate cake and the 2 fillings with the fondaunt…..thoughts?
Hi Shelby! I think this flavor will work great with those flavor combinations. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t use this as your crumb coat. I hear buttercream works great underneath a fondant layer.
I make this frosting all the time and love it. I dknt have heavy cream today. Can i sub milk in the frosting?
Hi there, good to hear that you always use our recipe. I honestly have’t tested subbing it with milk to advise.
My daughter and I made a chocolate cake last week and she found this recipe for the icing. It was so delicious. I`m making another chocolate cake and decided to use this recipe again. It is a keeper for sure.
Hi Linda! I’m so glad you found this recipe! Thank you for the feedback.
I made a cherry chocolate cake that suggested just powdered sugar or chocolate buttercream frosting. I have rarely made a chocolate buttercream so searched and found this recipe. It’s joining the family faves in my oldbinder and my online recipe files. I had to slap hands away while waiting for the cake to cool. My son said thank you for taking his birthday cake to the next level!
Aw, I love that! Thank you so much for sharing. I’m so glad you found a new favorite to add to your collection. I hope your son had a wonderful birthday!
This was by far the most delicious chocolate frosting I have ever made. Thank you Natasha’s kitchen.
That’s wonderful, Heather! Thank you for the feedback.
good not the best I’ve had. Co uld use some melted semi sweet chocolate.
Absolutely delicious not overly sweet and so very easy to make. Thank you this is definitely a keeper.
You’re very welcome, Pia. Great to hear that you enjoyed it!
I am making 48 mini cupcakes and want to pipe a design on them. Will I need 1 or 2 batches of icing. Also, though your picture shows a piped design, will it harden a little so that it holds it’s shape? Thank you!
Hi Jean! This buttercream is a stable frosting and it pipes very well. You can adjust the consistency of the frosting by adding less or more heavy cream (start with a small amount and add more as needed). I have not made this for miniature cupcakes to know exactly how much frosting you will need. I’m sorry I can’t be more help.