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
Very tasty! Made per instructions. It seemed to separate before I could frost the cakes…it’s a little warmer here…maybe the weather. It was still very good, I will try again! Thank you
I’m so happy you enjoyed the flavor Tina. Being in a warmer climate may be the culprit but it’s also so hard to say without being there. I recommend reviewing all the steps again to ensure nothing was missed or altered. I hope you try it again and love it soon!
I love the fact that this recipe can be refrigerated or frozen. It looks delicious 😋. I’m going to try it.
I hope it becomes your new go-to recipe!
Love this! I tried an other recipe (from another site) and it didn’t work out.. so I tried this recipe and it worked perfectly! Thank you!
I’m so glad it worked out for you, Allie!
Made this today, delicious and simple. Definitely will be making again.
Good to know that you enjoyed it!
Great recipe and will definitely be making it again. Made it exactly the way the recipe was written.
My new favorite recipe for chocolate frosting! Simple, easy and incredibly delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’ll never buy frosting from a store again!
I rarely leave reviews for recipes, but I HAD to for this one. So simple, so good, so easy! My kids and i couldn’t stop eating it from the bowl. I used whole milk instead of heavy cream bc we didn’t have it, and it was still amazing!
That is the best when kids love what we moms make. That’s so great!
Thank you for the sweet recipe! It is exactly what I was hoping for 🙂
You’re welcome, Jan!
What amazing buttercream frosting. I was a bit short on 10x sugar and it was delicious. The 35 y.o. birthday girl loved her chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting!
Thanks – Kevin
Thnaks a lot for your good feedback, Kevin. Great to hear that it was a success!
Just what I was looking for!
Light and fluffy with an excellent chocolate flavor.
My go to chocolate Buttercream!
Thank you Natasha…
Hi Arlene! You’re so very welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe.
I made both this chocolate buttercream and chocolate cream cheese frosting along with your chocolate cupcakes to bring to work and both are delicious! They both also have great texture and made beautiful cupcakes. I come straight to the Natasha’s Kitchen page whenever I need a delicious recipe! So far everything I have tried has been a success! Please keep sharing your recipes!
That’s so great to beat, Christine! Thank you.
I cut down the sugar to 2.5c and this is the best chocolate buttercream I’ve ever tasted!
I’m so glad you love it, Savannah!
Just finished making this. I followed directions exactly as I always do the first time I make something. I wish I had added one more tablespoon of heavy cream. I think it would have been perfect. Without that extra heavy cream, it is still very good, but would have been easier to spread with an additional tablespoon of cream. It is really delicious.
I simply do not understand any of the negative reviews. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used 2% milk in lieu of cream. I used a hand mixer with whisk attachment to whip the butter and then the regular beaters to finish it. It came out smooth, delicious and creamy – more than enough to frost a 9×13 cake.
Nightmare site! Can’t find list of ingredients (too many ads, and your explanations of each ingredient). Haven’t made frosting in a while so wanted quantities. I guess I should go elsewhere for someone who gives quick info. Don’t have all day. Nice pics tho…
Hi Mary, At the top of the post, Click ‘Jump to Recipe’ to see the ingredient list.
And thank you for sharing your concerns and feedback. The only way we can continue providing free recipes is by having ads on our site, so we are not able to remove those at this time. We find that most people would rather see the ads than pay to see the recipes. But we will definitely take note of your feedback and use it to improve our website.
I appreciate your feedback, and I hope you love every recipe you try.
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Amazing! easy to make and absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing
You’re very welcome, Rhonda!
So yummy! After a failed icing recipe and a bit of sulking, I found yours and it was delicious! Not to mention super quick and simple! Thanks Natasha!
I’m so glad that you found our recipe and decided to try it! Thanks for sharing that.
This was the best chocolate recipe I have ever made. It was the perfect consistency, and tasted amazing. Not too much butter, or sugar. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a new frosting recipe!
Thank you so much, M for the wonderful feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the frosting.
Finally a buttercream that isn’t overly sweet! Thank you for providing times for the beating steps, it turned out light and fluffy. Bookmarked!
I’m so glad you loved it, Lisa! Thank you for the wonderful review.
When doubling for a 2 layer cake do I just double the butter, confectionary sugar?
Hi Charlotte, yes you can easily double the recipe, increasing your mixing times slightly. You would double all the ingredients. I hope you love it.