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This chocolate cream cheese frosting is a chocolate lovers dream. This chocolate frosting is silky smooth, surprisingly easy to make, and pipes onto cupcakes or cakes beautifully.
It works really well over either of the chocolate cupcakes that I’ve posted: (1) Moist Chocolate Cupcakes – easy peasy or (2) super fluffy Dark Chocolate Cupcakes.
I’ve gotten loads of requests for a perfect chocolate cupcake frosting recipe and I know you’ll be impressed with this one. The cream cheese base gives it a lighter whipped texture. It’s not overly rich or overly sweet, but is super chocolatey and will win you over.
Yields: about 3 cups of frosting to generously frost 18 cupcakes or reasonably frost 24 cupcakes. It would also be enough to frost an 8 or 9-inch two layer round cake.
Ingredients for Chocolate Frosting Recipe:
8 oz package cream cheese, room temp
8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
How to Make Whipped Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer using paddle attachment (or using an electric hand mixer with a large bowl), beat together 8 oz cream cheese with 8 Tbsp butter on medium/high speed until creamy (3 min), scraping down the bowl as needed.
2. Sift in 3 cups powdered sugar with 1/2 cup cocoa powder to ensure there are no lumps then add 1/4 tsp salt. Mix on low speed until well combined, scrape down the bowl well then increase to medium/high speed and beat until smooth and whipped (1 min).
3. Add 1 tsp vanilla and beat on medium/high until smooth (1 min). Now it’s ready to be piped onto cooled cupcakes.
Note: it’s best to pipe the frosting on after it is made. If you refrigerate the frosting, it will need a little time at room temp to soften and become pipe-able.
Best Chocolate Frosting! Whipped Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz package cream cheese, room temp
- 8 Tbsp 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer using paddle attachment (or using an electric hand mixer with a large bowl), beat together 8 oz cream cheese with 8 Tbsp butter on medium/high speed until creamy (3 min), scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Sift in 3 cups powdered sugar with 1/2 cup cocoa powder to ensure there are no lumps then add 1/4 tsp salt. Mix on low speed until well combined, scrape down the bowl well then increase to medium/high speed and beat until smooth and whipped (1 min).
- Add 1 tsp vanilla and beat on medium/high until smooth (1 min). Now it's ready to be piped onto cooled cupcakes.
Notes
♥ FAVORITE THINGS ♥
Shown in this post: (nope, no one paid us to write this; just stuff we love):
*The OXO strainer/sifter is totally multi-purpose!
*I love my stacking measuring spoons – I just wash the ones I use.
*Red Stand Mixer from KitchenAid: 6 Qt. Pro 600 Series in Empire Red
The recipe says 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) but the photos show 1/4 cup (1/2 stick). Which is right??
Hi Tina, the photos do show a standard 8 Tbsp (1 full stick) of butter. You may be using a product that looks different – a longer and slimmer package maybe?
Your stick of butter says 4 oz. This can be seen if you zoom in.
Yes it is 4 oz. That is correct. 4 oz of butter = 1/2 cup = 8 Tbsp.
Would this cake have to be refrigerated since it has cream cheese? Sorry if this is a dumb question;)
Yes, anytime a frosting has dairy it it, I refrigerate the cake once it’s frosted. Let it sit at room temp for about 30 minutes before serving if you want the frosting to soften up for serving.
Tastes amazing! Thank you!
HI Carrie, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your great review! 🙂
Hi! I was wondering if you think this chocolate cream cheese frosting would taste well on red velvet cupcakes? Or if it would be a better idea to stick with classic cream cheese? I’m making birthday treats for a friend 🙂
I think it would work with red velvet if you’re a chocolate lover :).
This frosting is totally amazing and was super easy to make! My oldest nephew declared that he wants this icing on his graduation cake. It iced all 24 cupcakes decently and I hope everyone at work enjoys it as much as we did. Thanks for the recipe!
That’s so great! Thank you so much for sharing that with us 🙂
Hi there,
Just trying to make this a little healthier. Would you think that substituting the cocoa powder for cacao powder would work?
Thanks a mill!
From what I’ve read, they are almost identical for baking and cooking purposes and can be substituted. I haven’t tested it with this recipe myself but I think it would work. Let me know how you like it! Also, where do you purchase your raw cacao?
Ok, 1/4cup of sugar is more than enough for this recipe. Had to throw away the first batch because your recommended about of sugar, Nobody in my household could bare to swallow the icing
Wow 1/4 cup of sugar would barely sweeten it. Were you using powdered sugar and not regular sugar, correct? Between the cocoa and salt and cream cheese which all cut the sweetness, it didn’t seem to sweet to us, but everyone has a different affinity to sugar, not everyone likes sweets and I completely understand that!
This frosting tasted awesome!!!
I was wondering if I could freeze it for later use?
Also, it didn’t really hold stiff when I piped it, any reasons for that?
Hi Taraneh, I haven’t tested this in the freezer so I’m not sure if it is freezer friendly. Regarding the piping – did you use the same amount of powdered sugar and cocoa? Was there anything you changed in the ingredients or method?
I only forgot to put in the vanilla, other than that everything was the same. Could over-beating be a problem?
I don’t think over-beating would do it. Possibly if your ingredients were too warm, that could be the cause. Did you let the the cream cheese and butter soften at room temp?
I tried this frosting this afternoon, wanting something more special than regular powdered sugar buttercream. It really surprised me how good it was, very creamy and rich tasting. They looked just like the picture too, bakery quality or better. I’d like to find a vanilla equivalent. I wonder if you could make it in vanilla leaving the cocoa out? Has anyone done that? Thanks
I’m so happy you loved it! I haven’t tried making this as a vanilla version. My go to white frosting is this one: https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/06/29/cupcake-frosting-recipe/
This was the best chocolate frosting I’ve ever made. I always use Hershey’s recipe for chocolate cake and with this frosting it tasted like it came from a bakery. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for the awesome review!
I made this frosting for a gluten free devil’s food cake made with pop. I added some instant coffee and it helped the chocolate flavor POP!
Lauren, that’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing it with us 😀.
This is a fantastic recipe! I’d give it a gazillion stars! I love it, and it has a great genuine flavor, also it’s cheap and easy! What a great frosting for my chocolate layer cake. Thank you, Natasha! I’ll make sure to add your blog to my blog links ;).
awww that’s awesome! I’ll take a gazillion stars! 🙂
Adding another positive review of this delicious frosting! I used to frost a beet chocolate layer cake. I was going to use ganache too (I wanted a really decadent cake!) so I didn’t want to use a really sweet chocolate buttercream. This was perfect! Just sweet enough with that tiny bit of tang. I’ll definitely make this again, thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing your fantastic review. Tell me more about this beet chocolate cake! I’m intrigued!
Great recipe! I needed a chocolate frosting that wouldn’t completely overpower a white cake (and I only had one stick of butter left!) and this did the trick. The cream cheese provides a nice, subtle tang. For anyone who may be wondering, this made enough to frost an 8″ two layer cake, but I wasn’t as generous as I would normally be. So if you want to be able to really slather it on, increase the quantities 25-50%.
Tracy, thank you for the nice review and for sharing the tip 😃.
Could you leave out the cocoa and put in red food colouring to change the colour?
Tamara, I haven’t tried using food coloring with this recipe so can’t really make a recommendation. Usually if I want to use food coloring in the frosting, this is the recipe I go to. Let me know what you end up doing ?.
Hi,
Has anyone tried adding espresso powder?
I haven’t tried that, anyone else?
When you say sift in three cups of powdered sugar, do you measure first, or measure what’s sifted? Also, if I’m pressed for time, will not sifting make a big impact on the consistency of the frosting?
Hi Sarah, great questions! Sifting is important to ensure you do not get lumps of either cocoa or powdered sugar. I measure everything before sifting.
Sinfully delicious! I was looking for something to go with a white cake and just happen to have cream cheese on hand. My only change was to use dark chocolate cocoa powder because we are a dark chocolate household. I had to give my 4yo a spoonful so I could lick the beaters in secret. 😉
Mmmm what brand of dark cocoa powder do you use. I am a major fan of dark also! I’m so happy you loved it 🙂
Hershey’s Special Dark!
Thank you! 🙂
Made this frosting for a sponge cake with nuts. Kids loved it and husband approved. Thanks so much for sharing it. by the way… I didn’t have 3 cups of powdered sugar so I just used one cup regular and one cup powdered it turned out wonderful. God bless you Natasha for sharing in such detail all the amazing recipes.
Emma, thank you for such a nice review and great job improvising the recipe 😁.
I used this on a pink velvet cake (a buttermilk cake like red velvet, minus the cocoa), both with and without the chocolate, and it was delicious! It made me very popular 🙂
That sounds awesome! Thank you for sharing that withe me 🙂