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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
Hi Natasha, can i replace a little bit of the butter with vegetable shortening? I live in Malaysia and it is quite hot here in the morning till noon, i really love this recipe but worried it may not able to hold a layer cake which im planning to make for my son’s bday.
Hi Lynn, to be honest, I’ve never tried that substitution so I really can’t say. Sorry, I know that’s not helpful. Happy birthday to your son!
Natasha, do you think this frosting can be used for puff pastry trubochki ?
I think that would work fine 🙂
can you plse adv how much is one cup in oz
Shirley, which ingredient are you referring to?
8oz equals 1 cup
This recipe was fabulous. Everyone raved about the taste and texture. The only downside was the amount of frosting the recipe made. It was not enough frosting for 18 cupcakes using a large star tip as shown in the picture. If you are going to frost a 2 layer cake I would suggest doubling the recipe.
Hi Linda, I”m so glad you enjoyed the frosting! This recipe is easy to scale up if you like more frosting. You really can’t go wrong doubling it! 🙂
1st time trying this frosting and it really works well…nice..not tooo sweet..and i paired it up with ur vanilla cupcakes recipe. Will use this recipe nxt time. Thanks!!
Yati, thank you for the nice review and you are welcome 😄.
Works like a champ on brownies. I cut back on the sugar in the brownie mix to allow the chocolate to take hold. This frosting adds the perfect complement to the rather bittersweet brownies.
Jim, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review! After reading your comment I’m craving brownies 😋.
Wow this looks great! How long will the frosting keep in the fridge? And is it possible to freeze it? Will be trying this recipe this week!
Hi Helen, I think it pipes best before refrigeration but once I put it on cupcakes or a cake, it refrigerates well for several days.
Just made this frosting for a birthday party, and wow! This is such a great tasting frosting, Pipes beautifully and I was even able to frost a 6″ & 8″ cakes smoothly with it! I’m very impressed! Its not often you get workable and tasty combo. This is my new favorite chocolate frosting 🙂 thank you for sharing!
That is fantastic!! Thank you for the wonderful review 🙂
This is the best chocolate frosting I have ever had! On top of being delicious, it was easy to pipe out of a bag! Love love love!!
Jen, thank you for such a nice review on the frosting, I’m glad you love it 😁.
I’m so glad I came across this recipe! 5 stars all the way. Everyone loved it and super fast to make! Thanks so much!
I’m so happy you all loved it!! 🙂
Hi Natasha, one question, does this frosting have a chocolatey flavor or is it fairly mild? I suppose if one needed to add a bit more cocoa powder, it would be easy enough. Also adding more vanilla, as I adore the stuff, might work too. Looks so yummy! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Felisa, this one has pretty good chocolatey flavor. It has 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa but you could add a couple more spoonfuls if you wanted to make it even more intense. Even better, you could use a dutch processed cocoa only to make it really deep in flavor 🙂
Wonderful, thank you Natasha for your reply and the tip about the dutch processed cocoa.
The cocoa you show is a blend of natural and dutch process. I love that particular one. And might I add that my son has requested this recipe for his 16th birthday cake. I do doctor it a tiny bit, but this is the base. Thanks for sharing it.
Looks delicious! Does the frosted cake need to be refrigerated? How long will the frosting stay fresh sitting on the counter? Thanks
Hi Joni, I would refrigerate overnight since it is a dairy based frosting. I wouldn’t keep it at room temperature longer than 4 hours.
I stumbled across this recipe and am so glad! I will be using it on a lot of baked goods! I made this for brownies and everyone has been raving about them. I will definitely be trying this on cake or cupcakes! Thank you!
Mmmm wow! That sounds like an amazing combination!
This is the new go to frosting for my favorite chocolate cupcakes! This is exactly the recipe I’ve been searching for. It pipes beautifully and has the perfect amount of sweetness and chocolate. Thanks, Natasha!
Thank you for that super amazing review! 🙂
its a mouth watering recipe looks very tempting like to eat it just now
Can i make this into a white frosting by replacing the cocoa powder with more powdered sugar? Also, would this frosting hold shape to pipe roses all over a cake for a outdoor party?
Hi Zory, for white cupcake frosting, I would recommend this recipe. It pipes well and has cream cheese to stabilize the cream. It depends on what the temperature is of your outdoor party for how long they would last. Definitely keep them out of the sun and refrigerate as long as possible before putting them out.
Felicitaciones!! sigo tus recetas son deliciosas y sus decoraciones muy profesionales.
Tengo una sugerencia,cuando muestras los ingredientes sera que puedes mostrar a punta de la boquilla con que decoras, seria de gran ayuda .
I’m short on time and am all out of powdered sugar. Is it possible to use granulated sugar instead? Do you think the frosting will be gritty?
Hi Karen, I’ve only tried this with powdered sugar. I’m not sure the texture would be as good or as stiff with granulated sugar. If you have a good food processor or strong blender, you can make your own powdered sugar by processing granulated sugar – there are some easy tutorials online.
Granulated sugar is not an option because the consistency is grainy.
Little tip…. if you have a food processor you can make your own powdered sugar. Just pulse to granulated sugar until it becomes powder.
Omgggggg. This recipe is amazing. It’s so yummy! I’m making a cake for my friend’s graduation and when I decided to make chocolate cream cheese frosting, this was my go-to recipe. Thank you so much for posting this!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! Thank you for sharing your awesome review 🙂
Your swirl is beautiful! Do you have a tutorial on how to pipe it? I’m guessing you use a Wilton 1M pastry tip or equivalent. Thanks.
Thank you Sadie! Yes, I use a Wilton 1M pastry tip (actually I pretty much only use these 3 large pastry tips). I swirl starting from the outside and work towards the center and up 🙂
Yes, that’s how I do my swirl too and I always end up with a hole in the center. I’ve studied your photo trying to determine where I’m going wrong and just can’t figure it out. I’ve swirled hundreds of cupcakes and always end up with the same gap in the center of the swirl. It’s so frustrating! I’m good with roses. They start in the center so no gap!
The trick I learned is to start in the middle, pipe a line to the edge of the cupcake, and then swirl from the outside in. The starting line fills in the space where there would have been a gap.
Hi,
I made this frosting today and It was amazing. But now I am trying to figure out how long this will stay good in refrigerator or if it can be put in freezer??
It will stay good in the refrigerator for several days but you will have to let it get closer to room temp for it to pipe easily. I haven’t tried freezing it but I think it would work.
This looks delicious! Do you think it would go good on a banana cupcake?
Since bananas and chocolate work well together, I would venture to say yes :). Let me know what you think!