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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
Has anyone tried the chocolate cream cheese frosting with the vanilla cupcakes?
I made it and let me say omg love it love it thank you .
I made it and omg love it love it . Thank you .
You’re welcome Diana! I’m glad you love the recipe!
That was way too sweet, it’s enough to put only 2 cups of sugar! 🙂
Hi Charlotte, I’m usually not big into overly sweet things and the cream cheese and cocoa offset the sugar pretty well in this recipe. Also, the powdered sugar is important to achieve the correct texture, but everyone has a different tolerance for sweetness I guess 🙂
Hello! Thinking of using this frosting for a carrot cake esp with the cream cheese element of it combined w chocolate. Has anyone tried this frosting w carrot cake before?
Also, will the frosting recipe work if I use both melted chocolate along with cocoa powder? As it calls for 1/2 cup cocoa powder, how do you advise I divide it between melted chocolate and cocoa powder?
Would appreciate your tips! 🙂
I haven’t tried putting chocolate frosting on a carrot cake – come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a carrot cake with chocolate frosting but it could work :). I haven’t tested with cocoa powder and melted chocolate so I’m not sure how that would work. I imagine you would do the steps per the recipe and then beat in melted and somewhat cooled chocolate just like my white chocolate frosting here. Again, I haven’t tested that but it’s my best guess 🙂
Hi Natasha! How long do you think these could stay without being refrigerated? Planning on making them for a grad party but I’m just wondering if it would be ok to have them outside?
Hi Yelena, it depends on the temperatures. This keeps well at room temperature for several hours. You wouldn’t want to keep it in a hot environment for very long – it isn’t as stable as a buttercream. Keep it refrigerated as long as possible before your event.
To anyone reading comments before making this frosting; this is certainly not a bad frosting, but it is very very very sweet, a bit stiff, and the cream cheese flavor is quite overpowered. I use cream cheese frostings to cut the sweetness of a cake and like it to taste like cream cheese, rather than as a filler to provide structure. My cakes are sweet, and incredibly delicate and moist, and this frosting would be better for something sturdy with a dense, dry crumb that would stand up to the stiffness and stickiness .
Hi Sunny, did you use the same proportions? I normally don’t like my frostings and cakes overly sweet – did you maybe add more sugar than is called for? Also, the texture should be whipped and easily spreadable, not stiff – I’m wondering if maybe you used too much powdered sugar? I have used this on soft and fluffy cakes and it has worked really well.
Hi – the frosting looks divine . What icing nozzle do you use.
It is the large open star tip by Wilton. I have a link to it in the shop section of my blog: https://natashaskitchen.com/shop/
Can salted butter be used and just omit the salt?
Hi Wendy, I like using unsalted butter and adding the salt because every brand of salt has varying degrees of saltiness and I like to have control over that, but yes you could make it work with a stick of salted butter, omitting the salt in the recipe.
This was exactly what I was looking for! Very much like my cream cheese frosting, but with that chocolate hit I want. The cupcakes were the talk of the party and the talk of the next day, both the flavor and how perfect they looked — the frosting pipes very nicely, and I decorated with red, pink, and white micro-heart sprinkles. This one’s a keeper.
I’m happy that Shirley! Thanks for sharing 😀
Do you have to keep the cake refrigerated after frosting with this?
Hi Amy, I do just because it is a dairy based frosting.
Hi Natasha I just made your chocolate cream cheese frosting for dark chocolate marscapone brownies. THEY ARE TOO DIE FOR!!! I used a Bailey’s ganache frosting before for these brownies and they were nommers. I didn’t have any Bailey’s in the house so I thought I would experiment and I am SOOO GLAD I found your recipe. The frosting is not overly sweet and just the right accent for the marscapone and dark chocolate!!! I want to experiment with the recipe and add a liquor any thoughts? Again THANKX for the scrumptious recipe!!!!
I think it could work with a liqueur and if you experiment, let me know what you think! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
This is THE best Chocolate frosting I have ever tasted!!! I don’t usually care for chocolate frosting, but really this changed how I feel about it!
Awesome! It’s so nice to hear how much you love this recipe!!
Hi.love the sound of choc frosting.as you use cups not grammes. How do I convert to either ounces or grammes.
Hi Chris, without re-weighing all of the ingredients, I don’t have all of the measurements in grams. I usually use the standard US measuring cups for my recipes. I would suggest googling some conversion calculators and charts. I think it would be great to have someone go through in the future and re-weigh all of my ingredients but I am not able to do that due to time constraints.
The chocolate cream cheese frosting is fabulous! and so easy :0) I actually used special dark cocoa powder to make it fudgy – hubby likes fudgy icing but I i will try it with the normal cocoa powder next time as I am sure it will be just as fabulous! I found your site from a you tube video of a person using your whipped cream cheese frosting, which is to die for BTW! :0) I put your website in my favorites to try more of your recipes. Thank you!
You’re welcome Susan! What a compliment your review is! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I made the frosting recipe and while it was good it was not 100% ideal for the cake I was making (dark chocolate layer cake with a white chocolate mousse filling) I was getting a bit too much of the slightly sour note that the cream cheese can impart. I was thinking about remaking it with marscarpone cheese instead – do you think it would be a 1 for 1 ratio swap or would I need more marscarpone?
Hi Ilise, I haven’t tried that substitution so I’m not 100% sure how it would affect the consistency of the frosting, but if I were to try it, I would probably switch them out equally; 1 for 1. Let me know how you like it – I’m curious how it is with mascarpone! 🙂
Hiii Natalie..
I’ve a doubt. Is fresh cream cheese same as that of package cream cheese?
Hi Suzy, I haven’t tried this with fresh cream cheese, but I imagine it should work the same way as long as it’s the same consistency of regular cream cheese (not too moist and not too grainy).
I have russian chocolate butter, (mom actually brought it here all the way from russia) I’ve been thinking to make cupcake frosting with it, do you think it will work?
Hi Yelena, to be honest, I’ve never even tried that product so I can’t even guess how it would work in a recipe. If you test it out, let me know how you like it! Chocolate butter on toast sure sounds good! 🙂
Hi ,is it ok to not to put cocoa powder ?
Hi Jamie, do you mean unsweetened cocoa powder or the sweetened hot cocoa drink mix? This recipe calls for unsweetened cocoa powder. The sweetened drink mix has additional sugars mixed into it and it won’t blend properly and also will not be as chocolatey as adding unsweetened cocoa powder.
Just tried the retried the recipe, I’ve come out with 2 cups powdered sugar and a bit less than 1 teaspoon of vanilla as the perfect amounts. Turned out great!
Hal, thank you for the nice review! 😀.