Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

There’s frosting, which is okay. And then there’s chocolate frosting, which is really what all frosting should be. 

Having a go-to chocolate frosting for your cupcake and birthday cake needs makes life easier and gives you another reason to look forward to special events. The reason? Licking the spatula. I’ve learned to leverage this reward for getting my daughter to hustle finishing chores she despises. Works every time.

Here’s the recipe I’ve relied on for school cupcakes and birthday surprises for years. Everyone loves it. It’s chocolatey enough to be decadent and sweet enough for kids to embrace unilaterally. It’s such an improvement from canned frosting that you’ll be sold the first time you make it, and it’s easy enough to throw together in about 10 minutes as your cake bakes. 

What Is Buttercream? 

This is very close to the One-Bowl Chocolate Buttercream recipe from the back of the Hershey’s cocoa tin. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t changed in 40-some years. While my mother did buy cake mix, she never bought ready-to-use frosting, so I learned to cobble this together at a very young age. Since I was neither talented nor precocious, I can assure you it’s simple enough for a kid to make.

Buttercream is simply a frosting made from butter and sugar. This chocolate buttercream recipe uses powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, milk, vanilla, and a little salt (optional and quite popular with many adults) for a frosting recipe that requires no cooking. You don’t even need an electric mixer, but it does speed up the process.

The main adjustments I made to the Hershey’s recipe are the method, ensuring the frosting comes together free of lumps. I’ve also experimented with ingredient swaps. Turns out you can use any kind of milk, from skim to whole. I used to make this with heavy cream at one of my restaurant jobs. The more fat in the milk, the richer the frosting, but even skim milk gives a tasty result.

As for cocoa? Read on.

The Best Cocoa Powder To Use

First thing: You want to use unsweetened cocoa powder, which is 100 percent cocoa, and not hot cocoa mix, which is mostly sugar.

Next thing: Natural cocoa powder or Dutch-process? Either will work. Dutch-process is darker, mellower, and some people feel it’s richer. My personal preference is natural cocoa powder, which is a bit lighter in color and has a brighter flavor. Dutch-process cocoa is treated with alkaline salts to lower its acidity, and it often has a slightly salty finish. When I cook with it, I omit or lower the salt in a recipe.

Make It Vegan

This recipe works for a vegan chocolate frosting, too. Simply swap a good-quality plant butter for the dairy butter, and your favorite plain non-dairy milk for the regular milk. If you eschew conventional sugar (or are cooking for a vegan who does), be sure to use organic powdered sugar, too.

Make Ahead

You can refrigerate the finished buttercream in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Let it come to room temperature and beat thoroughly before frosting cakes or cupcakes. 

Freeze Your Leftovers

A good buttercream recipe always has a little leftover. This is because you never want to run out in the middle of frosting a cake or cupcakes. Likely you’ll have a generous dab that didn’t get used on the cake. 

You can freeze it in an airtight container for up to 6 months. It’ll also stay good in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

But what I like to do is take graham crackers and sandwich them with a thick layer of chocolate buttercream in the middle. Then I freeze them in a plastic container and snack on them straight from the freezer. The graham crackers soften in the freezer, making them like decadent ice cream sandwiches. They’ll stay good for about a week; after that, they taste a little freezer-y.

Chocolate Cakes to Frost With Joy

• One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
• Chocolate Mayonnaise Sheet Cake
• Super Easy, Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
• Chocolate Depression Cake
• Easy Devil's Food Cake