Everyone needs a “go-to” chocolate frosting and this is now mine! One of the most popular recipes on Our Best Bites is this vanilla Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling. Its velvety smooth texture combined with the not-so-sugary bite is perhaps the perfect thing on top of almost any cake or cupcake. One of the most commonly asked questions on that post is, “Where’s the chocolate version??!!” I experimented a lot with adding chocolate to that recipe without much luck. I came up with a lot of things that tasted amazing, but there were always slight problems with the consistency. I knew I had seen similar recipes in chocolate before but I couldn’t seem to find one until one of you dear readers pointed me to a recipe on Sugar Plum. Sure enough, it was just what I was in search of! I adapted the recipe slightly by using plain ol’ salted butter and omitting added salt. And then I added extra chocolate to get a richer color and flavor. Once you try this chocolate frosting you’ll be hooked!
Ingredient Notes
- Sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Milk
- Butter
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Chocolate Frosting
- The recipe starts by cooking flour, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder in a sauce pan until it thickens, much like the first step in the beloved white frosting. You’ll strain the mixture so you don’t end up with icky flour lumps in your frosting, because who wants icky flour lumps in their frosting??
- While that mixture is cooling off, melt some chocolate chips in the microwave. I found this to be the key to having the frosting remain stable- the melted chocolate seems to bind it. Then we whip real butter with our chilled chocolate mixture until it’s light and fluffy.
- At this point it’s much like the results of just adding cocoa powder to the white frosting. But the secret is adding in the melted chocolate. Isn’t chocolate always the secret?? Whip that up and then give it a taste. If you want a richer chocolate flavor just add more cocoa powder. I added about 4 Tablespoons extra to get my frosting looking and tasting like this (I also found the color of the frosting darkened as it sat). It pipes beautifully, and tastes amazing!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store unused frosting in fridge and bring to room temperature before using again. If needed, beat with an electric beater before using.
- Note that the longer this frosting sits, the darker it appears. For darker, more intense flavor, use a chocolate chip with a higher cocoa content.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! There is enough here to generously frost 24 cupcakes or to frost and fill an 8 or 9 inch 2-layer cake.
Check out this post on How to Frost Cupcakes to help you achieve the perfect cupcake!
Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup real butter softened
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- Optional: Additional cocoa powder as needed
Instructions
- Melt your chocolate chips if you haven’t already and set aside to cool. You obviously don’t want it so cool that it hardens, but you can get it close to room temperature and still have it be soft and stir-able.
- In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1-3 minutes or until thickened like a thinned pudding. Remove pan from heat and strain mixture into a small bowl. Cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.
- When chocolate flour mixture is cooled, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined fluffy, about 1 minute. Finally add in melted chocolate and beat again until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. If desired, add additional cocoa powder to taste, up to 4 tablespoons more. Spread or pipe frosting on to cupcakes or cake.
- Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes or to frost and fill an 8 or 9 inch round 2-layer cake.
Questions & Reviews
This sounds really good and actually pretty easy:) It looks really pretty too. Can't wait to see what you put it on;)
Hi! I've been following this blog for a while but have never commented. I wanted to tell you both thanks for all the great recipes and ideas…including this one! I will definitely have to give this a try. I like the idea of using flour rather than shortening (aka grease, aka fat) to make a thicker frosting. Thanks for sharing!
Krista- I'm still on the hunt too, but I have a few bookmarked try. We'll see…
Chaviva- I've never used gluten free flour but I would assume it would work fine. It still thickens, right? If so, then I wouldn't see why it wouldn't work.
Looks like a winning recipe to me!
Think this'd work with gluten-free flour?g
Flour frosting, what a great idea! Personally, I love SWEET stuff, but I do know a lot of people who appreciate sweet treats that aren't overly sweet. I'll have to make cupcakes w/ this frosting for them. Thank you.
This looks fabulous! Thanks for all your work to get this out to us! (Cause, you know, I'm sure playing with chocolate was sooo hard!)
The flour frosting is my FAVORITE go to frosting! So excited to see a chocolate version of it that looks and tastes great too!
i'm SO excited to try this recipe out!!! have you come across a good white cake recipe yet? i still keep trying different recipes and i just can't find one i'm in love with…
Try White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake: http://www.food.com/recipe/white-almond-sour-cream-wedding-cake-69630
You can use vanilla instead of almond flavoring, but this is hands down the best white cake in terms of crumb, flavor, and texture. I suspect it is because you only use egg whites….Oh, and halving it works perfectly well (the original recipe makes a lot–like 60 cupcakes a lot!). Don’t bother with using any other flavors of cake mixes, they just don’t work as well or taste as good in my humble opinion. Hope you like it as much as I do! Oh, and only use Betty Crocker mix to start with. I have mixed results with other brands.
I haven't tried this yet, but I'm sooo glad you posted it! I moved to Switzerland about 4 months ago, and the powdered sugar they have here is different than in the States–and anything you make with it has a disgusting –REALLY disgusting taste. I thought I'd have to forgo anything that required a frosting. And then you posted this-yahoo!
Actually, I've been trying out a whole bunch of your recipes since I've moved here, since there are quite a few ingredients that I can't get here, so I've been trying new instead of old standby's.
So Thanks!!!
Reading your comment and being a Swiss, living in Switzerland, I can’t help it but laugh at this comment. I think you have just chosen the wrong type of powdered sugar. The one from Migros is rather ‘sandy’ whereas the one from Coop is super fine (flourlike or dustlike). Have a go with the one from Coop… and beat the hell out of it together with our butter. Our butter contains more fat (=better quality) than water, which makes it difficult to dissolve the sugar in it… hence the disgusting, sorry, sandy taste.
Me on the contrary I can’t adapt every US recipie, as our tastebuds have different preferences…
You can do the cooked part in the microwave. Just whisk it occasionally.