Smooth fudgey American style buttercream that comes together in just a few minutes with the help of a mixer. Satisfy all your chocolate cravings and no melting chocolate necessary!
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My family is a house divided when it comes to cake. There are those firmly on team vanilla on vanilla and those staunchly on team chocolate on chocolate. And the chocolate crew wants it CHOCOLATEY. September has been the month of the chocolate birthdays-two requests for some of the most decadent cakes I’ve ever made.
I’ve tried several different chocolate frosting recipes over the years, but this is the one I keep coming back to. It’s easy to pipe decorations but spreads on the cake nice and smooth. You don’t have to wait for melted chocolate to cool and it lasts a long time. It’s so good you could just eat it straight out of the bowl.
Only Takes 4 Ingredients:
- Butter– I like to use salted, but that’s a little controversial in baking spaces so if you’d like, you can use unsalted but make sure to add a little pinch of salt. Be sure your butter is softened but not too soft. (Butter not softened but you’re itching to make some buttercream? See “How To Soften Butter Quickly“)
- Cocoa Powder-packs a chocolate punch without having to worry about melting and cooling chocolate. Plus we add in plenty of sugar to this buttercream to compensate for the bitterness of cocoa powder. Dutch or regular-doesn’t matter for this recipe.
- Powdered Sugar–AKA confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar
- Water-to thin out the frosting and also to help keep the cocoa powder from poofing right back in our faces. Very important. Be sure to only add a tablespoon at a time into the buttercream, it’s easy to over thin and much harder to re-thicken.
How long does chocolate buttercream last?
- At Room Temperature: if you’re using salted butter-this buttercream can easily last 2 weeks
- In the Fridge: up to a month
- In the Freezer: up to a year-but wrap it up tight-nobody wants freezer burned buttercream
My favorite recipes that use chocolate frosting:
- slathered on brownies, maybe chop up some peanut butter cups on top…
- covering a chocolate cake
- use instead of chocolate chips on peanut butter pizza
- swirled on cupcakes
- sandwiched in between peanut butter cookies
Quick and Easy Chocolate Buttercream
Equipment
- Mixer I've made this with both a stand mixer and a handheld mixer, both work just fine.
Ingredients
- 1 pound salted butter softened
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup water may not need whole amount of water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or coffee extract optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat softened butter until smooth and fluffy. If using a stand mixer, use paddle attachment and beat butter on medium high speed.
- Turn down speed to low, slowly add in powdered sugar and cocoa powder. If mixture is getting too thick, add in water one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. I typically add in a couple tablespoons of water immediately when adding in the cocoa powder so it doesn't poof in my face. I then add more as needed to reach desired consistency.
- Beat in coffee or vanilla extract until smooth.
Happy Baking!