My Favourite Chocolate Frosting
Recipe video above. My favourite Chocolate Frosting tastes like the most delicious chocolate mousse you've ever had. It’s beautifully creamy, completely smooth, with a rich chocolate flavour and far less sweet than buttercream. It's essentially a cross between buttercream and chocolate ganache, lightened with the use of cream cheese rather than more butter.Pastry chefs will recognise its crèmeux-like texture, but there's no eggs in this. It's sturdier than whipped cream, so it's a brilliant all-rounder that can be piped into tall swirls on cupcakes or spreading in cake layers without squishing out when cut.Cream cheese is the key that provides fluffed volume and structure, but you won't taste any tang, while the melted chocolate stabilises the frosting (because it is firm when cool) so this frosting won't melt or weep in the fridge for however long you keep it.----------------------Yield - 1.2 kg, 6 cups of frosting. See Note 1 for what this is enough for.
Servings: 6 cups
Ingredients
Chocolate base:
- 200 g / 7 oz dark chocolate chips or melts (semi-sweet chocolate chips), or chopped block (Note 1)
- 3/4 cup thickened cream / heavy cream , or other whipping cream 35 - 40% fat (Note 2)
- 1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder (no need to sift), or regular unsweetened cocoa powder (Note 3)
Chocolate frosting:
- 100 g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (or use salted and skip salt)
- 250 g soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted (Note 4)
- 250 g / 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese block (not tub), at room temperature (Note 4)
- 1/2 cup thickened cream / heavy cream , fridge cold
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE
- Bloom cocoa with cream for 5 minutes. Melt chocolate, mix with bloomed cocoa, cool 15 minutes. Beat butter, then icing sugar (goes sandy), then cream cheese until smooth. Beat in chocolate. Chill 2 hours. Add cream, whip to stiff peaks. Use immediately to frost or pipe. Chill finished cakes 30 minutes to set before serving.
FULL RECIPE
- Bloom cocoa - Heat the cream in a heatproof bowl until hot but make sure it doesn't come to a boil. Add cocoa powder and whisk until lump free - it will be like a thin paste. Set aside 5 minutes to bloom (brings out chocolate flavour).
- Melt chocolate - Place the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave in bursts until smooth - 30 seconds on high, stir, then 20 second increments.
- Chocolate paste - Add the cocoa paste into the melted chocolate. Whisk until combined and smooth, it will be like a thin paste. Cool for 15 minutes on the counter - it will thicken. Don't worry if a skin forms on the surface, it will beat out in the next step.
- Cream cheese whip - In a separate large bowl, beat butter with a handheld mixer until soft and fluffy (about 1 1/2 minutes on high). Add icing sugar and beat until it resembles wet sand (~ 30 seconds). Add cream cheese and beat until smooth and creamy (~30 seconds), stopping once no yellow butter bits remain.
- Beat in chocolate - Add all the chocolate paste and beat until combined.
- Refrigerate - Cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours until properly fridge-cold (stick the beaters in the bowl). This gives the frosting structure. You can leave it in the fridge at this point for days.
- Fluff frosting - Remove bowl from the fridge. Add cream and salt. Beat on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until you have stiff peaks (ie upright Santa hats, not floppy elf hat). The frosting should be beautifully creamy like buttercream but also fluffy like whipped cream - better taste test to check! It will be a little pale - it darkens once piped/spread.
- Frost - Use immediately to frost cakes and pipe onto cupcakes - spread with knife/offset spatula or transfer into piping bag. (Note 5 on thickness) Refrigerate frosted cakes for at least 30 minutes to let the frosting set before serving.
Holding and serving notes
- Once set, the frosting will hold its shape in the fridge and will not deflate. It does not harden in the fridge so can be enjoyed fridge cold, though I personally prefer my cakes at room temperature. When out of the fridge, keep it out of the sun - the frosting melts more easily than buttercream, but is much more stable than whipped cream.
Notes
This frosting makes the equivalent volume of frosting of a batch of buttercream that calls for 500g /1 lb butter and 1kg / 2lb icing sugar (enough for a 3 layer cake).
1. Frosting amounts required - Recipe makes enough to frost:
1. Frosting amounts required - Recipe makes enough to frost:
- 3 or 4 layer 20 - 23cm / 8 - 9" cake - top, sides, layers plus leftover for piping decorations
- 2 x 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13 slab cakes (top)
- Tall swirl frosting on 15 cupcakes (5-6cm / 2 - 2.4" high, 80g/2.8oz frosting on each)
- Medium swirls for 20 cupcakes (3 - 4cm / 2.2-2.4", 50 - 60g / 2oz each)
- Spread on thickly - 30 cupcakes.
- 2 layer 20 - 23cm / 8 - 9" cake (top, sides, layer inside), scale recipe down to 4 cups (click on servings and slide down).
- Just the top of a single layer 20 - 23cm / 8-9" - halve the recipe