Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Recipe ⬇️ or print: recipetineats.com/my-favourite-chocolate-frosting
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. 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.
Scaling down:
- 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
----------------
My Favourite Chocolate Frosting
CHOCOLATE BASE:
200 g / 7 oz dark chocolate chips or melts (semi-sweet chocolate chips), or chopped block (or bittersweet/70%, not milk chocolate or white chocolate)
3/4 cup thickened cream / heavy cream, or other whipping cream 35 – 40% fat
1/3 cup dutch processed cocoa powder (no need to sift), or regular unsweetened cocoa powder (will be a bit paler)
1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
100 g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
250 g soft icing sugar / powdered sugar, sifted
250 g / 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese block (not tub), at room temperature*
1/2 cup thickened cream / heavy cream, fridge cold
DIRECTIONS
1. Bloom cocoa – heat cream until hot, whisk in cocoa until lump free, leave 5 min.
2. Melt chocolate until smooth. Whisk in bloomed cocoa paste until lump free, cool 15 min. In separate bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy, beat in icing sugar (will look like sand). Beat in cream cheese just until smooth. Beat in chocolate mixture. FRIDGE 2 hours to stabilise.
3. Add cold 1/2 cup cream, whip on high 30 sec to 1 min until creamy and softly spreadable, but stick peaks (ie upright Santa hat, not floppy elf hat). Use immediately – pipe or spread. To loosen, just beat a bit more, to stiffen, fridge 5 min.
* If using tub cream cheese, frosting is not as good for piping tall swirls
Recipe ⬇️ or print: recipetineats.com/my-favourite-chocolate-frosting
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. 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.
Scaling down:
- 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
----------------
My Favourite Chocolate Frosting
CHOCOLATE BASE:
200 g / 7 oz dark chocolate chips or melts (semi-sweet chocolate chips), or chopped block (or bittersweet/70%, not milk chocolate or white chocolate)
3/4 cup thickened cream / heavy cream, or other whipping cream 35 – 40% fat
1/3 cup dutch processed cocoa powder (no need to sift), or regular unsweetened cocoa powder (will be a bit paler)
1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
100 g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
250 g soft icing sugar / powdered sugar, sifted
250 g / 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese block (not tub), at room temperature*
1/2 cup thickened cream / heavy cream, fridge cold
DIRECTIONS
1. Bloom cocoa – heat cream until hot, whisk in cocoa until lump free, leave 5 min.
2. Melt chocolate until smooth. Whisk in bloomed cocoa paste until lump free, cool 15 min. In separate bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy, beat in icing sugar (will look like sand). Beat in cream cheese just until smooth. Beat in chocolate mixture. FRIDGE 2 hours to stabilise.
3. Add cold 1/2 cup cream, whip on high 30 sec to 1 min until creamy and softly spreadable, but stick peaks (ie upright Santa hat, not floppy elf hat). Use immediately – pipe or spread. To loosen, just beat a bit more, to stiffen, fridge 5 min.
* If using tub cream cheese, frosting is not as good for piping tall swirls
