Chocolate Whipped Buttercream Frosting that tastes like light chocolate whipped cream frosting. This whipped chocolate frosting is the best!
I’m not much of a frosting person. So many times frostings are heavy and overly sweet. Not this Chocolate Whipped Buttercream Frosting, though.
It’s super light and fluffy – like an ultralight chocolate mousse in frosting form. And since this frosting falls in the semisweet to bittersweet chocolate range, it isn’t too sweet either.
Tips to make chocolate whipped buttercream frosting
A couple notes about this frosting – first, the cooked milk/flour mixture needs to be completely cool before continuing on. If it’s still warm, it will melt the butter, and the frosting will be too loose.
Second, don’t cut the whipping steps short. The frosting needs to be whipped on high for several minutes in order to have its ultralight texture.
Also, a reader (thanks again!) left a comment saying that chilling the frosting helped it come together for her. So, please check out the comments below the recipe.
*Note – I had several comments saying that the frosting was separating. I worked on the recipe and changed it to make it whip up easier.
More chocolate frosting recipes!
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Malted Milk Frosting
More whipped buttercream frosting recipes!
- Whipped Buttercream Frosting
- Whipped Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting
- Vanilla Bean Whipped Buttercream Frosting
If you’ve tried this chocolate whipped buttercream frosting recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
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Chocolate Whipped Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups salted butter (at cool room temperature)
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Dutch-processed)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, whisk flour and milk together until well-combined.
- Heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens.
- Remove from heat, and let it cool to room temperature.*
- Stir in vanilla.
- While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt together until light and fluffy on medium high, about 5 minutes.
- Add the completely cooled milk mixture.
- Beat it for about 5 minutes on high until it looks like whipped cream. It may look separated at first, so keep beating it until it comes together and looks like a whipped cream.
- If it looks separated after about 7 minutes of whipping, cover, and chill for about 30 minutes. Then, continue whipping for about 5 minutes, or until it looks like whipped cream.
Notes
**Nutrition facts are estimates.
Nutrition Information
Published 8/23/13. Updated with new photos and tips 6/18/18.
Linda says
This Grandma has made a lot of great cakes in her day, but never, ever a good frosting. This recipe has totally changed my record! This is the best frosting, ever, and all grandchildren agree. And what a bonus that it’s simple to make with your clear and easy-to-follow directions. Thanks so much!
Kate says
/Thank you so much! I’m so glad that you liked it!
Sandy says
First time ever making a frosting with granulated sugar. To be honest I was little leery. It was so easy to make and came out so fluffy and buttery. I love it. I will definitely use the recipe again. Your directions were perfect.
Kate says
Thank you so much! I’m so glad that you liked it!
Sue-Ellen Haas says
This turned out very well. I substituted Splenda for the sugar and it worked just fine. It has a lovely texture and isn’t overly sweet. I will have to try the vanilla one I have heard about in the comments ;-)
Kate says
I’m so glad that it worked out well with the Splenda! Hope you like the vanilla frosting, too!
Linda says
Hi your recipe is great I would love to know how big of quantity its like how many cupcakes or cakes can be frosted with recipe.
Kate says
Thank you! You should be able to frost 24 cupcakes with this recipe.
Preethi S says
This is such a great recipe! Easy to follow and we loved the end result!!
Kate says
Thank you so much!!
Ashiyah says
I’ve been looking for this kind of recipe for a long time. Thank you and thanks for the tips on making it really fluffy.
Kate says
Thank you! I’m glad that helps and that you found the recipe!
Kathleen says
So glad I found your recipe. My Mother always made this for our birthday cakes. We called it birthday frosting. So good. Thank you, as I had misplaced Mom’s recipe.
Kate says
Yay!! I’m glad that you found it, too!
Gwen says
This is by far the BEST butter cream recipe I’ve ever made! I stumbled across this recipe after I’d baked a chocolate cake and realized that I didn’t have any powdered sugar for the traditional butter cream frosting that I usually make. Good ole Google sent me here and I’m not looking back! Thank you so much Kate, we now have a new family favorite butter cream!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked it!
Jean Yates says
Whipped chocolate buttercream frosting
Jean Yates says
This frosting texture is great however it needed much more cocoa powder about a cup more. And maybe 1/2 c less sugar as it is a little too sweet
Suzanne Bachelor says
Great! Yum. On a hurry, I put the milk/flour mixture in the frig and that worked well. I didn’t mix it 5 minutes and 5 minutes, per directions but I was using my great powerful kitchen aid.
Kate says
Thanks!
Ricky Tanner says
I made this frosting,love it,I like how light it is,I do recommend chill your icing!
Kate says
Thank you!
Avarey says
Hi! I’ve tried your vanilla frosting and it worked so well, so I’m super eager to try the chocolate version! I’m going to make a 3-4 layer 6in cake, will need enough for in between the layers, the outside of the cake and maybe some for piping. Should I double the recipe and make a bigger batch?
Kate says
Hi! Thank you! Yes, I would make a larger batch. Depending on how much piping and how thick you want the frosting to be, I would either make a 1.5x batch or a double batch.
Skylar Huyck says
It’s sooo yummy and smells good
Kate says
Thank you!!
Ericka says
Delicious! A little fragile but the tip to put in the fridge really helps. I was super skeptical when the flour and milk looked like wallpaper paste but it totally comes together to be fantastic in the end. Made this twice in one week. Rave reviews from family. Try this recipe! You wont be disappointed!!!!
Kate says
I totally get the skepticism, but I’m so glad that you liked it! =)
Joanne says
The best! This frosting was creamy & smooth . I spread it over brownies & nobody asked for ice cream.
Kate says
Thank you so much! =)
Emma says
Hands down the best icing. EVER.
I am new to the club of not using icing sugar as there is none in the shops at the moment but boy am I glad!
I’ll never go back to using icing sugar for frosting now.
I’ve used the chocolate recipe twice and used the vanilla frosting for lemon icing. All 3 times the icing has turned out perfectly!
I was a little panicked by the milk/flour stage but the pictures and the video on the vanilla frosting page really helped show what it should look like.
I was also sceptical about using granulated sugar and initially wondered if I should have used caster sugar but you cannot tell, the granules disappear after whisking.
The amount of frosting the recipe makes covers a 2 layer 20cm sponge plus I had extra for about 6 – 8 cupcakes each time
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us!
P.s. it would be great if the metric calculator was on the chocolate frosting page and not just the vanilla frosting – google has a lot of different answers for turning measurements from US to UK
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that!
Yes! I will be sure to add that. I’ve been going back through my older recipes to add all of the metric measurements, and I’ll get this one on that list. =)
Karen says
This icing is delicious! Lovely texture and not too sweet.I did find that it makes a lot more than I needed for one cake .I wonder if you could freeze the remaining frosting?
Kate says
I have frozen cupcakes frosted with this frosting, and it froze/came to temperature without any issues.