Fluffy Chocolate Frosting
This Fluffy Chocolate Frosting recipe is a great choice for filling or frosting your cakes and cupcakes! It has a light and fluffy consistency, a delicious chocolate flavor, and pipes beautifully! This is the chocolate version of our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream which we often refer to our on site.
Table of Contents
A More Heat Resistant Frosting?
Because of the shortening in the recipe, this fluffy chocolate frosting is a bit more heat resistant than butter-based frostings. This is always going to be the case with frostings that contain shortening. This is especially helpful for summertime gatherings!
Some frostings contain no butter at all, and rely entirely on shortening. People have mixed feelings about this. Those who live in very hot or humid climates find it to be a necessity, although losing the butter means that you have to rely more on extracts for making up for the flavor lost from omitting the butter.
For me, I usually use an all-butter frosting or a recipe like this one that contains at least some butter.
There is no such thing as Buttercream that will not melt
Please don't mistake heat resistant for heat-proof! ;0) Sadly, there is no such thing as a frosting that will not melt.
If you leave a frosted cake out in the heat or directly in the sun for an extended time, bad things are going to happen. If you have an outdoor event on a hot day, keep the cake cool until close to the time of serving.
However, it's nice to have an option that can withstand warmer temperatures a bit better. Plus, it is SO simple to make.
Enjoy the recipe!
Fluffy Chocolate Frosting
A delicious, fluffy chocolate frosting, perfect for piping. The shortening in the recipe makes it a bit more heat resistant than an all-butter recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups ( 285 grams) vegetable shortening
- 7 cups (793 g) powdered sugar
- 1 ¼ c. (86 grams) cocoa powder, loosely fill your measuring cup
- ½ c. (114g) water or milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Cream butter and shortening until creamy.
- Blend in the vanilla. Add powdered sugar, cocoa and most of the water. Mix throughly on medium speed for approximately 6 - 8 minutes until creamy and smooth.
- Add your remaining milk (or water) as necessary. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally during the mixing process.
- Recipe can be doubled
- This is a crusting buttercream, it pipes great, and works well with the viva paper towel method of smoothing (if you're going for that super smooth finish).
Our "all butter (no shortening)" version of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
As long as we're on the subject chocolate frostings, I have to give a shout to our fantastic Classic Chocolate Buttercream recipe! (This recipe does not contain shortening, tastes wonderful, and also pipes perfectly)
I've made this recipe countless times over the years, and it's the chocolate frosting that I use most often, assuming I don't need our fluffy heat-resistant option.
It's good to have options, make sure to save them both! ;0)
Hi Markeeta, one stick of butter is 113 grams. One of our members made the post about storing shortening in the fridge and white spots. I don't have experience with that. We use Crisco or high ratio shortening that is not stored in the fridge. If there were white spots from refrigerated shortening, I would think that if the buttercream were beaten longer the spots would soften and blend .
Hi-
I made this frosting and it has a gritty texture. What causes that? Thanks.
Hi Deann, did you soften your butter in the microwave, this can cause a gritty texture. Some of our members have reported that certain brands of confectioners' sugar would give them a gritty buttercream. Using confectioners sugar that is made from pure cane sugar (not beet sugar) should eliminate the problem with gritty texture.
Markeeta, copha is not the same vegetable shortening. You can buy it at cake decorating shops, it's a much softer consistency than copha.
Just made this recipe for cupcakes and have a lot left over. Am I able to freeze this and if so for how long?
Thank you,
Lisa
Hi Lisa Marie, Yes, you can freeze for 3 months.
Awesome, thank you BeBe. This really helps I didn't want it to go to waste.
I tried this recipe for a Wilton 1 class I attended yesterday. I made it the night before and put it in the fridge. When I got to class, we started immediately and the frosting was still too cold, so we microwaved it for 10 seconds (I made a half recipe). It helped loosen the frosting so I could frost the cake. We let the cake set for about 20 minutes but it never crusted. The room was a bit warm, but not overly.
Why didn't it crust? Was it the microwaving? Was it the dutch-processed cocoa? I followed the recipe ;) Thanks!
By any chance, does anyone know approximately how many cupcakes this recipes will decorate? I have a rather large order and need to know how many recipes to prepare. Thank you!!
Also, can I substitute milk for water? Thank you!!!
Hi Summer, One cup of frosting will frost 12 cupcakes with a simple swirl from a 2D tip. I'm not positive of the number of cups in this recipe.
Yes, you can substitute milk for water in the recipe.
Hi Bebe! Thanks for your help! I never measured how many cups were in the recipe, but I was able to frost 312 cupcakes using 7 recipes of this frosting with a 1M tip. I believe it came out to about 40-ish cupcakes per recipe for those who may be interested. It is a yummy, smooth recipe! Thank you so much for your help!!
~Summer :)