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.
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)
I made this frosting and frosted a Too Much Chocolate Cake. Also used your method for dripping ganache down the side. It is really good!! The frosting works well with the viva method. I give it an A+!
Great! Glad to hear your feedback :0)
Forgot to ask – have you ever used this frosting under fondant?
Hi, yes we have.
I have had a few problems with the fluffy and chocolate fluffy recipes. When I try to color to fluffy recipes it always leaves white dots in my icing & when I made the chocolate fluffy recipe yeasterday it still left white spots… Do anyone know what I’m doing wrong?
Do you store your shortening in the fridge?? If so you will have this outcome, also you may need to sift your icing sugar, this could also cause white spots.
Can I used melted choclate instead of powder? Have cake on due sat. and would like to try this recipe :)
I have never tried it with melted chocolate so I just can’t say for sure. Let us know if you experiment with it.
Hey Bebe, I made this frosting with a bag of melted chocolate and a little bit of caocao powder..and it worked out awesome and was so yummy! Thanks for recpice!
Great! Thanks for letting me know.
Britney,
I would say it is probably your powdered sugar. Mine was doing the same thing and I got so aggravated with it. I was trying to fish little hard pieces out of it everytime I was making a cake. I went to Micheals and bought a sifter and I haven’t had the problem since, now they are the only recipes I use as far as icing goes :)
Hi, I live in Australia so not sure what a stick of butter means, can you please advise grams of butter? Also, i noticed that you mentioned about storing shortening in the fridge could result in white spots in coloured icing, our shortening (copha) is all stored in fridge, is there any other type of shortening to use?
Thank you
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 :)
This is my favorite chocolate frosting recepie by far.. just love it!
Thank you! So glad to hear that! ;0)
I love this recipe. Tried it a couple months ago. I also added black dye, let it sit a few days and it turned into an awesome black bc.
Good morning Lizbet, How much black dye did you use and how many days did you let it sit I the refrigerator?
Can you replace water with cream or half/half or coffee creamer ?
Yes, you can use any of those
Can you use high ratio shortening in this recipe?
Hi Terry, if you are going to use high ratio I would decrease the shortening amount to 1 1/4 cup (236g.) and increase the milk to 1/4 cup plus 2 to 3 Tablespoons milk or enough to make it the consistency you like.
I made this frosting yesterday and it was really very good. Definitely a keeper. I used high ratio shortening and used a bit less of it based on BeBe’s comment above. I also used coffee instead of water/milk and added as needed, using less than the 1/2 cup called for. Will definitely make this again.
Hi Joan, thanks for your post!
thanx joan was just going to ask about coffee.. LOL shall try this today
ok so this is my updated comment.. i just made this today a few min ago if you’d like to add coffeee peets coffee brand is pretty good for this type of chocolate buttercream so add 3 table spoons of peets coffee dark roast.. 2 tbl spoons vanilla extract … two table spoons of chocolate extract … and if you think its too strong then add a bit of milk at a time to tame the flavor along as well.. about 2 to 3 table spoons of milk… as for white lumps didnt see any so just keep mixing it with the kitchen aid mixer paddle.. instead of the whisker.. works way better
oh and i only used one stick of butter instead of two
Does this frosting has to be refrigerated? Does the cake has to be refrigerated after filling/crusted with this filling? Thanks
Hi Claudia, I think it is fine to be out 3 days. I would keep it out of direct sunlight and in a cool area.
This recipe is wonderful! I was using Wilton’s chocolate recipe – and this is far superior in taste and the way it frosts! My go-to chocolate frosting recipe from now on!
Thank you, Jean!!
How does this differ from your classic chocolate frosting?
Hi BakerJudy, the Classic Chocolate frosting is an all butter recipe. Both recipes are crusting buttercreams.
Just made this tonight – this frosting is the perfect amount of sweetness. I followed the advice above to decrease the milk to 1/4 cup plus 2-3 tbs, but this wasn’t enough liquid. The frosting wasn’t as smooth and a little too crusty, so next time I would use the full 1/2 cup of milk. I traditionally use hi-ratio shortening, butter, and white margarine in my frosting, but I love that this recipe leaves out margarine. Thumbs up from my daughter and husband as well. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Carolyn, Thanks so much for posting your thoughts on this recipe. I’m happy you like the frosting!
If I use this as a filling will it still crust? I won’t need a crusting BC for the filling, but I don’t want it too soft either because I want the filling to be a little on the thick side since I won’t be icing the cake, just a think layer of ganache under fondant. What do you recommend as a chocolate filling that’s a light chocolate taste?
Used as a filling I don’t think it will crust as it won’t be in contact with the air. This recipe as well as our Classic Chocolate Frosting recipe has a light chocolate taste.
2 TABLESPOONS of vanilla? Should it be teaspoons?
Hi Debbie, Yes, thank you. 2 teaspoons
What type of vegetable shortening do you recommend? Will Spectrum organic vegetable shortening hold up as well as Crisco? Is it considered a high ratio shortening?