Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar

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This is a simple chocolate frosting recipe that you’ll use over and over again. Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar is ready in minutes with ingredients your more than likely have on hand.

This is not a mind-blowing original recipe. I’ve been making it for years and years. It is a basic Chocolate Frosting recipe that you need to have in your arsenal. Plus, it’s my favorite. If I could, I would eat spoonful after spoonful of it straight from the pan….oh, wait, I did do that!

Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar

Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar

Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar is my go-to basic chocolate frosting recipe. I use it for my Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake and on my Famous Rocky Road Brownies. This frosting is great on donuts, over ice cream, and on a classic white cake.

This recipe is also easily adaptable. If you have a large sheet pan of brownies, you may want to double the recipe. For just a few cookies, you may want to half the recipe.

It really is a delectable 5-minute frosting that goes great on cakes and cupcakes. Add an additional 2 tablespoons of milk to make it into an easy pouring sauce for ice cream and bread pudding.

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Chocolate Frosting tips

One tip you must remember when making this icing recipe is to sift your sugar. Otherwise, you’ll have lumps and will have to stir A LOT, to get them out. I find that lumps are nearly impossible to get out once the sugar is stirred into the mixture.

Another tip—okay, I know this is two—is to use real butter. Margarine really doesn’t work well because it’s mostly oil. Use real butter at room temperature.

 chocolate Frosting

More recipes you’ll enjoy

If you’re new to my site, some of my most popular recipes are my pound cakes. Actually, I have over 60 pound cake recipes that I have tested, developed, and reviewed for you. I have highlighted some below (click on the photo) or you can get them all here: Pound Cakes Reviewed.

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*The calorie count is for the whole recipe.

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Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar is smooth, creamy, and rich.
Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar is smooth, creamy, and rich.

Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar

Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar is a must-have recipe. It’s creamy, smooth, and rich. This icing can be made stove-top or in the microwave and just takes minutes to stir together. It goes well on cakes and cupcakes.
Author: Paula
4.91 from 74 votes
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Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2 cups

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Sift sugar.
  • Heat butter in a small pan on medium heat, do not let butter get brown.
  • When butter is melted, whisk in cocoa, milk, and vanilla. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, whisking after each addition.
  • Remove from heat, after all the sugar has been added.
  • Whisk until smooth.
  • Immediately pour over cake.
  • If icing is too thin, add additional sifted sugar 1/4 cup at a time until desired thickness or sit it in the refrigerator a few minutes. Take it out and whisk it until creamy again.
  • Frosting will thicken as it cools, but it’ll be harder to spread.

Nutrition

Calories: 1084kcal | Carbohydrates: 220g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Cholesterol: 65mg | Sodium: 227mg | Potassium: 272mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 208g | Vitamin A: 775IU | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg
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119 Comments

  1. This is also good using almond extract in place of vanilla. It kind of reminds me of the taste of chocolate covered cherries.

  2. 5 stars
    Fantastic! This will be my go to frosting. Perfect flavor and consistency. Thank you!

  3. Hello Paula,
    Oh my goodness! This is so Totally Good! I used some of my leftover Folgers from morning coffee in place of the milk like someone mentioned and did the touch of salt. With or without those changes this is Heavenly Chocolate Icing with the fudgy flavor. It went on a 9×13 cake. Yummy! I followed the hints and recipe just as you said. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!

    1. Yay, I’m so happy you liked it. I just put this on a cake Sunday. It’s my boys’ favorite too.

  4. 5 stars
    This recipe saved the day! I made some eggless peanut butter cookies for my husband and they were blah! So, I dipped one end of each cookie in this frosting and kicked them up a couple of notches! They’re about to be added to our annual cookie list! Thanks for saving Christmas for my hubs. Food is his love language.

    1. Yay!!! So happy it saved the cookies. 🥳 Desserts are my love language so I completely understand. Hope your holiday was awesome.

  5. Can this recipe be frozen. I want to use it to top Hot Chocolate cookies and freeze them until I’m ready to use them.

    1. I froze a cake with this icing and it developed white-ish circles/dots on the top when I took it out. It was fine to eat but wasn’t as pretty.

  6. Oh my goodness. This chocolate frosting is completely PERFECT. So so good, and very easy. This will be my go-to. Thanks for sharing it, Paula!

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4.91 from 74 votes (55 ratings without comment)