This Old-Fashioned Chocolate Frosting goes along with this Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake. That recipe card covers both, but this frosting is just too good to not have it’s own post! It would be great on so many different cakes or cupcakes. Don’t be turned off by the number of steps here. This recipe is originally from Cook’s Illustrated, which means every step and ingredient serves a specific purpose in turning out the most delicious end result! I’m so glad I stuck with the recipe and made this frosting. It’s more labor intensive than beating some butter, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder together but it’s sooo worth it. The flavor is so perfect. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, so the great chocolate flavor really shines through. You’re going to come back to this one again and again, I promise!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Semisweet chocolate – Chocolate chips work great, but so would a chopped up chocolate bar.
- Unsalted butter – Use real, unsalted butter. The butter in this recipe gets cooked with sugar. Although you could probably use salted butter, the salt at that step could affect the way the sugar dissolves. Adding it at the end helps highlight the chocolate flavor as well, so unsalted butter is preferred!
- Granulated sugar
- Light corn syrup – Like Karo brand. This is not high-fructose corn syrup, by the way. It’s mostly glucose and helps prevent sugar crystals from forming. You’ll find it on the baking aisle near the other syrups.
- Vanilla extract
- Table salt
- Heavy cream
How to Make Old-Fashioned Chocolate Frosting
- Start by melting some chocolate. The glass bowl you see in the pictures is sitting on top of a pan of simmering water. After the chocolate is melted, set the bowl aside and dump out the water that was in the pan. Now you’ve already got a warm pan for the next step (butter melting). Remember that when you read the recipe and it tells you to use 2 pans. I’m all about one less dish to
have sitting in my sink for dayswash. - To the melted butter, you’ll add a little corn syrup, vanilla, and granulated sugar. As soon as it’s all melted together and the sugar is dissolved, add it to a large bowl along with the chocolate. The beautiful, glorious, melted chocolate. And also some heavy cream. You know, for good measure.
- You’ll stir this all together and have sort of a chocolate sauce consistency. Place your bowl in a bowl of ice to bring the temperature down, and just keep stirring until the mixture starts hardening against the side of the bowl. Then you can pop the paddle attachment on your mixer and start whipping. Magically it turns thick and fluffy.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store finished frosting in the fridge in an airtight container. When ready to use, let sit at room temp for 20-30 minutes then rewhip briefly before using.
- Don’t overcook your sugar mixture! Keep the heat low and remove it from heat as soon as you don’t see sugar crystals.
- If you jumped the gun and didn’t cool your frosting mixture enough, pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes and whip again!
- Note that the texture of this frosting is so light and soft, and whippy, that this frosting would probably be best for slathering- like smeared all over a cake, or just plopped on top of cupcakes, as opposed to piping. If you’re looking for a good chocolate icing for piping- try this Chocolate Frosting!
Frequently Asked Questions
For sure! Just store it in the fridge in an airtight container. When ready to use, let it sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes and then rewhip to restore texture before using.
This recipe is best for semi-sweet chocolate. Milk chocolate will result in a softer, sweeter frosting (likely overly sweet) with a less deep chocolate flavor. White chocolate is mostly sugar and cocoa butter, with no cocoa solids, so it melts and behaves quite differently than semisweet chocolate. I would not expect the frosting to turn out well at all with white chocolate!
Regular whipping cream would be an ok substitution, but your frosting may not whip up as firmly. I would not use milk.
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- 16 ounces semisweet chocolate finely chopped (I measured 16 ounces chocolate chips on a kitchen scale, it’s a teeny bit more than 2 ½ cups.)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoons table salt
- 1 ¼ cups cold heavy cream
Instructions
- Melt Chocolate in heatproof bowl set over a saucepan containing 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Increase heat to medium; add sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt and stir with heatproof rubber spatula until sugar is dissolved, 4-5 minutes. Add melted chocolate, butter mixture, and cream to clean bowl of stand mixer and stir to thoroughly combine.
- Place mixer bowl over ice bath and stir mixture constantly with rubber spatula until frosting is thick and just beginning to harden against sides of bowl, 1-2 minutes (frosting should be 70℉). Place bowl on stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until frosting is light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Stir with rubber spatula until completely smooth.
Notes
- Store finished frosting in the fridge in an airtight container. When ready to use, let sit at room temp for 20-30 minutes then rewhip briefly before using.
- Don’t overcook your sugar mixture! Keep the heat low and remove it from heat as soon as you don’t see sugar crystals.
- If you jumped the gun and didn’t cool your frosting mixture enough, or it just seems a little too soft, pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes and whip again!
- Note that the texture of this frosting is so light and soft, and whippy, that this frosting would probably be best for slathering- like smeared all over a cake, or just plopped on top of cupcakes, as opposed to piping. If you’re looking for a good chocolate icing for piping- try this Chocolate Frosting!
Questions & Reviews
I read some of the comments and added more cream. It whipped up much better. I must’ve just had too much chocolate to begin with (I dont have a scale so I didnt weigh it)
Is it just me or does this frosting take FOREVER to whip. Mine took at least 40 minutes. I;m not exaggerating! I even stuck it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes then kept whipping it. I have a kitchen aid with a paddle attachment and followed the recipe exactly. Did I do something wrong? Did it take yours this long to whip up? I love your guys’ blog 🙂
It takes like, a minute 🙂 I see from your other comment that you didn’t measure your chocolate and that is definitely a must!
Thank you so much for this incredible receipe! Love it to bits… To the point I am always missing a lot of it before I put it on my cakes… Culprit? My own self! Anyways, I do have a small question, I am using this frosting to pipe on my cupcakes, perfect when the cupcakes are not in the sun or the heat. But the frosting turns a little sloppy (aka melts) when it is under the slightest temperature rise. Is there a solution to my small dilemma? Or would I have to use another receipe altogether? :S
Thx again for this wonderful receipe! 🙂
Yep, this recipe is so light, it’s pretty sensitive to heat. You could try chilling the cupcakes and just bringing them to room temp right before serving.
This cake is absolutely delicious, but it is VERY finicky. For anyone wondering, if you make the recipe as written at a high altitude, it will fall every time and make you say bad words. The modifications that I’ve found for an altitude similar to Salt Lake City (4000 feet) are to follow the directions given, but change the ingredients to:
12 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cup flour
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon hot water
1 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
Also, heat the oven to 375 rather than 350.
Oh, and one last thing. DON’T forget to flour the pans after greasing them, or your cake will stick and make you say bad words. There is a reason we call this the Sailor Cake around my house. It will make you swear like one.
I’m at 6200ft and these adjustments worked perfectly!! Thanks! Just wanted others at high altitude to know I tried and it works! Thanks!
Hi Sara 🙂
I’ve been searching for months for a chocolate frosting ACTUALLY made with real chocolate and was SO happy when I found this blog 😀
However I live in the UK and I don’t really know what I could replace the corn syrup with?
Would a thick simple syrup work? Not sure what corn syrup is like.
Thank you 🙂
Abbie x
Since it’s just a small amount, I’d probably use honey. It’s as close to the texture as you can get, and because it’s just a couple of tablespoons, it shouldn’t affect the overall flavor too much. Enjoy!
Thank you. I’m sure we will 🙂
My dreams were dashed yesterday when my cake was ready to be frosted, sink was full of dishes BUT my chocolate frosting had hard clumps in it. Hah! I cooked my sugar stuff way too long I guess, I was trying to go the 4-5 minutes…but that was no bueno. So, disaster frosting turned into removing hard sugar and using now chocolate sauce over my consoling bowl of vanilla ice cream. Yummy! And today, with a new carton of whipping cream purchased, and baby down for a nap, I head to the kitchen. This frosting is mine! And I will be enjoying a thick ol’ slice of cake tonight!
Lisa, I feel your pain! I made this tonight for my daughter’s bday and I cooked the butter/sugar mix too long or too high because when I poured it into the bowl with the melted chocolate and cream it seized up and I had lumps of caramel in my frosting. Totally upset. I’m not the world’s best baker but I’d like to think I’m actually pretty good – better than average. So when I use a cook’s illustrated recipe I really expect it to work. I follow the directions. When it said to cook it on medium for 4-5 minutes or until the sugar melts I cooked it for prob mess than 2 minutes. The sugar melted quickly and actually started turning brown by the time I pulled it off heat. The recipe should have mentioned not to overcook the sugar mixture or else your frosting would be ruined.
Thank you! I have been surfing the net for good chocolate frosting and yours is very well illustrated and look yummy! I’ll try this for my birthday cake.
Hello i just made this cake today, together with the frosting! I’m not sure about the taste yet cause it’s for a friend’s party… later haha. Anyway, my cake didn’t come out so dark, it was pretty light with a reddish tinge which I think is due to the fact that I used unsweetened cocoa powder (Cadbury Bournville). It was inconvenient for me to make an ice bath (just accept, don’t ask why!) and so I popped it in the freezer for like 5 mins and- voila!- all’s well! Will let you guys know of the taste but judging from previous comments, I think it shouldn’t be too bad at all!:)
I made this frosting for a cake and didn’t use it all. I put the rest in a tupperware in the fridge. A few days later I was cleaning out my fridge and thought, “That is probably rock hard, I’ll just toss it.” Wrong. It was the creamiest, most delicious, still very useable frosting. I ate the rest with a spoon.
My large rear-end thanks you!!!
I made it many years ago. Since I usually need frostings I can tint and pipe, I forgot about this recipe. I just made a batch to frost a dark chocolate cake and WOW– It is wonderful. So chocolatey but light and fluffy. Definitely the right texture for a plop and spread frosting, as it would never hold up in a bag. Add some sprinkles and relive your youth!