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.

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 near impossible to get out once the sugar is stirred into the mixture.

Another tip, ok, 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.

I include specific products that I use because I’ve had success in that particular recipe with that particular product. Many readers ask me specifically what brands/products I use. I had a reader fuss at me because I recommended products that may not be available to everyone. I’m a real person behind your screen. I’m doing the very best I can to give you tested recipes that you can make successfully and one way to help you, in my opinion, is to tell you exactly what I use. Thank you for reading for visiting Call Me PMc. I sincerely hope you found recipes you like and will come back time after time. 

*The calorie count is for the whole recipe.

You can also find great recipes at my recipe index 

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. I have always had difficulty making icing for my cakes. Spreading it was always done badly. This recipe was easy to make, easy to pour over the cake, looked decorative and tasted great! I had planned to scrape out the pan later, but someone beat me to it. Next time I am including a spoonful of instant coffee! Thank you!

  2. 5 stars
    OMG…this is the best frosting and so quick and easy…Thank You so much

  3. Mine came out hard as it cools. Not good! ((Sigh!) Maybe I shouldnt heat everything from the ingredients next time. Just mix all the ingredients together. Well, maybe!

  4. Why can’t you just use plain granulated sugar for this ? Does it help in the thickness to use powdered sugar ?

  5. This was the easiest frosting to make. I used it to frost a bundt cake. My kids loved it.

  6. Looking for coffee cake chocolate frosting. Have you ever tried a bit of coffee in this?

    1. I have not, but it would be delicious. Replace some of the liquid with cold coffee depending on how strong of a coffee flavor you want.

      1. 5 stars
        This recipe is exactly what I was looking for. My mother used to make this icing with coffee, and I forgot all about it. I made it with 1/2 milk and 1/2 brewed coffee, so it has a faint coffee taste. And yes, it is delicious!

  7. I’m looking for a chocolate frosting that’s cooked stove top. Pour it over the cake, It cools to a slightly hardened (crack) stage. Old church sister used to make it all the time. That’s all I remember of it. I regret I never got the recipe from her.

    1. From the looks of the picture, I think I found it in your post for “Chocolate Coca-Cola cake” or “Diet Dr Pepper® Texas Sheet Cake”. I’ll try both!😊

    2. My grandmother used to make that kind of frosting. I have been looking for it for years. I remember cocoa, Crisco, Milk and sugar…. But I remember her putting it on the cake really quick because it would get hard, like a fudge stage hard..OMGoodness. On yellow cake was the best. I hope this is it 🙂

      1. My mother made the same kind. Regretfully, i didnt get her recipe before she passed away. I’ll try this one.

      1. Not the same. Ganache is made with heavy cream just to boiling stage then poured over chocolate chips.

  8. How long will this frosting last in the fridge? It’s delicious, just made it. First time ever making frosting. I hope the cake turns out well

  9. Thanks for the recipe. My grandma (who died at age 103 in 2010) used to make the best little chocolate cake with a frosting like this. I’m looking online for comparable recipes because although my cousin and our grandma wrote these recipes down, they aren’t necessarily accurate – she grew up on a farm in North Dakota where everything was done literally by hand and by feel – from the pie crust dough to the oven temp. My mom and i attempted this cake and frosting 15 years ago… it’s time for me to try again!

    1. I understand!! My Granny was the same way. She made a dessert she called a Peach Roll that was absolutely amazing and I can’t get it right for the life of me.

  10. Linda, We made this when I was a child. Mother always called it 3,6,9 icing. It is great stuff especially if you are lucky enuf to get to lick the pan clean. Thanks for putting it online….fond memories (this is great on Mayonnaise Cake)

  11. I don’t have any milk but I have sweetened condensed milk. Can I use it in place of regular milk?

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