Chocolate Frosting with Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sugar

This post may contain affiliate links that won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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
Print Pin Rate

Want to save recipes? Create an account or login & then you can use the “Save Recipe” button when viewing a recipe to save it to your Recipe Box. You can access your saved recipes on any device and generate a shopping list for recipes in your collections.

Save To Your Recipe Box
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
Tried this recipe?Please take a moment to comment letting me know how you liked it & consider giving it a 5 star rating. I love hearing from you!
Do you have questions about saving recipes to your Recipe Box?Visit Recipe Box FAQ!

119 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I made this for my bundt cake and it turned out wonderful, everyone loved it. I had to be quick but I put roasted pecan pieces on top before frosting hardened. I definitely will be using this recipe again.Thank you for posting it. 🙂

      1. Is the nutritional info for 1 serving per person or the whole 2 cups of icing?

  2. I do that because about 90% of my readers ask for specifically what I used so instead of having to reply separately to 100s of comments between all my social channels and blog I make it easy for readers to get the information.

  3. This recipe has been my family’s go-to for generations, except we substitute coffee for the milk. It gives it a little extra something special without tasting like coffee.

    1. 5 stars
      I added salt and a little coffee and it went from a 7 to an immediate 10. I will definately make this frosting again.

  4. Good day maam how can i make chocolate icing for frosting through scratch?? I have already here but the problem is the chocolate icing is very runny ang i cant even plain it ..this is my agony right now i hope you can help me with this…..

    1. Not sure what happened if you used the measurements listed but you can add more powdered sugar to make it thicker.

    2. I have used this for grooms cakes and just cakes for years. I just use softened butter room temp or Crisco. It’s the best. Probably made thousands of lbs of it. It is thick ready to spread and stand in peaks.

  5. 5 stars
    Awesome recipes but I forget to place the plate on the salt while preparing cooker cakes n all cakes are pathetic. But today I’ll do exactly as you’ve shown n post a pic.❤️

  6. My mother made this frosting back in the early 50’s and all the time I was growing up. But instead of whole milk she used Carnation Evaporated Milk one can I believe. I don’t know if her amounts were the same. I have her recipe somewhere if I can find it.

    1. 5 stars
      Very Easy & Delish 😊 reminds me of my grandmother’s that she used to pour over butter cake. Be prepared to work fast as it hardens rather quickly. More of a thick glaze that holds onto the cake than a whippet frosting. Great Recipe

  7. Can we pour this on a cake with buttercream frosting? Will not melt down the frosting? Please advice.

    1. 5 stars
      This frosting does harden when it cools. I bulked up this recipe with a cup extra powdered sugar and a little extra butter. I know with baking one should measure exactly, but I tend to fudge my recipes. (pun intended!). I also used orange extract instead of the vanilla and used some clementine zest to add a subtle flavor to my frosting. I kept it on the warm burner (heat off) until I was ready to frost the cake. This kept it in a liquid state. Once the cake was cool, I drizzled the frosting so that it poured over the edges a bit. The frosting hardens and really keeps it’s shape. Much like a glaze over a pound cake. Ort does not soak in, it’s hard enough to stay right on the surface. The result was wonderful! I’ll be making this again.

  8. Love for chocolate can never end for me. So, yes, this recipe is for me. I bake cakes a lot, and I made this chocolate frosting for the very first time. Eventually, I put it on the top of the cake as well as I ate the leftover frosting, which made me say “wow.” Thanks!

  9. Can I melt the butter in the microwave & make the icing in a bowl instead of in a pot on the stove?

  10. 5 stars
    Easy and fast and great tasting. My go to recipe for chocolate cake icing and I have used a lot of different recipes.

  11. Is it really THAT good? Cause I’m using this for business Wednesday let’s see how my costumers like it!

  12. My mother made this, she’d make 2batches at one time. One for her and one for the cake! So happy to see the recipe hasn’t been list

  13. Is the butter in your recipes salted butter or unsalted butter? Thanks!

    1. I use salted, professional bakers recommend using unsalted. It reacts the same in the cake so it basically comes down to which you like the taste of better. Using unsalted just tastes bland to me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your email address will not be published. Have you tried this recipe? Consider giving it 5 stars!