Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting has a dreamy creamy texture with the best chocolate flavoring, made in just 10 minutes! The perfect choice to use on all of your favorite cakes and cupcakes!
This Cream Cheese Chocolate Frosting Is Dreamy!
This dreamy Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting brings new life to all of your favorite dessert recipes! It’s light and fluffy with a rich, sweet taste and a subtle tanginess from the cream cheese, making it a treat in and of itself!
It’s so good you’ll be licking it off the spoon before it even lands on cupcakes and cakes! Since this Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting whips up in 10 minutes using only 7 simple ingredients, there’s no reason NOT to reach for this recipe card instead of a tub from the store.
Any dessert that this frosting touches will instantly elevate it to bakery level! Including the moist Yellow Cupcakes pictured!
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe Ingredients
- Cream Cheese
- Salted Butter
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Salt
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Cream
- Vanilla Extract
When selecting ingredients for this recipe, it’s important to use high-quality butter and cream cheese. This is because the two are not only structure-building ingredients but also lay the foundation for the rich flavoring.
The higher the quality, the better tasting the frosting will be! Regarding butter, I’d recommend choosing between Kerrygold, Plugra, and Cabot. As for the cream cheese, I always reach for Philadelphia. However, it must be a solid block of cream cheese and not a container of whipped cream cheese.
What Brand of Cream Cheese is Best for Frosting?
In my opinion, the best brand of cream cheese for frosting is full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese. It’s high quality and full-fat content make for the best flavor with the creamiest texture!
Substitutions & Variations
- Unsalted Butter – Unsalted butter can replace salted butter if needed. To do so, add an additional 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the frosting recipe.
- Dark Cocoa Powder – To create dark chocolate cream cheese buttercream frosting, you can use special dark unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Heavy Cream – Half and half, whole milk, or coconut cream can be substituted for heavy cream. Just keep in mind that the frosting may not turn out as creamy!
- Consistency – You can create your desired consistency with this frosting by adding additional powdered sugar or additional heavy cream. I would suggest completing the chocolate frosting recipe as is first and then working to your desired consistency from there.
How To Make Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Step 1: Cream together 8 oz cream cheese with salted butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth.
Step 2: Add the confectioner’s sugar in 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition.
Step 3: Pour in the heavy cream and vanilla extract and beat at high speed until the chocolate buttercream frosting becomes light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl down using a rubber spatula as you go to ensure that all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.
Step 4: If needed, add more powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time, until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.
Favorite Ways To Use This Recipe For Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Put this chocolate frosting on ALL of your favorite desserts for added sweetness! From cupcakes to cakes, even Classic Maine Whoopie Pies and dessert bars, this frosting will be the perfect finish on everything!
- Cake – Try this frosting out on Chocolate Raspberry Cake or Yellow Butter Cake! You can also enjoy it on this Chocolate Pumpkin Cake for a delicious taste of Fall!
- Cupcakes – From Birthday Cupcakes to Chocolate Cupcakes, this frosting will add the perfect chocolate flavor finish!
- Cookies – Feel free to frost your favorite cookie recipes with this chocolate cream cheese frosting!
Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting Storage
This chocolate cream cheese buttercream frosting is best made and used on the same day! However, if you have leftover frosting, you can store it in an airtight container or Ziploc bag with the excess air squeezed out of it. Then store the frosting in the fridge to use within 2 days.
When using this frosting on baked goods, I am comfortable leaving the dessert out at room temperature for up to 24 hours since the amount of sugar in the frosting helps to control the water activity and spoilage. However, after 24 hours, I’d recommend storing the frosted dessert in the refrigerator.
Cream Cheese Chocolate Frosting FAQs
This Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting would make an excellent chocolate-on-chocolate cake! However, what frosting is best comes down to personal preference and what your taste buds enjoy most!
Besides this chocolate cream cheese buttercream, other delicious frosting choices would be Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting, American Buttercream Frosting, or as well as Nutella Frosting!
Often, cream cheese icing and cream cheese frosting are used interchangeably. However, the two are very different. Cream cheese icing is a thinner, glaze-like topping that’s ideally used on cinnamon rolls, muffins, or pastries.
Whereas cream cheese frosting has a thicker consistency that can hold its shape when it’s piped onto cupcakes and cakes.
Buttercream is a popular choice among professional bakers! From Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Italian Meringue Buttercream to American Buttercream Frosting and even Easy Russian Buttercream (Condensed Milk Frosting).
To firm up cream cheese frosting, you can slide it into the fridge to chill for a little bit. The cold temperature will harden the fats in the butter and cream cheese, giving it a firmer consistency.
If the cream cheese frosting isn’t setting, it’s possible that it was overmixed or that a low-quality cream cheese with too high of a water content was used. To fix this, add more powdered sugar or pop the bowl of frosting in the fridge.
A Ziploc bag with a little bit of the corner snipped off will work instead of a piping bag.
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Best Recipe for Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese 227g, softened
- ½ cup salted butter 114g, softened
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 55g sifted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups powdered sugar 720g, plus more if needed
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Cream together the 8 ounces cream cheese½ cup salted butter, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt until smooth.
- Add the 6 cups powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Then add ¼ cup heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla extractand beat at high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add more powdered sugar ½ cup at a time if needed to reach desired consistency. Use frosting as desired.
Notes
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Delicious! I paired it with the yellow cake cupcakes and it goes so well. Super chocolatey and the texture is perfect. Yum!