This classic fudgy homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe is rich, smooth, and absolutely perfect for covering chocolate cakes, cupcakes, or eating by the spoonful.
The completely delicious chocolate cream cheese frosting is everything you could ever want in a chocolate dessert.
If you’re looking for an easy frosting recipe that turns out perfectly with just a few basic ingredients, this is definitely the one to try because it is super thick and creamy!
The frosting can quickly be whipped up ahead of time and piped into stiff peaks. And it includes vegan, gluten free, and keto options too.
Also be sure to try this Chocolate Banana Bread
Above, watch the chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe video
Chocolate cream cheese icing ingredients
For the chocolate: this recipe uses regular cocoa powder to get that classic chocolate frosting flavor. If you add the optional 2 ounces of melted chocolate, it becomes even more deliciously dark, rich and chocolatey!
For the sweetener: powdered sugar (or erythritol for keto chocolate frosting) adds sweetness and texture to the icing, so it thickens and forms stiff peaks when whipped.
If you want frosting without powdered sugar, try this Healthy Chocolate Frosting.
The cream cheese: feel free to use your favorite regular cream cheese. For vegan frosting, you can make your own cashew cream cheese. Or use a brand such as Tofutti, Trader Joes, or Kite Hill.
The other ingredients include milk of choice, butter (once again, vegan versions can easily be used for frosting without butter), and pure vanilla extract.
For something completely different, this Chocolate Hummus also makes a great chocolate frosting!
Chocolate Frosting Recipes
Coffee Chocolate Frosting: Whip half a teaspoon of instant coffee into the frosting recipe below. Or use brewed espresso instead of the milk.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Omit the cocoa powder, decrease the pure vanilla extract to one teaspoon, and only add the milk if needed.
Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheese: Use coconut milk as the milk of choice, and add a handful of shredded coconut and optional one eighth teaspoon of coconut extract.
How to make cream cheese chocolate frosting
Let the cream cheese and butter come to room temperature.
Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer or or stand mixer. It can also technically be mixed by hand, but that version won’t have as much of a whipped and fluffy texture.
If the chocolate frosting is too thick, very slowly add more milk. Or if it’s too thin, beat in more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired thickness.
The recipe does not need to be refrigerated if you’re only leaving it out for a few hours at a party in a cool room or while transporting a frosted chocolate cake to an event.
Due to the perishable ingredients, I recommend covering leftover frosting and storing leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Shown above, on this Keto Cake Recipe
Forget the store bought chocolate frosting, ganache, and buttercream. You’ll want to put this chocolate cream cheese frosting over everything!
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- optional 2 oz melted chocolate
- 8 oz cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
- 1/4 cup butter or vegan butter
- 1 1/2 – 3 cups powdered sugar, or erythritol for keto
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 – 4 tbsp milk of choice
Instructions
- Let cream cheese and butter spread come to room temperature. Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer or stand mixer (or by hand, which won’t be as whipped and fluffy but still works). If too thick, very slowly add more milk of choice. If too thin, add additional powdered sugar. Cover and refrigerate leftover frosting for up to a week.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Ways to use chocolate frosting
I allergic to nuts- what can I substitute for the.almond flour?
This cake is awesome! If I didn’t make it myself I would never know it was Keto! The only issue I ran into is at 14 minutes the cake was jiggly in the middle so I had to cook it until it was done (28 min). I believe this was due to my using Allulose, which absorbs more water. It was still moist, but I wish I would’ve pulled it out 5 minutes earlier. The frosting covered 2 layers. Thank you for this recipe!
extremely delicious frosting
I absolutely love this frosting when on a keto! Very decadent! Makes me feel like I’m not dieting (on my keto chocolate cake served with blue, rasp and straw berries) yum!
Simple and simply delicious!
Hi Katie,
I’m planning to make this frosting for my husband’s birthday cake 🙂
I’m not sure what type of chocolate to melt. Would this be unsweetened baker’s chocolate or something different?
Thanks so much!
Hi! This can just be regular chocolate chips (the sweetened kind you use for chocolate chip cookies). Or you can absolutely omit the melted chocolate.
For the optional melted chocolate, is that chocolate chips, chocolate bar, or no sugar baking chocolate?
This frosting is quite good. I made 1/2 batch for an 8″ cake and it was quite a thick layer. I used Truvia confectioners sweetener and it was quite delicious with no aftertaste or cooling sensation.
This is awesome chocolate cake and icing! Easy to make and does not taste like it is sugar free! Great recipe! Thank you.
This is a delicious, easy recipe, and so easy to customize! I use the optional extra chocolate (I used 100% chocolate buttons), 1 1/2 cups of powdered erythritol, and no added milk. Although I tried to get the butter and cream cheese to the (same) room temperature, I still had small lumps in the frosting at first. So my easy fix was to stick the bowl (I used a glass bowl) in the microwave at lowest power (200 W, in my case) for about 30 seconds. I did this a couple of times until I could see that the frosting visually appeared a bit “softer”, and then when I whipped it up again, it was perfectly glossy, just like in the pictures here 🙂 This recipe made plenty to frost a two-later 8-inch round chocolate cake (Katie’s recipe). Of course, if you want an extremely generous frosting with lots of decorative chocolate frosting flowers piped, for example, you may need to scale this recipe up a bit. Finally, even with only 1 1/2 cups of powdered erythritol, I found it slightly too sweet for my taste, so next time I’ll try 1 cup, or maybe ever a little less. Nonetheless, this is an excellent recipe and one that I will use often! I’d love to try this adding a little orange extract for a chocolate-orange flavour… yum!