I’ll show you how to make thick, creamy chocolate fudge frosting with only 2 ingredients: melted chocolate and butter. It’s smooth, chocolatey, and perfect for frosting cakes and cupcakes.
This is an easy alternative to classic buttercream frosting that’s quick to make and just as versatile. Try my pourable chocolate ganache for another delicious cake topping!
This chocolate fudge frosting is like a whipped, spreadable, pipeable version of chocolate fudge. And you need just 2 ingredients, chocolate and butter, to melt on the stovetop! Since it’s made without powdered sugar, the frosting isn’t overly sweet, and just the right amount of fudgy. Once you’ve made 2-ingredient chocolate frosting, you’ll be hard-pressed to go back to anything store-bought again.
Why This Chocolate Fudge Frosting Recipe Works
- Only 2 ingredients. Traditional chocolate buttercream frosting calls for a short list of ingredients, including heavy whipping cream. But all you need to make this frosting is 1) a package of chocolate chips and 2) plenty of butter.
- Thick, stable buttercream. Melted chocolate thickens this fudge frosting without powdered sugar, for an extra-rich, stable consistency. It holds its shape well, whether you spread it, pipe it, or otherwise. Unlike some whipped cream-based frostings, this chocolate frosting is resistant to melting, leaking, and wilting at room temperature.
- Easy method. You don’t need any fancy tools to make creamy chocolate frosting. A stand mixer makes things easier, but an electric hand mixer works, too.
Ingredients You’ll Need
I’ve included some quick ingredient notes for this chocolate fudge frosting recipe below. You’ll find the full, printable recipe with amounts in the recipe card after the post.
- Chocolate Chips – I recommend semi-sweet chocolate chips. The better quality chocolate you use, the better your frosting will be. You can also make this frosting with chopped chocolate bars (like you’ll find from Lindt, Ghirardelli, or Guittard). You may find that chopped chocolate melts more smoothly than chocolate chips.
- Butter – This recipe calls for a good amount of butter. I use salted butter, but it’s a preference, and you can absolutely make it with unsalted butter if you prefer.
How to Make Chocolate Fudge Frosting
The key here is to not overheat the chocolate and butter, which can cause the chocolate to seize. Melt the ingredients slowly and stir often. It’s worth mentioning that this method also works with white chocolate chips (see my white chocolate frosting). Follow the steps here, and scroll down for the printable recipe card.
- Melt the chocolate. First, combine the chocolate and butter in a saucepan. Keep that over low heat and stir often while it melts. It will look thin from all that melted butter.
- Cool. Once melted, take the saucepan off the heat. Cool the mixture completely, and chill it in the fridge until it’s solid. The butter might separate as it cools, but that’s OK. The mixer will take care of that!
- Whip the frosting. When you’re ready to whip your buttercream, transfer the solid chocolate/butter mixture to your mixing bowl and bring it back to room temperature. Once softened, whip the frosting. It takes about 2 minutes to get it light, thick, and fluffy. That’s it! Your chocolate fudge frosting is ready to use.
Ways to Use It
This recipe makes enough chocolate fudge frosting to fill and frost an 8-inch two-layer cake or 24 cupcakes. Pro tip: Use the “2x” and “3x” options in the recipe card to scale the recipe as needed. And if you need some inspiration, here are a few easy ways to use your fresh, fudgy frosting:
- Cakes. Use this frosting to frost and fill a frosted fudge cake or classic yellow cake.
- Cupcakes. Pipe or spread this frosting over your favorite homemade vanilla cupcakes, or try it in place of the peanut butter frosting in my banana cupcakes!
- Brownies. I think this chocolate fudge frosting would be amazing slathered over a batch of fudgy brownies or buckeye brownies.
- Cookies. Spread your frosting over chocolate sugar cookies or pipe it between two chewy chocolate chip cookies to make a cookie sandwich.
How to Store Homemade Frosting
- Refrigerate. This homemade chocolate buttercream frosting lasts up to 1 week in the fridge. Store it in an airtight container and bring it back to room temperature before you use it. I recommend re-whipping the frosting, too, to bring back the fluffy texture.
- Freeze. You can freeze this frosting for up to 1 month. Thaw it in the fridge and bring it back to room temperature. Again, give the frosting a fresh whip before you frost your cakes or cupcakes.
More Easy Frosting Recipes
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups (approx.) 1x
- Category: Frosting
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Description
This 2-ingredient chocolate fudge frosting makes a thick, creamy, chocolatey frosting that’s perfect for frosting cakes and cupcakes!
Ingredients
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 pound (2 cups) butter
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate chips and butter over medium-low heat, whisking frequently.
- When melted, cool completely and chill until solid.
- Remove from the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature.
- Put all the chocolate in a mixing bowl and beat on medium for 2 minutes until light in color and fluffy.
Notes
- Makes enough frosting to fill and frost an 8″ layer cake, or frost 24 cupcakes.
- Store refrigerated, but allow to come back to room temperature before serving.
Have you used unsalted butter?
Hi Shelley,
How long does it take for this to chill solid? I’ve had the melted butter and chips in the fridge for an hour and a half. What’s happened is the chocolate has sunk to the bottom and is more solid and the butter is “liquidy” on the top. Can you give me some guidance? Can I put it in the freezer to speed things up or will that wreck it?
Thanks for your help!
It might take up to 2 hours. It will happen, I promise!
OMGoodness – this may be an answer to my prayers! My DH is Type II diabetic and although it is easy to cook s/f for him, for years I have played around with trying to make a decent s/f icing of some sort. (The best I have done so far is whipping heavy cream and adding a large box of s/f pudding – it tastes fine and creamy but you can’t use it to pipe, etc). I have tried so many recipes not using confectioner sugar and nothing was ever right. Because he is Type II diabetic, he is supposed to eat low carb anyway (and mostly does – he is very good at this) – but on low carb (Atkins type diet), he can eat butter and chocolate (chips or block) with little to no consequences – so this chocolate icing is PERFECT for someone like him! A REAL frosting using no confectioners sugar – just amazing! I just made a huge batch of apple blondies which will be his dessert most of the week – but you can bet that the next dessert I make will be s/f cake of some kind but with THIS frosting on it! Oh now I am so excited that I can make him a great s/f cake and it can have actual frosting on it! Oh happy days! Thank you, thank you, thank you – I cannot wait to make this! (And because DH is Type II but eats low carb, I always keep 12-16 lbs of butter in one of my freezers (I stock up at Sams) – and who doesn’t keep good chocolate chips or blocks of chocolate in their freezer for baking? So voila! I don’t even need to go to the store! Oh now I am so excited about trying this ASAP!
I have no idea what went wrong, but my frosting was gross! I made it for a birthday cake, I was so sad that it was not edible. I don’t know what went wrong 🙁
Does this buttercream crust over/dry out so its easier to smooth out with paper towels and stuff…like is it touchable? 🙂
Yep!
This looks absolutely delicious and simple! If I’m short on time, could I cool this in the freezer instead of the fridge, or would that mess up the texture/consistency perhaps?
Could you make this using ghee?
I wish I could answer this for you, but I have never tried it!
Hi Shelly, what brand chocolate did you use? and for those who said it was really bitter, what brand of semi sweet choc did you use? i’m thinking of making this in the next couple of days. tia
I prefer Callebaut or Guittard, but Ghiradelli is great too!
Hi, Shelly! I came across your frosting recipe the other day and was intrigued! So, I pretty much had to make an excuse to try it. 🙂 Just made it today. I halved the recipe, as I only needed to frost 12 cupcakes. Followed the directions to a T and I did get the fluffy, light, beautiful looking frosting as in the pictures above: super easy really, just needed some preplanning as it took me about 4 hours from start to finish. Maybe because I am used to the excessively sweet traditional buttercream frosting with tons of powdered sugar in it, I found this one on the bitter and somehow blander side. I added 1 tsp vanilla extract, to see if that would help the flavor a little. I guess it made some difference in terms of flavor but not in terms of sweetness (obviously). I am thinking maybe 1 cup or so of powdered sugar would solve this problem (for those of us who find this frosting lacking in this department). Or, I would try making it with milk chocolate chips or white chocolate. I am assuming that the frosting would be considerably sweeter then. Otherwise, I have to say, it came together so easily and piped so beautifully, it is definitely worth more tries and tweaking. Thank you, Shelly!
Made this!! {Preface- love light creamy frosting, not quite so much the gritty super powdered sugar buttercream, which is why I tred this recipe}
5 stars in: texture, fluff, light, color, easy.
1 star in taste. Using the semisweet chocolate chips and salted butter, it was was just really bitter. I was dissapointed because looked so lovely and amazing. Because of everything else I love about it, I’m going to try the white chocolate version as those chips are so much sweeter, but not overly sweet. Maybe even a milk chocolate chip version.