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.
How much time does the frosting take to thicken in the refrigerator?
And how long did it take to come to room temperature?
Looks A-Maz-ing!!
Mine took a few hours to totally solid up. To come back to room temperature, about an hour. If it’s still a bit cold, it will still be fine 🙂 I’ve done it both ways and have gotten a smoother consistency when I let it come all the way back to room temperature , though!
Hi Shelly, Super excited to try this. I don’t have that much time to solidify the chocolate in the fridge – is it a good idea to freeze it? Thanks!
You can… just as long as you bring it back to room temperature before mixing!
I love easy frostings! This one looks so good! I tried a frosting one time that was just melted chocolate and sour cream, I was skeptical at first but it turned out to be so good!
OH! I need that recipe! How cool!
This is the recipe from the old Time-Life series, Foods of the World, the American volume (page 182):
Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
18 oz semisweet chocolate bits
1/4 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups sour cream, with the fridge chill off or even slightly warmed.
Melt the chocolate in microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in the other ingredients. Frost the cake.
The miracle of this frosting is the texture while warm — it spreads like whipped cream. So easy and forgiving. Then, when it cools off, the chocolate firms the whole thing up to a texture like fudge. Perfect.
Amazing! TOTALLY trying this!
Please don’t take this as an offence but I hate the fact that you need so much butter. You could have added honey instead. I have my own baking blog and I figured out that you can use cocoa powder, a little bit of butter, and honey to make amazing buttercream. You should try it.
BUTTERcream.
Love this. Can’t wait to try it! Have you tried other chips such as butterscotch etc?
I haven’t yet, but a few people have asked me the same question and I think an experiment needs to be had!
is the butter salted or unsalted??
I use salted, but you can use either!
Do you know how many cupcakes this recipe will frost if you make a swirl on top of them? Thanks!
How nice not to have to worry about powdered sugar and whether you can get it stiff enough without making it sickeningly sweet! What a simple/wonderful recipe. I might eat it all before it makes it onto a cake though….
Can I just say that I am THE WORST at making chocolate frosting. Whew confession!
Wow! I definitely have to try this. I’ve done the Wilton Chocolate buttercream and all I have to say is YUCK. I like the vanilla version but there’s just something about adding cocoa to it that turns it nasty! Thanks so much for the post. My mom loves whipped type of frosting and she’s turned off by the chocolate wilton version too, so now I hope we have an alternative!
This buttercream looks amazingly good!!
Simply delicious. Super fast, love it!
I’ve never seen a technique like this before! This is pretty amazing. Out of curiosity, have you ever tried it using white chocolate chips? I’d assume it’d be the same result but wasn’t sure if the sugar/fat content would be off.
Either way, this is absolutely on my Must Try list!
What is this sorcery?! That looks absolute delish and I love the simple procedure – though I imagine it being hard waiting for it to get to the solid block state 😉
My thoughts exactly! What is this sorcery!? If this works for me I will never make another iceing! Thank You!