This chocolate buttercream is light, fluffy, and decadent.
The perfect match for chocolate cupcakes.
Buttercream is pretty simple but there are definitely some tips and tricks that make
an okay buttercream turn into one of the most delicious things you’ve ever tasted.
I’ve shared with you how to make perfect vanilla buttercream and ever since I’ve
had constant questions about how to make it chocolate flavoured.
To make the chocolate buttercream it starts off like the vanilla buttercream.
You’ll need one cup or 2 stick of room temperature butter.
It’s very important that your butter is at room temperature, if it’s straight out
of the fridge there is no way you’ll be able to cream it so just remove it about an
hour or so before your ready to get started.
Place your butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl if you are using a hand mixer.
Mix on medium speed first, before increasing it to high speed for about 5 minutes or until
the butter is pale, and has almost doubled in volume.
You’ll need to use a stand mixer or a hand mixer for this recipe.
If you do try to make the chocolate buttercream by hand it’s almost impossible to get the
light and fluffy texture as you would need to be whipping the butter for hours.
If you would like the full recipe for this chocolate buttercream it will be on my website
as well as the full measurements listed in the description box below.
Make sure to subscribe to my channel and take a look at my other buttercream recipes.
Make sure to use a spatula a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl so there
is nothing getting stuck.
One question I get often with buttercream is do I need to use unsalted or salted butter
for this recipe.
In my opinion use whichever you have on hand.
I almost always have salted butter so that’s what I use.
You don’t get a salty taste to the buttercream, there is so much sugar that overpowers any
salt so it just helps to balance out the flavour.
When your butter is incredibly light a fluffy it’s time for the sugar.
You need to use icing sugar for this recipe, it is also known as powdered sugar or confectioners
sugar depending on where you live in the world.
They are all the same ingredient, just make sure your not using regular granulated sugar
as this won’t work.
You’ll need 5 cups or 625 grams which may seem like a lot but you will need this much.
Vanilla buttercream only needs 3 cups but as we’re adding cocoa powder to this recipe
the extra sugar helps to balance out the sweetness and take away any bitter flavour from the
cocoa powder.
It’s easiest to add your sugar in thirds, so it incorporates faster and you don’t
end up losing half of it outside the bowl.
Mix on low speed first until it is mostly incorporated before turning the mixer up higher.
When are are ready to add the last lot of sugar to the bowl also add the half cup of
cocoa powder.
Just regular unsweetened works best here.
Mix the last of the sugar and cocoa powder on low speed until it is mostly incorporated.
It should be extremely thick and not resemble much like buttercream but we’ve still got
another ingredient to add.
You might be wondering why we’re not using real chocolate in this recipe.
The simple reason for this is I’ve tried both ways and you don’t get much of a difference
using real chocolate.
The cocoa powder carries so much flavour and this buttercream already has the perfect texture
so there really is no need for real chocolate.
If you disagree, try this recipe and let me know your thoughts afterwards.
Turn your mixer on to low and stream in about half a cup of milk or cream.
I usually use milk but cream works too.
You may need more than this but just start off with half a cup first and check the consistency.
As the milk or cream is incorporated your buttercream should loosen up and start to
look light and fluffy.
Add more milk if it’s still too thick but just a dash at a time.
Give the bowl another scrap down to get all of sugar and butter that has stuck to the
sides and add touch of vanilla essence, and mix it on medium speed for another few minutes.
Even though this is chocolate buttercream the vanilla really deepens the chocolate flavour.
You should be left with most softest, fluffiest, and delicious chocolate buttercream you’ve
ever tasted.
Perfect for piping over cupcakes or using to decorate a layer cake.
If you have any questions put them in the comments below and I will get back to you.
Let me know if you are going to try this recipe, I would love to see a picture.
Thank you for watching and I will see you in my next video.