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
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
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Ways to use chocolate frosting
Colleen says
Is it possible to just eat this without any actual cake? Ha, ha, ha!
How can you go wrong with chocolate and cream cheese. Win, win!
CCK Media Team says
We definitely have eaten it straight with a spoon 🙂
Emily says
Will this recipe make enough for a double layer 8in round cake? Or would we need to double the recipe?
Hilde says
5 stars;)
Ramona says
Good Frosting. Thank you!
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Alison says
I’m on a keto diet and made this for a friend who just had a baby. I licked the spatula and it was DELICIOUS! Like… DECADENT! I did have a little trouble with the frosting being a smooth consistency. I think perhaps I didn’t bring my cream cheese to room temperature all the way. There were little lumps throughout. But that was my mistake. Flavor is 1000%! I can’t wait to make the keto chocolate cake and frost it with this later tonight! So indulgent! Thank you!!
sherry b says
Love the flavor of this frosting!!! I have a question about the Erythritol. The recipe says 1 1/2-3 cups of powdered sugar or erythritol. Is the amount for erythritol the same as the powdered sugar? I put in 1 1/2 cups. It seemed like too much when I was pouring it in, but it tasted delicious!!!
CCK Media Team says
Hi, many people do find erythritol a bit sweeter than sugar. Thank you so much for making it!
Gail says
Why can’t i get tne receipt for the brownies or any of these receipts
Ruth says
I am new to keto baking. Is swerve confectioners the same as erythritol?
CCK Media Team says
That works!
Carol says
Made for a birthday cake & it was a hit! Mine was not as chocolatey dark but very yummy cake! The frosting is delicious did add a tad of butter and good enough to eat it from the bowl but still had enough for the cake. Thanks! So hard to find good tasting food without the flour or sugar. 🙂
Audrie says
This vegan chocolate cake is my absolute fave. This time I did try oat flour, I liked it also. When I make this cake I cut it into slices and freeze then. Desert is always near !!!
Michele says
Just made it…delicious!!!
Alina says
Hi ! This sounds delicious and since my husband is sticking to keto now want to surprise him on his bday with something yummy was wondering how far in advance can I make this cake ??
CCK Media Team says
Hi! You can treat it like a regular cake and make it one to two days in advance if you wish 🙂
Agata says
We love this cake but only on the next day. It is our favorite recipe and the only reason why I am not giving it max stars is that it doesn’t taste good at room temperature. It taste good after a whole day in fridge! Also it does have a little heavy aftertaste but considering that on keto it’s hard to get a really good birthday cake – this is our favorite so far!
Stephanie Ripley says
Do I have to turn the monk fruit sweetener into powdered sugar or use as is? Super excited to make this!
Carrie says
Flavor and consistency turned out great, but it left a peppery burn in my mouth that wasn’t very appealing. Not sure what went wrong. Any idea?
CCK Media Team says
Hi Carrie, this is made with just basic ingredients so it sounds like an issue related to a specific brand you used. What type of sweetener did you use?
Liz says
I had this issue and used Natvia sweetener (with erythritol). My daughter said it made her throat feel funny.
Melanie says
This made too much for a one layer cake, so Ieft the rest in the fridge for several weeks, having a spoonful when I craved something chocolatey and sweet. Excellent recipe.
Elise says
I’m so excited to make this. Did you use salted or unsalted butter?
Valerie Lake says
Made this frosting to go with the low carb chocolate cake, hands down the best low carb frosting I have ever tasted. They compliment each other superbly. Thank you for both recipes they will certainly be a staple in our house.
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it!
J Perry says
Amazing frosting!!! Used half sweetener powdered sugar and real powdered sugar. besides that tweak I followed the recipe
Debra says
Hi. I’m from the UK. Could you tell me how many grams there are in 1 cup? I’ve looked online but it varies. Thanks 🙂
Margarida says
Same question here!!
Joyce Armour says
Half a cup is 115g
Joyce Armour says
Half a cup of butter is 115g
LL says
Can we substitute the cream cheese with cream cheese Spread?
LL says
Never mind I found the answer. [For anyone who might need this too.] It’s a yes BUT we need to mix sugar and butter first then add in the cream cheese spread so it doesn’t become too runny!
Karen says
No. It’s very differeny.
NoVA Mom says
I love to cook but am not much of a baker and think this may actually be the first time I’ve ever made frosting. It is absolutely amazing!!! I doubled the recipe but used only about 2 cups of Monk Fruit sweetener and no optional melted chocolate; otherwise followed the recipe (with quantities doubled) exactly as written. I needed several more tablespoons of milk as I was mixing because it was thick, but the extra milk made it the perfect consistency — it turned out creamy and easily spreadable. And MAN OH MAN is it good!
My bowl of frosting sat out for about 4 hours while my brownies cooled then were refrigerated, after which it was really easy to spread my icing on top. It is scrumptious! I love the Keto Brownies recipe too, but this icing is even better!!!! We’d never frosted brownies before but it was for a birthday so we did this in lieu of cake. Everyone agreed, that was a good call : )
Have I mentioned how amazing and delicious this icing is? Soooooo good. My child (former chocoholic, now low-carb, no-sugar-diet) child and I give it four enthusiastic thumbs up! Thank you for the great recipes!
CCK Media Team says
This makes us so happy 🙂
Fiona says
Great icing recipe. I use it for your vegan chocolate cake recipe (which is out go-to cake!) and I add coffee to it as I do the cake. Scrumptious!
Deirdre says
This is the best recipe! Not only is it easy to make it’s absolutely decadent!!! I made this with vegan cream cheese and vegan butter and you would never know any difference. Everyone loved it.
Pam says
YUM!, I had some cream cheese that needed to be used (actually neufchatel cheese) and a one layer yellow cake in need of frosting. It worked out great, just made 1/2 recipe. Used the 4 oz. neufchatel cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp milk, 1/4 c. cocoa powder and 1 tsp vanilla. I didn’t add the optional chocolate. It’s so creamy, not too sweet and good chocolate flavor. I agree with the others it was hard not to just eat it out of the bowl.
Definitely a keeper, thank you!
Susan says
Can someone please tell me how much erythritol to use for the frosting? The recipe says 1 1/2 – 3 cups. Thank you!
Joyce Armour says
I use 1 and a half when making a single layer cake – I find that ample!
Ioanna Mathioudaki says
Is this recipe enough for a double layer 8 inch chocolate cake?
smatchell says
This is super delicious and it was great on the brownies! I do have some left over though, can I freeze it?
CCK Media Team says
Hi! We have never tried it so are not sure how the texture would be. Be sure to report back if you try!
Anna says
This is the best chocolate icing ever. It is hard to get a cake frosted with it because little helpers help themselves to it with little spoons. Thank you, Katie, for the Keto chocolate cake recipe and the frosting!
CCK Media Team says
This makes us so happy 🙂
Tina says
Can I use pouring cream instead of milk
CCK Media Team says
Sure 🙂
Bailey says
I see this question has been left unanswered a couple times: is this enough frosting for a double layer 8in cake? Another unanswered question: salted or unsalted butter?
Kathy says
I allergic to nuts- what can I substitute for the.almond flour?
Marilyn Evans says
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!
Angelica says
extremely delicious frosting
Joyce Armour says
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!
Ellen says
Simple and simply delicious!
Eileen Civin says
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!
CCK Media Team says
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.
Nitro says
For the optional melted chocolate, is that chocolate chips, chocolate bar, or no sugar baking chocolate?
Karen says
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.