Easy Chocolate Icing is a 5 minute recipe made using the food processor. Super quick, basic and using simple ingredients we pull together this chocolate spread. This easy chocolate icing recipe works for brownies, chocolate cupcakes, birthday cakes, vanilla cake and more!
Recipes like the Microwave Chocolate Fudge, Mint Aero Fudge and the Chocolate Orange Fudge are all about easy chocolate recipes.
The Chocolate Zucchini Brownies use this recipe as a means to frost the brownies.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about this easy chocolate frosting recipe in the points below:
- Everyday ingredients: you might find that you have all of the ingredients needed to make the recipe in the cupboard and fridge already!
- Budget friendly: store-bought frosting is great. It is convenient, handy to have in the cupboard and a great go to as needed. Homemade frosting on the other hand can be cheaper than buying premade frosting 😉👍.
- Versatile: this chocolate icing can be used to frost a wide variety of baked goods. Be it cakes, cupcakes, brownies, muffins and more.
- Super easy: throw everything in the food processor and let it do the job. No hard work for you involved. It is possibly the easiest recipe I have ever shared on the blog.
- Super quick: turn the dial to blitz, give it a few pulses, a scrape down and the icing will magically come together. Its a one minute chocolate frosting that will take a total of 5 minutes of your time to make.
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the homemade chocolate icing. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.
As you can see the recipe calls for:
- Vanilla essence: vanilla essence or vanilla extract. The difference between them being that vanilla essence is a synthetic form of vanilla whereas vanilla extract is an extract of natural product. A small amount of vanilla is all we need for the recipe.
- Butter: regular, unsalted butter is perfect. I like to use a soft, creamy French butter. The type you use won't make too much difference to the recipe. It does help to chop the butter into small pieces so that the ingredients are evenly weighted when you put them into the food processor.
- Milk: the milk you see in the photo above is cow's milk. You can however, use a variety of different milks to make the frosting.
- Cocoa powder: soft, chocolatey and rich this is an excellent ingredient to use when baking. Unsweetened cocoa powder is what we need.
- Icing sugar: soft and sweet. This is also known as confectioner's sugar. It is a great sugar to use in glazes, frosting and icing recipes.
Tasty Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making the recipe. If in doubt of any of the above ingredients, or wanting alternatives, read this section (further below) before jumping into the instructions on how to make the recipe which are coming next 😉👌.
🍳 Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. We start by adding the ingredients to the food processor like you can see me doing in the images below.
- Add icing sugar (Photo 1)
- Then add cocoa powder (Photo 2)
- Add milk (Photo 3)
- Add vanilla essence (Photo 4)
👩🍳 How to Make Easy Chocolate Icing
To make the chocolate icing recipe start by adding the icing sugar to the bowl of a food processor. Then add the cocoa powder, milk and vanilla essence.
- Add the butter (Photo 5)
Next add the cubed butter as you see in the photo above.
- Blitz to combine (Photo 6)
Once all of the ingredients are in the food processor, give it a blitz for 5-10 seconds.
Then remove the lid and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Once done, place the lid back on and give the ingredients another blitz for 5-10 seconds and then use the spatula to transfer the combined frosting to a small bowl.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
Once your chocolate icing is made, you can use it to frost your baked goods. It is best to wait for them to cool first as otherwise the icing will melt and slide off, but once they are cool you are good to go.
Here is the frosting with the Chocolate Chip Zucchini Brownies.
The bold chocolate flavor of the icing really helps to enhance the fudgy taste of the brownies. Its a winning combination 👌.
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
Store leftover frosting in a bowl with cling wrap over the top or in a sealed, airtight container. It can be kept for 4-5 days.
How to Freeze
I do not recommend freezing the chocolate icing.
😉 Substitutions and Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- You can use cacao powder in place of the cocoa powder (equivalent amount) if you wish too.
- When it comes to the milk you can use cow's milk or plant based milks such as almond milk or coconut milk.
- Either vanilla essence or vanilla extract can be used for the recipe.
- You can reduce the quantity of cocoa powder used in the recipe for a less intense rich chocolate flavor if you wish to.
- For a slightly thicker consistency to the frosting, you can add a little bit more powdered sugar.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- For best results sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder. However, if you are flat out and have no time, you can add these ingredients as they are.
- When icing baked goods such as brownies, cakes, muffins or cupcakes, you need to let them cool before icing them. Otherwise as they are still hot (warm) the icing will simply slide right off.
- If the icing has been in the fridge it will firm up. So grab it out of the fridge and let it sit on the bench to come to room temperature. Doing so will make it much easier to spread your icing.
- This amount of icing will cover a full batch of brownies. But you can easily double the recipe if you are wanting to ice a double layer chocolate cake or baked goods with more coverage needed than a batch of brownies.
- If egg white desserts are more your thing, try the 6 Egg Pavlova or the 8 Egg Pavlova recipes 😉👍.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the simplest type of icing?
The simplest type of icing to make is one where you don't have to use an electric mixer or a stand mixer to make it. Glazes which are simply stirred together as well as icing that can be done in the food processor are simple ways to making icing.
What is the difference between chocolate frosting and icing?
Chocolate frosting has a texture that is fluffy and thick. It is like cream which can be used to fill the insides of 2 layers of cake. Yet normally this is called 'buttercream frosting' as normal frosting can be like icing sugar. Icing on the other hand is thin, used to spread a layer on top of baked goods and has a smooth and non fluffy or puffed up texture.
Is ganache the same as icing?
Ganache is a type of icing made from using melted chocolate. Regular icing is made from confectioners sugar and cocoa powder. Ganache also has a thicker consistency than regular chocolate icing.
😍 More Easy Chocolate Recipes
If chocolate is your thing (I can understand why 😉👍!). Then here are some more ideas to inspire you:
- Chocolate Caramel Slice
- Dark Chocolate Rocky Road
- Christmas Oreo Balls
- Coco Pop Crackles
- Marie Biscuit Fudge
- White Chocolate Oreo Balls
- Rum Truffles
- Baileys Cheesecake Balls
- Coconut Fudge
It is time to get your icing on my friend! You can also find all of my chocolate recipes in the one spot!
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Easy Chocolate Icing
Ingredients
- 1 cup icing sugar Note 1
- ¼ cup/ 60ml milk Note 2
- ¼ cup cocoa powder Note 3
- 50 grams/ ½ stick of butter butter Note 4
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence Note 5
Instructions
- Food processor: add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter, milk and vanilla essence to the bowl of the food processor and blitz for 5-10 seconds. Then remove the lid of the food processor and use a spatula to scrape down the insides of the bowl. Put the lid back on and blitz the icing for another 5-10 seconds until it looks consistently combined.
- Transfer: use the spatula to transfer the combined icing to a small bowl.
- Frost: use a butter knife to spread the icing on cooled baked goods such as brownies, cupcakes, cake and more!
Notes
- Note 1 Icing sugar: it is not hugely essential that you sift the icing sugar as you won't notice a massive difference in the icing if you don't.
- Note 2 Milk: there is room to use different types of milk for the recipe. I am showing you the use of cow's milk in the post, yet you can also use almond milk, coconut milk or milk of your choice.
- Note 3 Cocoa powder: is what I use and as seen in the photos throughout the post. However, you can use the equivalent amount of cacao powder if you wish to.
- Note 4 Butter: we need to use unsalted butter. I usually slice the butter into cubes and throw them in like you see in the photos. It is easier for the ingredients to be evenly weighted in the food processor bowl and chopping the butter into cubes will achieve this.
- Note 5 Vanilla essence: either vanilla essence or vanilla extract is fine. The imitation vanilla essence is much cheaper (synthetic version of vanilla) and is totally fine to use, don't think twice about it!
- Note 6 Portion size: I have used '16' as the serving size as I use this frosting for brownies and I cut them into 16 pieces. If you want to frost many cupcakes or a large cake, consider doubling the mixture.
Nutrition
Recipe published in May 2020, updated in October 2023 with new photos and a rewrite with more tasty tips for you! 🥰👌.
Pam Greer says
I had no idea it was so easy to make homemade frosting! No need to buy a can of frosting when you can make this delicious frosting at home!
Adrianne says
Thanks Pam! Yes, so true, homemade is so much better plus you know exactly what goes into it! Cheers
Dannii says
This looks super easy. I just want to eat it straight out of the bowl!
Adrianne says
Haha Dannii, yes it is tricky not to! Cheers
Leslie says
Gosh, this looks super simple! I could think of about 5 different recipes this would go SO well with! Thanks for sharing!
Adrianne says
Thanks Leslie, that is great to hear, yes SO simple to make, thanks!