This fudge frosting tastes like a mug of hot chocolate yet is dairy-free and gluten-free, and healthier than most thanks to a surprise ingredient.
This fudge frosting will seriously have you swooning. You won't even care what it's spread on. It tastes like a chunk of your favorite fudge plopped into a mug of hot chocolate.
Not only does this fudge frosting taste incredible, it pipes onto cupcakes and cakes like a perfect dream, leaving a tiny crunchy surface just like bakery frosting. I use it often on my dairy-free chocolate cake and my chocolate fudge cake and sometimes even my tuxedo cake!
Why You'll Love This Frosting
Nutritional benefits. Despite the sugar, this frosting contributes to your daily nutrition because of the use of a red palm oil shortening. With the unsaturated fats removed, this leaves healthy fats that lower support cardiac health, blood flow, and ward of disease via a reduction in oxidative stress on cells. [source]
Outstanding chocolate flavor. The mix of cocoa and melted chocolate make this frosting outstanding. And the flavor is within your control and based on the brand of either chocolate you use.
Ingredients
Organic Powdered Sugar: This sugar contains tapioca instead of corn starch found in most commercial powdered sugars, and it tastes so much better that you might want to always buy organic. My favorite brand is Wholesome.
Butter: I normally use vegan Earthbalance sticks but any butter works. Be sure to allow the sticks to be at room temperature before use; this takes about two hours or overnight.
Organic Plant-based Shortening: Use the healthier red palm oil version, not the white lard-based shortenings. Personally I think Nutiva brand's version, which is a mix of palm oil and coconut oil, tastes better, but Spectrum brand makes one that is pure white so is better for a white frosting.
Cocoa Powder: I love cacao powder but this year I began to use quality cocoa powder and realized while the nutrition might be a touch less, this cocoa had far more flavor and was less expensive than cacao powder. However, by all means, use your favorite cocoa powder or cacao powder. You can use dutch-processed cocoa for a dark frosting; or just plain cocoa for a lighter color as you see on my cake here.
Chocolate Chips: I have used 70% dark chocolate bars or semi-sweet chips but you can use your own favorite.
Ingredient Swaps
Shortening. You can replace the shortening portion with more butter but then you won't have the lovely light bakery frosting crunch on the surface, or the rich fudge flavor.
Steps to Make
Step 1: Make sure your butter is soft and at room temperature.
Step 2: Melt the chocolate chips in a pyrex measuring cup (or your favorite microwave safe bowl) at 1 minute, stir until smooth and set aside.
Step 3: Warm the butter and shortening at 10 seconds in microwave - the edges can appear melty but don't melt it through out.
Step 4: Cream all the other ingredients together. That's it!
Recipe Tips
1.As with most frostings, add vanilla and control the creamy level with milk. This recipe works well with 6 tablespoon of milk but you can add more or less depending on how creamy you want your frosting texture to be.
2.This recipe can be made in one bowl and makes enough frosting to frost about 18 cupcakes or 1 (2-layer) cake.
How to Store
Frosting. Keep it in a sealed container for two weeks, or frozen for 3 months.
Frosted baked goods. Keep frosted cupcakes or cakes on the counter at room temperature for about 24 hours. After that refrigerate them.
What to Use It On?
I used it here on my Dairy Free Chocolate Cake. The cake is not super sweet so the frosting is the perfect accompaniment. But you can also use it on cupcakes and any other cake you wish. As I mentioned, it pipes beautifully and holds the shape overnight or longer.
FAQS
How do you make fudge frosting from scratch?
It's very easy to make this fudge frosting. Just put all ingredients in a bowl, mostly sugar, butter, shortening and chocolate, mix and you have frosting.
Why is my fudge icing grainy?
Fudge frosting can seem a bit grainy if even a spec of water gets into the mix. So be sure all your tools and bowls are stone dry.
How do you make chocolate frosting thicker?
I make frosting thicker by adding more powdered sugar. Some people add flour but I don't normally unless I am making my cookie dough frosting.
Other Frosting Recipes
If you like this frosting recipe, you might like to try these:
Fluffy White Frosting
Cookie Dough Frosting
Vegan Royal Icing for Sugar Cooking Decorating
Vegan Buttercream Frosting
Sweet Potato Chocolate Frosting
Peanut Butter Frosting
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📖 Recipe
Fudge Frosting
Equipment
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 Measuring cups & spoons
- 1 Hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup organic shortening
- 6 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 6-8 tablespoon dairy free milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Prep
- Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute and set aside.⅔ cup chocolate chips
- Warm the butter and shortening together on a microwave safe dish at 10 seconds in microwave - twice if they don't appear soft.½ cup butter, ½ cup organic shortening
Make Frosting
- Put all ingredients and 6 tablespoon of milk in a large bowl and use a hand-mixer to mix the frosting until it is smooth. Add the additional 2 tablespoon if needed to achieve a creamy texture.4 cups powdered sugar, ½ cup butter, ½ cup organic shortening, 6 tablespoon cocoa powder, 6-8 tablespoon dairy free milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, ⅔ cup chocolate chips
- To keep it soft, put a soaking wet paper towel over the bowl until ready to frost. This will keep the frosting soft for about 10 minutes so plan your baking around this window.
Store
- Store this frosting in the refrigerator for two weeks. To use it, let it sit at room temperature until it is soft. Normally I store it in frosting bags with a 2M frosting tip in the bag so it's ready to use on freshly baked cupcakes.
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