{"id":10041,"date":"2019-02-19T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gw.finelimedesigns.com\/2008\/04\/my-favorite-chocolate-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe-the-cocoa-powder-makes-a-difference-3\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T14:48:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T19:48:55","slug":"my-favorite-chocolate-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe-the-cocoa-powder-makes-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cupcakeproject.com\/my-favorite-chocolate-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe-the-cocoa-powder-makes-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even though I love my vanilla frosting<\/strong><\/a> and chocolate buttercream<\/strong><\/a>, my absolute favorite frosting is this chocolate cream cheese frosting<\/strong>. It’s smooth, creamy, slightly tangy, and so chocolaty! It pipes perfectly and goes well with just about any flavor of cupcake or cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only five ingredients, it’s also super easy to make!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ingredients<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Chocolate cream cheese frosting has just five ingredients: cream cheese<\/strong>, butter<\/strong>, cocoa powder<\/strong>, powdered sugar<\/strong>, and kosher salt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How It’s Made<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before starting, it is extremely important that all of your ingredients are at room temperature.<\/strong> If your cream cheese is still cold, it won’t mix into the rest of the ingredients well and your frosting will be clumpy rather than smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to mix the butter<\/strong> with an electric mixer until light and airy. This should take about 3 minutes at high speed on a stand mixer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, add cream cheese<\/strong> and mix until thoroughly combined.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mix in the powdered sugar<\/strong>. Be sure to start the mixer on low speed so that the powdered sugar doesn’t go flying across the room!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Finally, mix in the cocoa powder<\/strong> and kosher salt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The cocoa powder that you choose makes a tremendous difference in the taste and look of this frosting<\/strong>. Appearance-wise, if you choose a really dark cocoa powder, like Hershey’s Special Dark, the frosting will be much darker than a regular cocoa powder. The best cocoa powder to use entirely depends on your tastes and to whom you are serving your baked goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expert Tips and FAQs<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Choosing a Cocoa Powder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some of the more expensive cocoa powders that I prefer (like Askinosie chocolate single-origin cocoa powder<\/a>, Cacao Berry Extra Brute [paid link]<\/a>, Sharffen Berger’s natural cocoa powder [paid link]<\/a> and Penzey’s Cocoa Powders<\/a>) do not taste anything like Hershey’s or Nestl\u00e9’s. They have a much more complex flavor. The flavor is so different that my mother-in-law thought that there was some mystery ingredient in the frosting to account for the different taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you understand which cocoa powder to pick, I like to talk about Evite’s cookie taste test<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blog author, Eva, talks about an experiment where she served three different types of Toll House chocolate chip cookies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n