Chocolate Buttercream Icing

This chocolate buttercream frosting uses a butter-shortening split that gives you the best of both worlds: real butter flavor with the structural stability that shortening provides. Melted bittersweet chocolate folded in gives it genuine chocolate depth, not just cocoa powder color.

The meringue powder is the ingredient that sets this apart from a basic buttercream. It adds structure and a slight dryness that makes this frosting hold sharp edges when piped. Without it, chocolate buttercream tends to slump, especially in warm rooms. With it, your roses and borders stay crisp.

Sifting the powdered sugar and meringue powder together before adding them to the creamed fats prevents lumps. Unsifted powdered sugar has compressed clumps that never fully break down, and you’ll feel them as gritty bits in what should be a silky frosting.

Chef Tips

• Let the melted chocolate cool to room temperature before adding to the creamed butter and shortening. Hot chocolate melts the fats and the frosting won’t come together.
• Add the dry ingredients gradually, not all at once. Dumping a pound of powdered sugar into a running mixer coats the kitchen in a white cloud.
• Adjust consistency with the water, adding a tablespoon at a time. Less water means a stiffer frosting for piping. More water makes it smoother for spreading.
• Beat the final frosting for a full minute after everything is combined. This extra mixing incorporates air and makes it noticeably lighter and creamier.

Variations

• Use clear vanilla and clear almond extract (1 teaspoon each) for a more complex flavor that won’t tint light-colored frostings.
• Swap bittersweet chocolate for white chocolate for a white chocolate buttercream.
• Add a tablespoon of instant espresso powder dissolved in the water for a mocha buttercream that deepens the chocolate flavor.