Ann Reardon

Best Chocolate Frosting Recipes Taste Tested

which chocolate frosting tastes best
 

A good chocolate frosting glistens, it’s deep chocolate colour tempts, it melts in your mouth leaving you with a moist rich chocolate flavour. Well that is what you hope for, not all chocolate frostings are equal. Today we are making seven different frosting recipes and putting them through a taste test to find out which one is the best. We’ll also put them out in the sun just like we did with the vanilla frostings to see which ones stand up to the heat.

 

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe (using butter)

1/2 cup plus 1 tblspn  or 120g (4.23 ounces) butter unsalted
180g (6.35 ounces) or 1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup or 55g (1.94 ounces) cocoa powder
1-2 tsp milk
Makes 1 1/2 cups of frosting

chocolate italian meringue frosting recipe

Chocolate Italian Meringue Frosting Recipe

1 1/3 cup or 285g (10.05 ounces) sugar
1/3 cup or 80mL (2.71 fluid ounces) water
5 egg whites or 180g (6.35 ounces)
2 cups or 450g (15.87 ounces) butter
340g (11.99 ounces) milk chocolate
Makes 7 1/2 cups of frosting

american buttercream how to cook that

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe (margarine)

120g (4.23 ounces) or 1/2 cup margarine
180g (6.35 ounces) or 1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup or 55g (1.94 ounces) cocoa powder
1-2 tsp milk
Makes 1 1/2 cups of frosting

chocolate cream cheese frosting  recipe

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

115g (4.06 ounces) or 1/2 cup cream cheese
35g (1.23 ounces) or 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
230g (8.11 ounces) or 2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup or 30g (1.06 ounces) cocoa powder
Makes 1 1/3 cups of frosting

buttercream using crisco tastes

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe (crisco)

120g (4.23 ounces) or 1/2 cup crisco
180g (6.35 ounces) or 1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup or 55g (1.94 ounces) cocoa powder
1-2 tsp milk
Makes 1 1/2 cups of frosting

chocolate ermine frosting recipe

Ermine Chocolate Frosting Recipe

1 cup or 250mL (8.45 fluid ounces) milk (35% fat)
1/4 cup or 40g (1.41 ounces) flour
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup or 220g (7.76 ounces) sugar
1 cup 230g (8.11 ounces) butter
Makes 2 cups of frosting

frosting_ganache

Chocolate Ganache Frosting Recipe

2/3 cup or 150mL (5.07 fluid ounces) cream
200g (7.05 ounces) dark chocolate containing cocoa butter
200g (7.05 ounces) milk chocolate containing cocoa butter
Makes 1 1/3 cups of frosting

chocolate frosting taste test

Tasters scored each frosting out of 5

American Buttercream using butter 3|4|5|3.5|4.5|4|3|3|4 average: 3.8
Chocolate Italian Meringue buttercream 3.5|4|5|3.5|4.5|4.5|4|3|3 average: 3.9
American Buttercream using margarine 3.5|4|3.5|4|3|3|5|4|4 average: 3.8
Cream Cheese Frosting 4|5|3.5|3|3|3|3|4|3 average: 3.5
American Buttercream using crisco 1|1|1.5|3|2|2|2|3|2 average: 1.9
Ermine chocolate frosting 4.5|1|3|3.2|5|4|3|3|1 average: 3.1
Chocolate ganache frosting 1|2|4.5|5|3|3|3|4|5 average: 3.4

And the winner is… Chocolate Italian Meringue Frosting, closely followed by American Buttercream made with either margarine or butter.  Next was the Cream Cheese Frosting and the Ganache.  However the two low scores on the ganache were due to not liking dark chocolate. Using less dark and adding more milk chocolate could potentially improve this score to equal the top ones.  The buttercream made with crisco scored very low.  The high melting point of the crisco means it performs well in the sun but it also means that it does not melt in your mouth, so the chocolate flavour is not released.

2015

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

124 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 4

    Hi there,
    What happens if we used milk instead of cream in the chocolate ganache frosting? Will it not hold well?
    Thank you!

    • Rating: 5

      you can’t use milk because it doesn’t whip and set like cream 🙂

    • add 2 tablespoons./1/4cup of milk when heating to sub milk for crream,

      • damnit, 2 tablespoons of BUTTER

  2. Rating: 5

    Ann in your opinion, which is the best buttercream for decorating with the Russian tips. I love using them.

  3. Rating: 5

    Love this hsjwjsnjsb

  4. Rating: 5

    Hy
    Just one question any of this is good for base of the fondant.

  5. Rating: 5

    awesome thank you

  6. Rating: 5

    I tried your American buttercream with butter and oh my, it was so so delicious!!! I put 1 cup of icing sugar and since it was already stiff, I didn’t add anymore. I am not embarrassed to say I licked the spoon 🙂 thx a lot Ann!

    • Hi Ayska, Ih that sounds so delicious. Glad you found a recipe that really suits your taste!

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