Chocolate Fudge Frosting – the Healthier Way!
By
I won’t take up space talking about the loveliness of this recipe because well…it’s CHOCOLATE FUDGE FROSTING. Even if I thought of some cute words to write, you would likely be saying, “Yada, yada…show us the recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” And so…without further ado or ANY ado…here is the fudge frosting recipe made with homemade powdered sugar from sucanat I’ve been promising you…
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 (+) cups of powdered sugar (I suggest either making your own powdered sugar from sucanat, or using an unbleached powdered sugar)
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add water to the butter and bring it to a boil. Pour the boiling butter/water into a bowl with the cocoa and powdered sugar. Add vanilla and mix with beaters until thoroughly combined. Add a little more powdered sugar if the frosting is too runny, but keep in mind that it does thicken up just a little bit as it cools.
This recipe makes enough frosting for a two-layer cake or for a big sheet cake or for a nice thick layer of frosting on brownies or a 9×13 inch cake. Actually, it’s almost too much frosting for the brownies and 9×13 inch cake, so save some of it in your fridge and put the leftovers on homemade donuts another time. :)
Here’s our Buttermilk Chocolate Cake recipe! :)
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I think I’ll be baking and frosting a cake this weekend!
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That looks heavenly! I have to make a cake for the Fall festival at our church…I’m thinking chocolate would be perfect!
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oh my!!! The pictures created some huge craving!!!
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Hmmm, now I need to make a cake so I can have a viable excuse to make this ridiculously yummy-looking frosting, Laura! (I seriously considered halving the recipe and just making a batch of it for us to enjoy straight from the ball, but that’s just too gluttonous. Even for me. :) Thanks for the great posts this week!
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THANK YOU! Just this week, I made a cookie cake for my daughter’s birthday. The cookie was all “real food”, but I didn’t have a good icing recipe. I will next time!
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Are there specks in the frosting or is that just some effect of the photograph? If there are actually specks does that have to do with the sucanat?
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Laura Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Yes, there are some specks in the frosting as the sucanat turned powdered sugar isn’t quite as fine as what we’re used to. But on the cake, I didn’t even notice. Also, the picture shows my first attempt at making it this way. The second time around, I was able to get it smoother.
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I love chocolate frosting!!!
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Yum! I’m craving sugar now though. :)
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Thank you so much for this recipe. The only reason to eat cake is for the chocolate frosting, in my opinion.
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Oh wow…yum.
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I made this today and frosted a cake with it. Yum!!!!! Now, what to do with the leftovers…
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Chocolate on chocolate!! My FAVORITE!!! :)
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This recipe sounds so good!!
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What a yummy looking treat!
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thanks looks great
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Yay! I’ve been waiting for this recipe since you first mentioned it back at the beginning of the week! I’ll definitely be trying this one!
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mmm….i want to eat this, cake or no cake :)
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I am so craving chocolate now!
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Finally! The recipe that has been TAUNTING us for a whole week. :) Do you think it would be possible to make this with coconut oil? It looks too yummy. I just might have to try and see!
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This sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!
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Looks lovely. I am a chocolate fan! But I may try it with carob powder, I know the taste will NOT be the same.
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Yum, yum!
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Chocolate fudge frosting is my twin boys’ favorite. They don’t really care what’s underneath, be it carrot cake, marble cake, or even a pumpkin cake. They love giving me a hand in the kitchen. I used to put chocolate fudge frosting in a pipe bag, now they can simply scoop it out with a spatula right from the bowl. :)
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I need to make the cake so I don’t eat the frosting by the spoonful!
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I just made this frosting and your doughnuts! Oh my goodness….They are both SCRUMPTIOUS!
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Sounds SO delicious!
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Oooo! Looks delicious.
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That looks delicious!
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I will definitely try this!
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I can’t wait to give this one a try – I will be licking the spatula!
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Nothing beats homemade frosting! I read a comment recently on a cake making site where the woman said she didn’t have time to make homemade frosting but she constructed acorns out of meringue?? I love knowing how to make things from scratch! It really saves time (on last-minute runs to the store) and makes me feel like I know my way around my kitchen!
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Hooray for healthier good stuff! This looks sooo yummy.
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So easy! Who would have thought!
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Oh, this sounds yummy. I live with 3 sickos (husband and sons) who do not like chocolate! :) This may not stop me from making it though. ;)
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This looks so wonderful! Even my husband (who has an incredible sixth sense about knowing when I’ve “healthied up” a recipe won’t see this coming!
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Thanks! I am lazy and melted the butter in the microwave, added the water and heated it back up in the micro and then took it out and dumped it into the dry ingredients and mixed it with a regular spoon (i halved the recipe). It was GREAT on my homemade whole wheat brownies. yum!
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My family does not like dark chocolate. Would you please tell me how strong the chocolate frosting is? It looks delicious.
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Laura Reply:
December 21st, 2010 at 8:58 pm
This is more of a milk chocolate I’d say…since it has butter in it. It’s rich, but not like dark chocolate.
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Thank you very much. I am very eager to make it.
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This was really good! I used about 2/3 evaporated cane juice and 1/3 rapadura to cut down on the rapadura taste, but it was still strong. However, everyone really liked it! Thanks for the recipe, I will be making again.
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I just made the Buttermilk chocolate cake with REAL butter, Buttermilk made from RAW milk, and Sucanat.
I’m making the Powdered Sucanat Frosting from your website, and having made this before, I wanted to offer a couple of quick suggestions to aid in the consistency. First, use Milk instead of water, and secondly, add the cocoa powder directly to the butter mixture. While that’s cooling a little, mix all the remaining ingredients.
Then combine the two mixtures. It’ll be smooth the very first time around, with a fraction of the beating time. (Esp. if you’re doing it by hand.:)~
Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes! From a fellow Nourishing Traditions, Homesteading, Homeschooling Mom of 5!
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The novelty of having an effectively infinite supply of powdered sugar at my disposal caused me to make my frosting a little too stiff. It was still smooth and usable. It’s just that applying it to the cake was more like spreading putty than what I think of as typical frosting. It was a refreshing change from my too-thin efforts in my distant past, before I gave up frostings entirely. It was also utterly delicious.
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Finally had a good excuse to actually make this, and it was amazing!! I was given fresh cane sugar from a local farmer (south LA is loaded with cane fields ;)), so I powdered that in the blender instead of sucanat. It’s a little more moist, but the frosting was heavenly. ;) I got tons of compliments and requests for the recipe. Thank you for experimenting and sharing!
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Laura Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
I’m so jealous that you got FRESH cane sugar!!!!! I don’t even know what that looks like. It sounds so delicious!
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Melissa Reply:
April 19th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
It is, and it’s beautiful!! Some neighbors have friends and family from two different fields, so my sugar jar looks like one of those colored-sand “sculptures”. Wish you were closer to share, but, then again, we don’t have Azure Standard anywhere around here, which I am incredibly jealous of. ;)
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oh wow. this was INCREDIBLE!!!
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Could this be used to frost cupcakes??
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
October 10th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Sure! Great idea!
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Oh YUM!!!!!!!! We made this for my moms birthday!!!!! Delicious!!!!!!
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Cake is in the oven and the frosting…… oh, mine. I hope the cake gets some of the frosting because I can’t keep my fingers out of the bowl.
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Hi. What kind of cocoa powder do you use for both the cake and frosting recipes? Is it sweetened? Thank you.
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
March 20th, 2012 at 11:26 am
It’s unsweetened. :)
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Oh wow!! This was fantastic frosting! I seriously wanted to just eat the whole bowl! Mine set up really quick making it a little challenging to spread…did I add too much powdered sugar? Is there something I could do different to keep it more spreadable? Thank you, thank you for this recipe. It’s definitely a keeper!!
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 9:28 am
If you add just a tiny bit of water it should spread easier.
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Angela Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Ahhh, ok. I’ll try this next time because, yes, there WILL be a next time. :) Thanks!!
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Quick question Laura!! :)
On this recipe, can I replace the butter with coconut oil to make it dairy free??
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Amy Reply:
April 28th, 2013 at 8:30 pm
I’ve tried it with coconut oil and it worked wonderfully.
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Brooke Reply:
April 29th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
Thank you Amy :)
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