I’m an icing girl. When I order a piece of cake in a restaurant these days, I tend to eat a bite or two of the cake with the icing, then a few bites of the icing, and that’s it. So I don’t skimp on the icing.

This is the buttercream made for my Dark Chocolate Layer Cake, but it’s worth keeping on hand on its own — for cupcakes, a box mix cake, or anywhere you want a real, generous layer of frosting instead of a scraped-thin one.

Watermelon Cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

A rich, generous chocolate buttercream — the frosting made for the Dark Chocolate Layer Cake, but great on its own for topping cupcakes or any cake that needs a proper amount of icing.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings: 2 1/4 cups
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons light butter (stick, not tub), room temperature
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons light cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Pinch salt
  • 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon fat-free milk

Method
 

  1. Add the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer fitted with beaters, beat them on high speed until smooth.
  2. Add half of the powdered sugar. Beat on low speed until well combined. Beat in the remaining powdered sugar then the cocoa powder until combined.
  3. Add the milk and then beat on high speed until fluffy. Tightly wrap the frosting with plastic wrap until ready to use (do not refrigerate it before icing a cake).

Notes

Makes 2 1/4 cups — enough to fill and frost a two-layer 9-inch cake.
Reprinted from The Most Decadent Diet Ever! by Devin Alexander © 2008 by Devin Alexander, published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House Inc.
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