Vegan Chocolate Frosting (6 Ingredients)
This is the best vegan chocolate frosting that’s velvety, decadent, and so creamy! With only 6 ingredients, it’s easy and fool-proof to make. Spread this vegan buttercream on all of your favourite cakes and cupcakes. It’s perfect for piping, too.
Once you’ve whipped up a bowl of silky smooth, dairy-free chocolate frosting, use it to decorate a batch of fudgy vegan chocolate cupcakes! Also, try my 4-ingredient vegan buttercream.
Everything tastes better covered in vegan chocolate frosting. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a simple vegan cream cheese frosting, but nothing beats creamy, fluffy chocolate buttercream made with totally dairy-free ingredients, with all the fudgy sweetness. I’ve been using this chocolate frosting recipe for over 10 years in my vegan chocolate cake recipe. It’s velvety, smooth, chocolatey, and simple to make. P.S. Try not to eat the whole thing before it reaches your cakes, okay?!
What Makes This Vegan Chocolate Buttercream So Good
- Diary-free ingredients. This recipe uses vegan butter and dairy-free milk, mixed with powdered sugar and cocoa powder. That’s it! There are no fancy ingredients, and the texture is smooth and creamy as ever.
- Ready in 10 minutes. And fool-proof, too. The method is also almost exactly the same as making traditional buttercream frosting. All you need is your mixer to create a thick, stable vegan chocolate frosting in minutes.
- Perfect for decorating. I tested many versions of this recipe to make a rich, decadent vegan frosting that’s spreadable AND pipeable. No droopy, weepy, or melted frosting, here!
Notes on the Ingredients
These are the simple ingredients you’ll need to make this fudgy vegan chocolate frosting from scratch. Scroll to the recipe card below the post for the printable recipe with the amounts.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – I recommend using a high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder. This is where all the chocolate flavour comes from!
- Unsalted Vegan Butter – It’s also okay if you use salted vegan butter, just skip the salt below!
- Vanilla Extract – You could also use a different flavouring if you want to add an almond extract, orange extract, or even a chocolate extract.
- Sea Salt – If you’re using kosher or table salt, use less so the frosting doesn’t turn out oversalted.
- Powdered Sugar – Also called confectioner’s sugar (it’s the same thing). You can make your own by just blending any sugar into a fine powder using your blender before adding it to the frosting!
- Vegan Milk – Your choice! Almond, oat, soy milk, all work here. You’ll only need a little to get the perfect consistency.
How to Make Vegan Chocolate Frosting (Step by Step Instructions)
Making vegan chocolate frosting is as easy as whipping the ingredients until they’re smooth, creamy, and fluffy. Afterward, you can adapt the consistency of the frosting as needed. Here’s a quick look at the process:
- Combine the ingredients. First, add the cocoa powder, vegan butter, most of the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, sea salt, and half the vegan milk to the bowl of an electric stand mixer or a hand mixer.
- Mix slowly, then increase the speed. Start mixing at a slow speed, gradually increasing speed until it’s very thick and smooth.
- Adjust the consistency. Add the rest of the powdered sugar a bit at a time until it reaches your desired thickness and consistency. If needed, add in the other half of the milk about 1 tablespoon at a time.
Tips for the Best Vegan Frosting
- Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Sifting the dry ingredients before making your vegan frosting breaks up lumps. This makes such a tremendous difference to the creamy consistency of the frosting.
- Soften the butter first. Just like butter is the backbone of buttercream recipes, vegan butter gives structure to this vegan chocolate buttercream. The vegan butter should be soft enough to spread but not runny.
- Keep whipping. For the fluffiest frosting, you want to whip the air into the mixture. I prefer using a stand mixer or hand mixer for this recipe, as this can take about 5 minutes.
- Avoid an overly thick frosting. You don’t want the frosting to be runny, but you also want it to spread easily across the top of the cake. If your frosting is too thick, try mixing in a splash of milk.
- For an even richer frosting, similar to vegan chocolate ganache, mix in melted vegan chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mix in more powdered sugar, a little at a time, until the consistency thickens. You can also try chilling the frosting in the fridge to help it stiffen up.
Yes! This vegan frosting is pipeable and spreadable. See the section below for easy ways to use it.
Ways to Use Your Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- Cakes and cupcakes. Spread or pipe this frosting onto a vegan chocolate sheet cake or vanilla sheet cake. I also love to swirl it onto my chocolate mug cake and vanilla cupcakes!
- Brownies and bars. Use this to frost a batch of fudgy vegan brownies.
- Cookies. Chocolate frosting takes these decadent, gooey s’mores cookies even more over the top. Or, spread this frosting over chewy peanut butter cookies.
- As a dip. Pair a bowl of fluffy chocolate frosting with fresh strawberries, sliced apples, or vegan lady fingers for dipping.
Storage and Freezing
- Store at room temperature. With its stable, plant-based ingredients, you can store this vegan frosting at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to store it longer than that, keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks or the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Freeze it. Freeze the frosting in an airtight container or sturdy freezer bag. Let it thaw overnight in the fridge before you plan to use it for the smoothest, ready-to-use vegan frosting.
More Vegan Dessert Recipes
Enjoy friends! If you make this Vegan Chocolate Frosting, please snap a photo and tag #jessicainthekitchen on Instagram! We’d also love if you would leave a comment below, and give the recipe a rating! Thanks so much!
Vegan Chocolate Frosting (6 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup unsalted vegan butter, (softened) or if using salted, don't use the sea salt below
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 ½ to 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup vegan milk, plus 1 tablespoon extra if needed for consistency
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Instructions
- Add the cocoa powder, vegan butter, 2 ½ cups of the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, sea salt and half the vegan milk to the bowl of an electric stand mixer or a hand mixer.
- Start mixing it together at slow speed, gradually increasing speed until it’s very thick and smooth.
- Add the ½ cup of the extra powdered sugar at a time until it reaches your desired thickness and consistency. If needed, add in the other half of the milk about 1 tablespoon at a time.
Notes
- Sift Your Powdered Sugar: Be sure to sift your powdered sugar before making your vegan frosting! This makes such a tremendous difference to the creamy consistency of the frosting.
- Soften First: Make sure your vegan butter is soft enough to spread but not runny. This is the base for the vegan chocolate frosting texture.
- Keep Whipping: For the fluffiest frosting, you want to whip the air into the mixture. I prefer using a stand mixer because this can take about 5 minutes!
- To Avoid Thick Frosting: You don’t want the frosting to be runny, but you also want it to spread easily across the top of the cake. If your frosting turns out to be too thick, try adding a splash of milk to it.
Disclaimer: Although jessicainthekitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, kindly note that these are only estimates. Nutritional information may be affected based on the product type, the brand that was purchased, and in other unforeseeable ways. Jessicainthekitchen.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information. If you need to follow a specific caloric regimen, please consult your doctor first.
Yummy chocolate frosting, Jessica! I used a little less butter (miyokos) than called for, and it was still great. Spread it on a yellow cake. Thanks for another great recipe!
Do you mind saying where you bought those cute stars you decorated your cake with? They’re so pretty and classy. 🙂
HI Kelly, thanks so much for reading and leaving such a nice comment. I don’t remember the exact brand but we buy our vegan sprinkles on amazon. I hope this helps.
This frosting is amazing! It’s the new favorite at our house even among the non-vegans! So creamy and rich.
Thanks so much Susan! We’re so happy that you like it!
Does Becel margarine count as vegan “butter”?
Hi Monika not particularly acquainted with that brand but it should be able to be used. I hope that helps.
This chocolate frosting came out so amazing! I used to use a favorite family recipe that people went crazy over because it was so good but I couldn’t find it and wanted a vegan one anyway. I am so impressed with this recipe that I plan to stick with it for the rest of my life. If I knew it was going to be this good, I would’ve made twice as much so I could eat it freely and still have enough left over for my husband’s birthday cake.
Awesome! We’re so happy that you enjoyed it so much Laura-Jeanne.
This is so good! I used just 2 cups of powdered sugar and it was perfectly mildly sweet. Used some vanilla and some hazelnut flavoring and a few pinches of fine sea salt.
I got it to a great consistency and it was easy to make it look like tree bark for my Bûche de noël with my offset spatula!
Thank you!
Awesome we’re so happy you like it!
Love your frosting recipes but you did not list the quantity of butter. I’m assuming one stick?
Hi Brenda Thanks so much! Yes it’s half a cup or 1 stick. I hope this helps!
Would coconut butter be considered vegan butter? Technically yes but are you referring to some other type of product? What type of butters are acceptable here?
Hi Hanya! Technically yes, but we were referring to store bought vegan butters or home made ones using soy milk like the one on our website. I hope this helps.
This is chocolate perfection!
Sweet, Creamy, Delicious! Perfect for my GF, DF brownies. Thank you!
Thank you for this great recipe! I was looking for a vegan chocolate frosting recipe for our Valentine’s cake and came across yours, so glad I did! My family LOVED it!
Hi Morgan,
Thanks so much for sharing!! You’re so welcome!
This was so good! I have a coworker that can’t have dairy so I used this on a farewell cake for her today as she moved to another department. Rave reviews from the whole team. 🙂