RECIPES - Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Suzy form Mighty Fine Cupcakes is back this week with that delicious frosting recipe.

You may remember these fabulous little chocolate cupcakes I showed you a few weeks ago... well, now its time to show you the best and most traditional way to top these little beauties off.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

You will need:

• Saucepan and glass bowl for melting chocolate
• Electric whisk or stand mixer

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids is good)
• 225g unsalted butter
• 75g icing sugar Pinch espresso powder

Method:

1. Break up chocolate and melt over gently simmering water. Do not allow water to boil, and please avoid using a microwave if you can!
2. Allow chocolate to cool to body temperature - this is vitally important as if you add hot chocolate to the buttercream you will melt the butter and get a thin, grainy frosting.
3. Mix butter and icing sugar vigourously, to form a light and fluffy buttercream. Undermixing here will give a heavier, denser frosting (not the end of the world!).
4. Add all if the cooled chocolate in one go with the espresso powder and mix immediately, scraping the bottom of the bowl to avoid marbling, until combined.

And there you have it. In my world, cocoa powder has no place in chocolate frosting, because it's not cooked you never lose the powdery taste. This is a very decadant topping to any size cake, best enjoyed at room temperature piled high atop your favourite cake. With a cup of tea, naturally.