Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge Frosting

How often have you seen a chocolate cake and thought – I HAVE to have a piece – only to be disappointed by the frosting or the texture? It’s gotten to the point for me – that I almost never order chocolate layer cake because it’s a let down.

For me a truly awesome chocolate layer cake – is deep, dark, moist (but not too heavy) and covered by chocolate fudge frosting. Frosting that doesn’t get crusty or lose its sheen. A truly good chocolate fudge frosting can go in the fridge overnight taste silky smooth the next day or possibly even two!! later.

Hey I LOVE Italian and French butter creams but when I was a little girl my Grandma would make the BEST fudge frosting and this made a serious imprint on what I look for in a cake. Her frosting was dark and gooey. I suspect corn syrup was involved in some shape or form – and I can assure you we will not be using that here.

Her cake was so amazing that my brother peeled it off and devoured it from not one but TWO of her cakes. A memory like that creates a pretty high bar. So commenced my journey to find the perfect fudge frosting. The funny part about this story is – in the end – creating the frosting of my dreams was the result of a mistake.

I did not have enough powdered sugar for a cocoa frosting I was making – so to thicken in up I whipped up some chocolate ganache and voila! An absolutely delicious chocolate fudge frosting was born.

Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting

Enjoy!

I paired my fudge frosting with this absolutely TASTY chocolate cake from Add A Pinch. It’s an adaptation of the Hershey Cake recipe and you will love it! You can click the link above to check it out!

My Momma’s Hands Fudge Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
2/3 cup butter room temperature (I used salted whey butter and loved the results)
1 tsp of vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chopped
3 Tbsp half & half
2/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Mix powdered sugar, butter and cocoa – then pour boiling water over the top. Whip slowly until combined, then increase speed to high and whip for at least 5 minutes. The consistency will thicken with the whipping. Set to the side.

Warm bittersweet chocolate until melted on double boiler. Slowly add half & half, whisking as you go (yes, yes I know this is not the purist way of making ganache – I did not have whipping cream – and the amount used was so little I decided to melt chocolate instead of heating the cream). Whisk until thickened. The mixture should resemble the texture of Nutella. Scrape the bittersweet ganache into the bowl with cocoa mixture. Whip again for 2 minutes. Add 2/3 cup of powdered sugar and whip for another 5 minutes. You should have a light and spreadable fudge frosting.

***Okay so disclaimer here – I am still working on the exact amounts for the ganache. I started out w. 1/3 cup of half and half and found it too thin so I reduced it to approximately 3 Tablespoons and that seemed to hit the nail on the head, although I do have a tendency to cook by feel. I am also considering upping the bittersweet chocolate to 1 1/2 cups. More testing ahead, this is a work in progress (which will never end!).

….and a little bit from the beater sure makes some of us VERY happy~

Happy

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