I scaled this down to 6 servings to frost "Frosted Cake Brownies," also from this site. I used Bailey's, both in the brownies and in this frosting. I found it needed more milk (or in my case Bailey's) than the recipe called for. What I liked about this recipe after reading it over was the high ratio of butter to sugar compared to similar recipes. Just as expected, it produced a very rich and creamy frosting that did not dry out or harden. Simply perfect on the brownies, and I will go back to it for my next cake too. Thanks Amy!
I'm giving this 5 stars because my only problem with it was it tasted a little too cocoa-y, but that is probably my fault for adding slightly less sugar and not compensating with the amt. of cocoa powder. I halved the recipe and it was the perfect amt. to ice and fill a 9 inch round cake. In order to avoid having problems with the cake crumbing or coming apart when you frost, you will need to add more milk than the recipe calls for. The best way to do this is to add 1T at a time as you are mixing it. Stop the mixer and take a rubber spatula and spread it around the frosting as though you were spreading it on a cake. When you pull away the spatula, if it 'sticks' to the frosting and forms very stiff peaks when you pull it away, it is too stiff and you need to add more liquid (but only add a little bit at the time). You want the consistency to be very smooth and creamy; then it will spread with no problems. From now on this is the chocolate frosting recipe I will use.
Okay, if you are looking for the ultimate chocolate frosting, this is it! I followed others advice and halved the recipe. It was the perfect amount to frost a two layer, nine inch cake. (I like a generous amount of frosting.) This is the only frosting I will ever use from now on.
I asked my husband what he wanted me to bake for his birthday- I said I'd make anything- pie, cake, cookies, someother dessert. He asked for a bowl of this icing.
OMG! I think my search for the absolute best, most chocolately frosting is over! This stuff is awesome and so easy to make. I cut the recipe in half and that was more than enough for a dozen Texas sized cupcakes that were more like mini-cakes in and of themselves but that was OK because I didn't mind getting to taste a bit of it as if I could resist. I used half and half instead of milk and added just a bit more of that until I got the right consistency. Great recipe!
I have used this recipe twice now and it has come out PERFECTLY every time. I used it to frost a 2 layer chocolate cake with a strawberry layer in the middle with chocolate strawberries on top. Be sure to adjust the above recipe with your cake. I halved the recipe and still had enough frosting left over to put away for 12 cupcakes. Be sure to smooth the lumps out of your confectioners sugar! ALSO- I reduced the amount of sugar so it would not be so sweet. I use 2 cups in a halved recipe instead of 2.5 I also use SALTED butter.
I gave this recipe 5 stars although I did alter it slightly. I have a small cupcake business that I operate from my home. I have experimented with endless frosting recipes trying to find the right mix and have discovered the following formula works best for me - for every 1 cup butter add 3 cups icing sugar. In doing this you will notice that the icing isn't sickly sweet, like burning in the back of your throat kind of sickly sweet when there is too much icing sugar in a frosting recipe. This formula works perfectly for me and my customers love it. I constantly get comments on how delicious my frosting is and not overly sweet. Another thing you will find when you reduce the ratio of icing sugar to butter is that your frosting will no longer crust over. That used to happen to me all the time and I didn't know why. The reason why is that the sugar content in most frosting recipes is too high in relation to the amount of butter used. 1 part butter to 3 parts icing sugar is perfect. Not sickly sweet and no crusting over. Beautiful and delicious!!!
This is a great chocolate frosting- I didn't find it too sweet and turns out nice and fluffy, both great things when you are piling it on cupcakes. My advice is to make this a night ahead and fridge it so the cocoa flavor can really mellow and the flavors can come together- but be sure to remove it from the fridge at least a half hour before using because its pretty hard otherwise. Also, half the recipe made a ton!
My family of chocoholics really enjoyed this frosting on a Duncan Hines Butter Recipe cake. Yummmm! It has a very distinctive cocoa taste, but that's what we like. I also really liked the texture. I scaled the recipe to work with 2.5 cups of powdered sugar (that's all I had) and it was sufficient for a 9x13 cake. Since the frosting is so rich, you don't need to go overboard on it. Oh, one last thing, I didn't have real butter so I substituted Land of Lakes margarine and it was just fine. Perhaps I'll try real butter next time just to see what the difference is, but don't let the fact that you don't have real butter on hand keep you from trying this recipe. We thought it was great!
