If you have been dreaming of the ultimate keto chocolate frosting that is rich, decadently chocolaty and airy all at the same time, your dream has now come true. I was dreaming of this frosting for long — and finally took the time and effort to develop the supreme recipe that I used on the cupcakes I made for my birthday last Friday. (Yep, that’s why I hold the muffin with a candle in the photo!)

Tips for making The Ultimate Keto Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

In this post, you are going to learn some secrets to the perfect, fluffy, and airy keto chocolate frosting. Here comes the first one: You are going to use salted butter. Yep, don’t skimp on salt! That luscious, decadent chocolate flavor is achieved by adding salt. And when you use salted butter, you’ve got some substantial amount of salt already that is needed for that decadent note — I bet you wouldn’t dare to add that much salt if you used unsalted butter.

Next secret: not too much sweetener! You want to keep it creamy and chocolaty, not overly sweet. First of all, sweeteners are not good for you in large amounts. Secondly, you’ll always taste the aftertaste of the sweetener. For example, too much powdered erythritol tickles the throat, whereas stevia often lends a bitter and licorice-like flavor. When you use a little bit of each sweetener, you’ll get the ideal sweetness without any peculiar side flavors and weird tastes. That’s why this recipe uses both a little bit of powdered erythritol and a hint of vanilla stevia. The next secret: chocolate desserts demand some vanilla, so vanilla stevia fits the bill perfectly.

The secret to most satisfying chocolate taste is — you guessed it — to use plenty of cocoa powder. Not just a tablespoon or two, but a whopping half a cup (120 ml). That amount guarantees that you really taste a rich chocolate flavor, but on the other hand, it’s not too overpowering.

Are you ready for yet another secret? To make the frosting fluffy, beating the mixture for 10-15 minutes is the key to achieve the best result. By beating it long, you integrate as much air as possible — the result will be airy, yet rich and chocolaty frosting. After adding the rest of the ingredients to the creamed butter, beat first slowly and then increase the speed until the ingredients are incorporated. Like this, you’ll get really airy frosting — and prevent the cocoa powder and the powdered erythritol being catapulted all over your kitchen.

Here’s the last — but not the least — secret: Using heavy cream is yet another key to a fluffy result. When you beat the frosting, also the cream gets fluffy. Even you beat the frosting for that 10-15 minutes with some heavy cream, you won’t end up with dense butter, but a very fluffy and voluminous frosting.

You can store this frosting in the fridge for a couple of days, and you can also freeze it. Just bring it to room temperature before using it, and don’t forget to beat it shortly so that it will get maximally fluffy again.

Oh yes, use preferably a stand mixer to make the frosting. Anyway, you need to beat it for that 10-15 minutes so you can just let the mixer do its job and concentrate on something more interesting. Secondly, the frosting is quite stiff, so it requires some power, and a handheld mixer might not be able to handle the stiff frosting that well in the beginning — or at least you need lots of power and some muscles to operate the handheld mixer.

But, let’s take a look at how to prepare this ultimate keto chocolate frosting (it’s easy!):

Add the softened butter to the mixer bowl.

Beat until creamy, about 2 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, that is, the powdered erythritol…

…cocoa powder…

…heavy cream…

…and the vanilla stevia.

Beat first on low speed until combined.

Then increase the speed to the max and beat until very fluffy, about 10-15 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once in a while if needed.

Voilà!

Looks splendid (and tastes, too!)

Use as frosting to your keto cupcakes…

…or your keto cakes.

My Keto Chocolate Buttercream Frosting experiments

So, for pretty long, I was dreaming of a very chocolaty and fluffy keto buttercream frosting. I’ve done some variations before but now wanted to work on to achieve the best ever result. I’ve also seen lots of sugar-free chocolate buttercream frosting recipes, but the common problem is that since they mimic the sugary versions, they fail. For the sugary chocolate buttercream frosting, you use several cups of powdered sugar. And if you just switch it to powdered erythritol (the go-to sweetener in keto frostings), the result tastes horrible. You simply cannot use that much sweetener! They always have a weird aftertaste – even the best quality sweeteners.

So, to get that ultimate keto frosting, I had to come up with some novel ideas. First of all, I wanted the frosting to have only a hint of sweetness. Since you are getting rid of your sweet tooth on a keto diet, it’s not a good idea to feed it with too much sweetener anyway. Secondly, I wanted the frosting to be really chocolaty. I think one of the major mistakes I did in the past was to add just two tablespoons of cocoa powder. Yes, the frosting tasted chocolaty — but not enough.

I was planning my first experiment and got the idea to use brown sugar substitute to give the frosting a decadent caramel note. I wasn’t sure if the sweetener will dissolve well as it was crystals. But, if I don’t try, I don’t know.

I took 8 oz (230 g) butter, 1/2 cup (120 ml) Sukrin Gold, 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder (here, I still didn’t have the idea of adding more cocoa powder), and 2 tablespoons brewed strong coffee and beat everything until fluffy. Well, I was right, the Sukrin Gold didn’t dissolve but stayed gritty. Moreover, the coffee was a huge mistake — it made the frosting taste completely weird. What a pity! This was really a huge fail, so back to the drawing board.

For my next experiment, I took again 8 oz (230 g) butter, 1 cup (240 ml) powdered erythritol, 1/3 cup (80 ml) cocoa powder, 3 tablespoons heavy cream, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Again, I beat all ingredients until fluffy. However, I realized that I had made the same mistake as all the others: I added too much sweetener. The frosting was practically inedible because the erythritol was tickling so nastily in the throat while eating! Moreover, I wanted to have even fluffier result as this was fluffy, yes, but I wanted the frosting to be still airier and fluffier.

So, I conducted yet another experiment with a little less powdered erythritol and some more heavy cream. But this time, I beat first the butter for a couple of minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. Moreover, I also beat the mixture for 15 minutes to see if it still gets fluffier. I was a bit afraid that the frosting will turn into butter or separate, but my concerns were unnecessary: the result was really airy, light, and fluffy — yet rich. Just what I wanted!

But I wasn’t still completely satisfied. I craved for even stronger chocolate flavor, so I took 1/2 cup (120 ml) cocoa powder for my next experiment. I also reduced the amount of powdered erythritol further. Instead of vanilla extract, I took vanilla stevia — to lend that delicious vanilla note and also give some more sweetness.

This time, the result was absolutely heavenly! Rich and chocolaty, yet fluffy and velvety. The Ultimate Keto Chocolate Frosting had born!

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy: