Keto Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

The Best Keto Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe that is sweet, creamy and extremely chocolatey.  It can be used for decorating cupcakes and cakes, or eaten by the spoon!

Keto Chocolate Frosting

Everyone needs a good chocolate frosting recipe when on a low carb or keto diet.  You might think it's tricky to make a chocolate buttercream without sugar, but it's actually way too easy!

A traditional chocolate buttercream frosting would use a combination of butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and sugar, but only using butter in a sugar free chocolate frosting tends to make the icing too oily and doesn't really work out with the small amount of keto sweeteners we use.

This keto chocolate frosting instead uses cream cheese as its secret ingredient to make it the creamiest, most spreadable and pipeable sugar free frosting ever!

Keto Sweeteners for Frosting

The sweeteners you use for this low carb buttercream frosting are extremely important! You don't want to use granulated sweeteners as it'll make your chocolate frosting super grainy as if you're eating sand.

You'll want to use a combination of different sweeteners do give the perfect sweetness to this low carb chocolate frosting.  Here are possible sweeteners and substitutions you can use:

• ¾ cup powdered erythritol + ½ tsp stevia extract powder
• ¾ cup powdered erythritol + ½ tsp monk fruit extract powder
• ¾ cup powdered allulose + ½ tsp stevia extract powder
• ¾ cup powdered allulose + ½ tsp monk fruit extract powder
• ¾ cup powdered blend like from So Nourished, Besti, Swerve, and so on.

Don't have powdered erythritol or powdered allulose? You can simply make your own by using a powerful blender.  Add granulated erythritol or allulose (any brand is fine) into a powerful blender and blitz on high speed for about 30 minutes.  You'll then have confectioner's sugar, aka powdered erythritol or allulose.

Want it Sweeter?

Just up the stevia or monk fruit by ¼ tsp and you'll have a much sweeter keto buttercream frosting!

What type of Stevia or Monk Fruit Extract Powder?

Stevia or monk fruit extract powders are NOT blends mixed with other sweeteners. They are pure extracts that are 300x sweeter than sugar.

I recommend using the brand [easyazon_link identifier="B005F9XFN0" locale="US" tag="mypcoskitchen05-20 "]NOW for the stevia extract powder[/easyazon_link] or the brand [easyazon_link identifier="B01DMCMO7O" locale="US" tag="mypcoskitchen05-20 "]Julian Bakery for the monk fruit extract powder[/easyazon_link].

How to Make Sugar Free Chocolate Frosting

If you've ever wondered how to make sugar free chocolate frosting, you're in luck as it's incredibly easy!

You'll first want to make sure that your ingredients are cold, especially the heavy cream.  The reason why you want cold ingredients is because the whipping cream won't whip if it's room temperature and your frosting could potentially be runny. The butter should be at room temperature.

Cream your cream cheese. You'll first want to cream your cold cream cheese until it's very creamy and soft.  If you don't do this step, you'll end up with chunks of cream cheese in your frosting.

Cream your butter. Add the butter to the cream cheese and start mixing with your hand mixer or stand mixer for a few minutes. Make sure that both are equally blended together before going to the next step.

Add your sweeteners and unsweetened cocoa powder.  I used a blend of erythritol and stevia for this keto chocolate whipped cream recipe.  Mix everything together with a hand mixer until the entire frosting turns brown.  Note, if you want your frosting to be more brown, you'll need to add more cocoa powder.  Just keep in mind that more cocoa equals more carbs.

After your frosting has turned completely brown, you'll slowly add the heavy cream into it and continue mixing with your hand mixer.  Don't add the cream too fast as it'll splatter everywhere.  

Continue whipping the cream for a good 2-3 minutes, until the frosting has considerably thickened and is ready to serve.  You can now pipe it over cakes, cupcakes, brownies or eat it by the spoon!

How to Store Keto Frosting

In the Fridge

You'll want to store this low carb chocolate frosting in the refrigerator all year long.  It will keep in the fridge for about 5-6 days.  The cream cheese and heavy cream tend to soften at room temperature, so it gets easier to pipe onto cakes, but leave the frosting too long at room temperature and it'll be too soft to decorate with.

In the Freezer

This easy chocolate buttercream frosting is freezable, but only once it's piped on cakes or any kind of dessert. I don't recommend freezing the frosting if you haven't piped it yet as it won't be as pipable as when it's fresh.  You can freeze it for about 2-3 minutes.

Once you've piped the chocolate frosting onto your dessert of choice, you can then freeze it.  When ready to serve, just leave the cake out at room temperature or in the fridge to thaw.  A few hours later, the cake and frosting will be perfectly defrosted and ready to eat.

How to Thicken Frosting

If you'd like to have a thicker keto buttercream frosting, you have two options you can follow.

1. Add more cream cheese to the recipe for a thicker frosting.
2. Let it cool in the fridge a couple hours and all of the chocolate frosting ingredients will solidify and thicken.

How to Fix a Runny Frosting

Is your frosting too runny?  Usually that happens if you used warm ingredients so it's extremely important that you use cold ingredients, especially the heavy cream.

If it's summer where you live, you'll want to add your bowl of frosting over a bowl of iced water to make sure the ingredients stay cool throughout the whole process.  This will also help the heavy cream to whip and thicken properly.

How to Use this Chocolate Frosting

Use this delicious low carb chocolate frosting piped over cupcakes, layer cakes, served over pancakes or keto waffles, or eat it by the spoon.  

Here are some delicious ways you can use this keto buttercream frosting.

• Frosted over some Avocado Brownies
• Piped over Keto Zucchini Cupcakes
• Frosted over Dairy Free Keto Waffles
• Frosted over this German Black Forest Cake instead of my Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting
• Frosted over this Keto Chocolate Cake
• Frosted over this Keto Chocolate Zucchini Cake

The chocolate cake below is my German Black Forest cake recipe frosted with this sugar free chocolate frosting instead of the cream cheese frosting.  I also topped the cake with fresh raspberries instead of cherries.  This is what the frosting looks like when refrigerated over night.

Tools Used to make this Keto Buttercream Frosting

[easyazon_link identifier="B00CPSRE4U" locale="US" tag="mypcoskitchen05-20 "]Hand Mixer:[/easyazon_link] I used a 9-speed hand mixer from Kitchenaid to make this keto chocolate buttercream frosting.  You cannot make this frosting with a whisk, unless you have arms of a professional arm wrestler.

[easyazon_link identifier="B0044FH2TY" locale="US" tag="mypcoskitchen05-20 "]Stand Mixer: [/easyazon_link]Instead of a hand mixer, you can also use a stand mixer.  I usually use my 5 quart Artisan model to make this frosting.

Final Tips & Possible Substitutions

Before making this recipe, make sure to read the following tips and possible ingredient substitutions to ensure your keto buttercream frosting comes out absolutely perfect!

• Make sure your heavy whipping cream and cream cheese is cold,  straight out of the fridge cold! Room temperature will not work.
• Make sure your butter is at room temperature or else you won't be able to whip it.
• Use unsweetened cocoa powder and not the sweetened kind!
• Make sure to add in the heavy whipping cream a little at a time to avoid splashing the cream all over the able and your clothes.
• If you want to pipe the frosting using piping bags, let the frosting rest at room temperature beforehand so that it's easier to pie.  If it's too cold, you won't be able to push it through the piping tip.
• Make sure you use powdered erythritol or allulose and not the granulated kind or it'll be like eating sand.

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