Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

I don't usually frost my cupcakes as I like my cupcakes plain. Whilst frostings are delicious, I still remember how much butter went into my Swiss Meringue Buttercream and so I very much rather to reserve my calorie intake for another cupcake.

This prompted me try a frosting that is perhaps slightly healthier - Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. I played around with the remaining block cream cheese I had, adding in some butter, melted chocolate and icing sugar. That gives a delicious frosting without tasting too sweet or "cheesy" (somewhat ironic-sounding I know)

Ingredients
75g block cream cheese
25g unsalted butter
20g melted dark chocolate
50g icing sugar

Method
1. Beat cream cheese and butter till fluffy and light. This took me about 4-5 minutes.

2. Add in melted dark chocolate, beat for another minute

3. Add in icing sugar, beat for another minute.

Tips
If you realise that your icing sugar is not smooth, sieve them before use. Icing sugar tends to lump together when exposed to air (this is despite me putting them in a zip-lock bag)

After all the creaming, the frosting may be too soft to pipe. Pop them into the fridge for 5-10 minutes before piping for best effects

You can just use a spoon to spread the frosting on top of cupcakes rather than piping

Try not use to use tub cream cheese as that will produce frosting that is too soft to be piped

I'm no expert when it comes to piping but here are two common swirls I try to practice whenever I get a chance; I used Ateco 1M, open star tip and my frosting was a rather soft (no time for quick chilling as I was in a rush)

Traditional swirl (uses more frosting)

Rosette swirl (uses less frosting)

I like to store my cupcakes in a large air-tight container, Lock&Lock is a good choice. You can also check out their special range for cupcakes. Be careful when transferring your cupcakes! (you can see slightly damaged ones in my container, lol)