Chocolate frosting substitutes

Classic American buttercream, the version most home bakers already know and the cheapest to make.

Best for

layer cakes, sheet cakes, cupcakes, piping, sandwich cookies

Reliable, stable at room temperature and pipes beautifully, which is why it is the default. It is also frankly sweet, because sugar is most of its bulk, and the texture is slightly matte and grainy rather than silky, since powdered sugar never fully dissolves. Sift the cocoa and sugar together or you will taste grit no matter how long you beat it. Dutch-process cocoa gives a darker, smoother, more mellow frosting, while natural cocoa gives a redder colour and a sharper, fruitier edge. A pinch of salt and a quarter teaspoon of instant espresso powder cut the sweetness convincingly.

Chocolate melted into hot cream, used at three different ratios for three different jobs.

Best for

layer cakes, drip cakes, tortes, cupcakes, filling between layers

The best-tasting option by a wide margin, and the least sweet, since there is no powdered sugar in it at all. It tastes purely of the chocolate you used, which cuts both ways: a good bar makes a spectacular frosting and a cheap one has nowhere to hide. Poured at around 90F it sets to a glossy shell. Cooled to a fudgy paste it spreads thickly and sets firm enough to stack. Chilled and then whipped it becomes pale, light and mousse-like, roughly doubling in volume, and that version pipes well but softens quickly in a warm room. Do not over-whip the chilled version or it turns grainy and splits.

A frosting built from chips, which is often what is in the cupboard when there is no baking chocolate or cream.

Best for

cupcakes, layer cakes, sheet cakes, piping, brownie toppings

Quick and very good, and the cream cheese version is the more interesting of the two: the tang cuts the sweetness in a way pure butter cannot, giving something closer to a chocolate cheesecake frosting, slightly softer and noticeably less sugary. Let the melted chocolate cool to barely warm before it meets the cream cheese or it will thin out and refuse to firm up. Because chips contain stabilisers they set firmer than a chopped bar would, so this frosting stiffens in the fridge and needs twenty minutes on the counter before piping. Cream cheese versions must be refrigerated.

Cocoa and icing sugar whipped into cold cream, giving the lightest possible chocolate frosting.

Best for

sponge cakes, chilled layer cakes, icebox desserts, trifles, cupcakes served the same day

Delicious and far less sweet than buttercream, with a texture like chocolate mousse, and it is the fastest option here. The honest limitation is stability: it is whipped cream, so it will weep and slump within a few hours at room temperature and cannot survive a party in a warm kitchen or a car journey. The icing sugar helps because its cornstarch stabilises slightly, and whisking the cocoa in with the sugar before the cream is whipped prevents lumps. Frost the cake as close to serving as you can, and keep it refrigerated until then.

A pourable fudge frosting that needs no icing sugar and no beating.

Best for

sheet cakes, brownie toppings, bundt cakes, poke cakes, traybakes

The right answer when you have no powdered sugar and no cream, and it is almost impossible to get wrong, since condensed milk will not split. Warm everything gently, whisk until smooth and pour it over a cake while both are still slightly warm so it spreads by itself. It sets thick, dense and slightly chewy, more like the fudge topping on a traybake than a buttercream, so it cannot be piped. It is also markedly sweeter and milkier than buttercream, with a caramel note from the condensed milk, so add a generous pinch of salt to keep it from tasting one-note.

The same buttercream idea with plant fats, or whipped coconut cream with cocoa folded in.

Best for

vegan cakes, dairy-free cupcakes, sheet cakes, piping

Works well with one thing to watch: coconut oil melts at around 76F, far lower than butter, so this frosting is firm in a cool room and soft to the point of sliding in a warm one. Use refined coconut oil if you do not want a coconut flavour, start with it solid but scoopable, and beat in the plant milk a tablespoon at a time. Vegan butter blocks are more stable than coconut oil and pipe better. The alternative approach, folding 3 tablespoons of cocoa into whipped chilled coconut cream, is lighter and less sweet but must be kept refrigerated.

A jarred spread used as frosting, either spread thick or lightened with something soft.

Best for

cupcakes, sheet cakes, brownie toppings, crepe cakes, quick assembly

Good and takes no time. Spread straight from the jar it is dense and very sweet and sits heavily on a cake, and it firms up quite hard in the fridge. Beaten with cream cheese it becomes light, spreadable and much better balanced, and beaten with whipped cream it turns into something close to a mousse. In every version the hazelnut is the dominant flavour, so the cake tastes like a hazelnut dessert rather than a chocolate one. Off the table if nuts are a problem for anyone eating it.