Best chocolate frosting ever

Ok, I don’t like American buttercream. Who does anyway? There are those who say they love American buttercream. I can’t understand them. I don’t suppose they’ll understand my cheese cube with lemon & honey routine or why I like to dip vadai into payasam. Does that gross you out? You don’t understand what you’re missing.

American buttercream is way too sweet and never smooth enough for me. I have been on the lookout for smooth, silky, not too sweet frosting recipes forever. Just like I’ve always been on the lookout for a good tailor, just like my mother is perpetually on the lookout for a good house-help.

This chocolate frosting is bang on. It is smooth, velvety, just sweet enough and gorgeous on just about anything. I will take the extra effort, cook the milk, sugar and cocoa down to a pudding, strain it even, melt the chocolate, chill everything up and wait till everything chills before beating them together, all for this beauty. The most difficult part for me is waiting while these components chill. It is slow and excruciating. But once chilled, it thickens up nicely and pipes like a dream. It is best to take small portions of this frosting in the piping bag at any time while putting the rest into the refrigerator while you work to keep the frosting nice and chill.

Prep time: 45 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Makes: enough to frost 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

Good quality dark Chocolate - 80 gm (I used Bourneville)
Milk – 1 cup (230 gm)
Maida/All purpose flour – 1/3 cup (43 gm)
Cocoa powder – 3 tbsp
Granulated white sugar – 2/3 cup (134 gm)
Salt – pinch
Unsalted Butter – ½ cup (113 gm)

Method

1.       Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat, stir till the chocolate is nice and smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

2.       In a saucepan, combine cocoa, maida and salt and whisk well. To this add milk slowly whisking till all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Add sugar to the saucepan and place on stove. Cook on low heat whisking constantly. The mixture will thicken slowly to a thick pudding consistency. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve. Press with the back of a spoon to force the mixture through. Chill this mixture for 15 minutes.

3.       Take room temperature butter in a large bowl and beat for a minute until soft and fluffy. Add in the pudding mixture and beat for a 1-2 minutes or until everything is mixed well. Add in the melted chocolate and beat for another 1-2 minutes or until everything is well mixed and the frosting is soft and smooth. Chill this mixture for 20-30 minutes. It’ll thicken up nicely.

4.       You can then scoop up the frosting and spread it on cake or pipe away.