Chocolate Truffle Icing: Only 4 Ingredients & Super Simple To Make

Last updated on April 13th, 2020 at 07:41 pm

Think you can’t make chocolate icing at home? You are wrong! With just 4 ingredients and a few simple icing success secrets to follow you can make amazing chocolate truffle icing that will make say “forget the baked goods,  I am eating this all this chocolate icing with a spoon!”

(Links in this post are affiliate links. I will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking those links. See my disclosure page for more information)

This recipe is what I use to top my mom’s chocolate wacky cake recipe.

It is actually a recipe for chocolate truffles that I found when I first got married almost 17 years ago. I just adapted it by adding in enough milk to give it spreadability.

Chocolate Truffle Icing: Only 4 Ingredients & Super Simple To Make

One day I was desperate for a simple to make chocolate icing recipe that would be just right to top the wacky cake, and out of that need, chocolate truffle icing was born.

Ingredients Needed For Chocolate Truffle Icing:

• Butter
•  Icing sugar
• Cocoa Powder
• Milk  (preferably 2% or higher in fat)

Kitchen Tools Needed For Chocolate Truffle Icing:

• A hand mixer – I splurged on this one after burning out the motors of several different brands on cookie dough and have now owned it for several years —I LOVE it.
• Spatula -great for getting every last bit of icing out of the bowl as well as applying it to cakes and cupcakes. I purchased a silicone set of Spatulas similar to this one a while back and am impressed with them. I love that since they are molded from one piece of silicone, I don’t have to deal with the problem of having the plastic head fall off the wooden handle.
• Small Metal Icing Spatula – for icing cakes and cupcakes.

(psst….you can earn Amazon gift cards to purchase these products through Amazon through several different point companies but my favorite two are Swagbucks & InstaGC)

Instructions For Making Homemade Chocolate Icing

1.  Here is my biggest tip for successful icing making; make sure you take your butter out to soften several hours before. Do not try softening it in the microwave, that never works. You end up with slightly melted butter and that will not make good icing at all.
2. Cut the butter up into small pieces and beat it with your mixer.
3. Add in the cocoa powder and use your hand mixer to blend it into the butter.
4. Next, add in about 1/3 of the powdered sugar (amounts in the recipe below) with 1 tablespoon of milk. Starting with your mixer on low beat the mixture well. As the powdered sugar mixes in you can turn up your mixing speed.
5. When that is beat repeat that twice more so that you have added all the cocoa powder, powdered sugar and up to 3 tbsp of milk (read tips before adding all of the milk you may need less depending on what you are icing).

Tips For Making Chocolate Truffle Icing

This recipe is more of an art than an exact science. You have to know when you have reached that perfect spreadable consistency. But don’t worry if it is too runny add in more sugar, too stiff add a bit more milk. I add in a tablespoon of milk, to begin with, and then continue one tablespoon at a time until I get it to the consistency I want it. Usually, it takes the same amount of milk as my plain icing recipe, which is 2 to 3 tablespoons.

If you want to use this recipe to top cupcakes, I suggest using a little less milk so that it stays a bit on the stiff side. It will be easier to swirl up the sides of the cupcake that way.

For icing, a cake you can make is a bit smoother so that it spreads easily.  It requires a bit of work to get the texture just right for what you want to ice, but it is oh so worth it for the incredible chocolate taste it adds to anything it tops.

For more instructions, jump over to my family’s recipe for plain icing.

More Quick And Simple Chocolate Recipes:

• 3 Minute Chocolate Fudge: No Candy Thermometer Needed
• No-Bake Chocolate Cookies With Coconut And Raisins 
• 3 Ingredient Hot Cocoa: Recipe For One Mug Full