Quick recipe: Chocolate fudge icing
This is an old family secret – the perfect fudge icing for both filling and topping a good chocolate cake. Enjoy!
You will need
- 5 oz of butter
- 5 oz of icing sugar, sifted
- 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons of milk
(If you’re a proper choccy monster use double – I tend to make half as much again.)
Method
Slowly and gently melt the butter in a pan (skim it if you want to to remove excess salt and impurities).
Add the cocoa and up the heat, cooking it gently for a minute or so, then add the icing sugar.
Add the milk gradually (you’ll know when to do this, as the icing sugar will eventually make your cocoa and butter the consistency of cement) and keep stirring until you have a glossy, smooth paste.
Allow it to cool, and then use half to sandwich your cake together, and half for the topping. It looks fabulous and tastes divine.
do you know any review sites that review cakes etc..like mcvities muffins,flapjacks,brownies etc…?
Go to http://www.cakecentral.com – it’s a community of cake decorators, and quite good. Enjoy!
Question: Can this icing be used with Chocolate Transfers?
somehow it never got to the consistency of cement so i burned it?!
I’m assuming that you had the heat up too high, and that the cocoa wasn’t cooked long enough before you added the icing sugar.
I’ve made batches before where the butter doesn’t fully integrate into the mixture, so I’ve ended up pouring it off.
Sorry to hear you had a disaster. Better luck next time.
Oh, and once set, you should be able to place transfers on top.
Can you add chocolate from a packet into it or will it make the sauce taste bad. What is the consitency of the sauce and when it dryes is it still smoothish ?
Thank you
Ashleigh x
This sauce is a fudge sauce. Adding chocolate from a packet will probably make it go wrong.
When it sets it remains smooth and sticky but with a shiny top layer, so you can ice or decorate it.
Hi,
Can I pipe borders with this icing?
It’s pretty thick stuff, so I’m sure you could, yes.
i added chocolate from the packet, it didnt effect the outcome of the icing at all. very tasty :)
Have just made this icing to put on a cake I made ready for the children’s Friday treat after school. Very easy to follow recipe and tastes delicious. Made double the quantity and have enough left over to put on top of some fairy buns in the next couple of days. Seems to keep well in the fridge.
can i add caramel syrup into this mixing? i want to make a chocolate caramel topping for my fudge cake.
I messesd up! it didn’t get cementy. i may have added the milk too soon…. it’s very liquidy. can i save it or should i start from sratch?
Please can you tell me what sort of sized cake this will fill and top?
I actually use about double the amount of icing sugar, just adding a tablespoon at a time stirring continually until the consistency is right, then give it a minute before adding the milk. For some reason butter often appears again after adding the first milk, but it soon stirs back in. I decide its ready when I can see my face in the glossy paste!
I find it plenty to give a thick coating to a two layer 12″ cake.
Tastes great. But it never got very thick. Was I suppose to keep cooking and stirring until it got thicker? Or should I have added more confectionary sugar? I’d like to make it again, but get it right.
I made some recently. I made sure I cooked the cocoa for a couple of minutes then when I added the icing sugar I allowed it to cook for three or four minutes. At that point I wasn’t sure it was going to set, but as it cooled it did set very well. The trick is to go back to it as it’s cooling and keep giving it a good stir.
Tastes great with a little wasabi powder in there as well!
i made this fudge icing for the first time and found it very easy to follow however i faces a dilemma at the point where the recipe said ‘keep stirring until you have glossy smooth paste.’ i kept stirring until it went thick then constantly stirred whilst it was cooling however after 2-3 minutes the mixture solidified and a huge amount of butter was separated. i was very upset at this and decided to make it again but it would be greatly appreciated if you point out where i went wrong. thank you very much.
sorry, i dont have an email address, hence i made up an email ad, but i will read your reply on this website.kind regards.
Sarah, there is sometimes separation, and if this happens I usually just pour off the excess butter fat and keep stirring, but it sounds like you kept the heat on and cooked it to a lump.
Two simple rules – exact quantities and don’t go mad adding extra icing sugar. I’ve always followed this recipe to the letter and 90% of the time get the results I wanted. Ah yes, and keep the heat moderate!
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. i, however, followed the exact quantity and even reached the point where the mixture turned like cement, then i added the milk and it turned nice and glossy, but thereafter i was unsure for how long i should allow it do. could you please tell me an approximate time limit?
And then whilst allowing to cool i wasnt so sure as to keep mixing it, or mixing it at intervals of 2-3 minutes? so i was vigourously mixing it. whilst cooling, does it set and turn thicker? And also whilst spreading the on the cake i did pour the butter out, but did not make a huge difference and the mixture was pretty hard to spread and has hardened overnight.
i do greatly appreciate your assistance and your time for solving my concern. thank you very much.
Interesting, mine never gets ‘like cement’ – when I’m cooking the cocoa it’s just a gentle simmer for a minute or two and the contents of the pan are always liquid. THEN I add milk and icing sugar. Sounds like you may have overdone the cocoa cooking.
As for stirring, I just pop back to it every couple of minutes and give it a good stir to aid the cooling process. As long as it’s glossy and thick you don’t have to do much more than work it a little with a spoon.
thanks for your kind help. i will be trying it out again tomorrow! hope it turns out right!
i made the fudge icing again today, and i have to say that i was very disappointed with the outcome. there was no difference to the first time i made it though having paid great attention to the measurements, low-moderate heat and allowing to cool without stirring it vigourously but occasionally.still butter was separated from the mixture. im very sorry to say that i will have to totally dismiss this recipe. Anyways many thanks for kindly assisting me in solving my concerns.
hmmm, are you using a cast iron pan? Like a le creuset type? The reason I ask is that they retain their heat for ages and I find they can overcook things like this very easily, so when I made mine I made it in a lightweight non stick saucepan and it turned out as it was supposed to.
can u use any cooco powder
i made it and the taste was not very nice i dont know wot happned can u help me plez
I never tried making Chocolate in home. I will try some time.
I have jsut made this – I halved the recipe, it was just right to put a fairly thick layer (think choc.cup cake in the UK)on a 7 inch chocolate cake – I didn’t use much heat, thought it was going to go wrong at first when adding in the icing sugar , it looked a bit granular, but I added a bare tablespoon of milk, very little warmth underneath, then beat it with a wooden spoon. It went smooth and glossy, tasted good to me – the Grandchildren will no doubt give me their verdict on sunday !
i made this for the first time & it is amazing. Can i pour it on my cake like warmed ganache?
how long does it take for the icing to cool down, i’ve left it about 10 minutes and its still warm, just need to know if i’ve done it right. (:
It Worked exactly the way described in the recipe except that after cooling, the icing had a grainy texture and turned hard: not the smooth, squidgy texture I had expected. The taste was good though. Any suggestion to correct this? Or is it supposed to be like this?
this is the worst recipe ever!! no thickening… terriable|!
Its looks divine and tastes delicious…I’m just waiting for it to cool and hoping it will thicken up as currently it is too runny!
Correct me if Im wrong but is that not just ingredients for butter icing? Is it fudge icing because it is heated?
What is the icing that has double cream and plain chocolate? Ganache?
I want that really ‘chocolaty’ looking icing that is shiny for my fudge cake and not the dull but equally as yummy butter icing!
look so delicious! just waiting for the fudge icing to cool!!! cant wait to eat it!
I tried to make it the same way as you described, but it finished up thin and runny. But still delicious
followed this recipe and ended up pouring off quite a lot of butter, (what a waste) wish i hadn’t used this recipe as i wanted to fill my cake as well as top it, no chance with this as it is so runny, bad bad recipe simon!!!
Followed recipe to a t and it turned out fab! Thank you very much!
I say that the butter separates
from the icing so you have to stir
and leave to cool a little bit more,but
it tastes divine!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh and i draind the butter!!!
and when we put the icing on……..
DISASTER
all the inviseble butter litteraly squirted out.
but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting so i will keep you posted……the hungry hoards arrive in 2 hours!
My husband is lactose intolerant, I substituted non dairy baking fat for butter and it still worked a treat. No-one can believe it is lacto free!
Hopefully some help for those who had a disaster. I made this to the letter and at the stage I added the icing sugar, all the butter seperated from the chocolate. At this point I removed it from the heat before I carried on and added the milk gradually and stirred and stirred to get the butter back into the icing and it worked! Dont fret just keep stirring. As the icing cools it will amalgamate with the butter.
O-to the-M to the-G!:D It was all lumpy at first and looked really horrible, though it smelt nice @ the time!:) But then we added the milk and it was yummy! We used a whisk also as it seperated a lot and we had to drain the seperated butter out!;) only fault of ours= added WAY too much icing sugar! xxx
yeaaah that was all lumpy but it tasted soo awesomee huuh ?!! gunnna use it again :) really richly chocolaty (is that a word) haa haa lool xxx
I followed the recipe and got the cement effect, I took it off the heat while I added the milk. I found it a little bitter so added more milk and icing auger until I got the desired taste and thickness. Hope this helps anyone.
Oh my goodness. Chocolate heaven. First time I’ve made this. Perfect. Kids loved it. I’ll definitely make it again. :)
This was very very good use this recipe
I haven’t tried making this. I’ve never made anything remotely close to this, does anyone have some advice to offer or are the instructions pretty much all I need????
Thank you