Healthy Eating

Chocolate Orange Frosting | The Picky Eater

February 24, 2024

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This chocolate orange frosting recipe is a sweet, citrusy delight perfect for anyone looking to add a unique twist to their baked goods. I’ll guide you through each step to create this rich topping that pairs wonderfully with cakes, cupcakes, and even cookies! This easy, three ingredient frosting is great for any home baker, and will make your desserts truly irresistible!

I love the combination of chocolate and orange. It brings me back to my childhood, when my mom would give us those Pepperidge Farm Orange Milano cookies as a treat! Those cookies are the inspiration behind this chocolate orange frosting.

I originally shared this frosting as part of my chocolate orange cake recipe, but it was so delicious and versatile I decided to share more details about it here!

👩‍🍳 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Super Easy, Great For Beginner Bakers: This frosting is simpler to make than a chocolate orange buttercream or a ganache – but has similar qualities. It’s kind of like a cross between a ganache and a buttercream – but is much easier to make, has just 10 minutes of prep time (40 minutes total time), and requires just 3 ingredients!

Easy To Customize: While this ganache is meant to be packed with orange flavor, you can easily just leave out the zest if you want a regular, classic chocolate frosting. It’s also easy to make vegan and dairy free too!

Not Just For Cakes: Sure, frosting goes great with cakes, but there are so many different ways you can use this recipe! See my serving suggestions below for creative ideas for using chocolate frosting.

🥘 Ingredients

Dark Chocolate: For the ganache frosting! For a sweeter ganache, use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate. For best results, use a high-quality chocolate bar or high-quality chocolate chips like Ghirardelli so that it melts smoothly.
Cream: Hot cream helps to melt the chocolate and makes it super smooth. Whole milk or even any non-dairy milk will also work as a 1:1 substitute in this recipe.
Orange Zest: For the citrus flavor! If you don’t have orange zest on hand, you can try orange extract or even vanilla extract – but the orange flavor won’t be as strong. You’ll need the zest of one large orange.

🔪 How To Make Orange Chocolate Frosting

Chop Chocolate, Heat Cream: Finely chop the dark chocolate and place into a large mixing bowl. Place 1/2 cup of cream and the orange zest into a microwave-safe container and heat until steaming. Be careful not to let it overflow.

Chocolate shavings mixed with heavy cream in a mixing bowl.

Pour Cream Over Chocolate: Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Place the ganache into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Whip Ganache: Place the ganache into the bowl of a stand mixer with 3/4 cup of cream and whip until fluffy. You can also use a handheld electric mixer for this step.

Chocolate frosting whipped in a stand mixer.

💭 Expert Tips

Be sure to chop the chocolate into fine pieces to ensure it melts completely. If the chocolate doesn’t melt you can heat the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir to melt fully.
The best chocolate to use: Use a high quality baking chocolate — I like 70% percent dark chocolate because it’s rich in flavor, slightly sweet, but also reduces the sugar content of the frosting.
Do not boil the cream when heating it in the microwave. It should just begin to steam.
Use a rubber spatula to stir the frosting. This will help ensure it retains that light, fluffy texture that you’ll get from whipping it with the stand mixture.

📖 Variations

Espresso Powder: Want even more rich chocolate flavor? Add a dash of espresso powder to the chocolate chunks before you add in the heavy cream. It’ll bring out the flavor of the chocolate even more!
Make It Vegan: Use vegan dark chocolate and coconut cream instead of regular dark chocolate and heavy cream.
Other Flavors: Feel free to omit the orange zest for a traditional chocolate frosting. You can even replace the orange zest with certain extracts like mint extract, almond extract, vanilla extract or even orange extract if you’d like.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

Obviously, one of my favorite ways to use this frosting is on cake! It’s great on my chocolate orange cake, but also tastes amazing on my chocolate walnut cake recipe. But cakes are the only way to serve this rich topping. Here are some of my other recommendations for how to use chocolate and orange frosting!

Cupcakes: Cupcakes are just mini cakes, which makes them perfect as a base for this frosting! You can use this recipe with just about any cupcake recipe, but it goes especially well with my healthy chocolate cupcakes or with chocolate orange cupcakes too!
Brownies: Spread chocolate orange frosting over freshly baked brownies. I especially love this as a topping for my eggless brownies which are fudgy and delicious!
Ice Cream: If you warm the frosting slightly, it’ll become a little thinner, which makes it the perfect topping for ice cream instead of regular chocolate sauce. Try it with my chocolate banana ice cream recipe and top with a few orange slices as a garnish!
Cookies: Pair your favorite chocolate chip or sugar cookies with chocolate orange frosting in the middle to create delightful cookie sandwiches. I will often use it to make cookie sandwiches with my oat flour chocolate chip cookies.
Pancakes Or Waffles: Use chocolate orange frosting as a spread on warm pancakes or waffles for a decadent breakfast or brunch. It’s a sweet alternative to traditional maple syrup!

🫙 Storage Directions & Make Ahead Tips

You can easily make this chocolate orange frosting ahead of time if you’d like! It stores really well once it’s made. Here’s how to store it (either as leftovers, or you can follow the same storage instructions if you’re making this ahead of time):

To Store In The Fridge: Make the frosting as directed, then transfer to an airtight container and cover with plastic wrap before popping the lid on your container. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week. Make sure to bring it to room temperature and stir before using it so that it’s smooth and has a nice consistency for spreading.

To Freeze: Let the frosting cool completely, transfer to a freezer safe container. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. I like storing the frosting in ice cube trays so that I have small batch portions ready to defrost if needed – that way I can use as much as I need and keep the rest frozen! To serve, let it thaw in the fridge the night before you want to use it. Then, an hour before you’re ready to use it, remove it from the fridge, let it come to room temperature, and beat it lightly with a hand mixer to get it nice and creamy again.

❓Recipe FAQs

What can I use if I don’t have orange zest?

No orange zest on hand? No problem! You can also use a splash of orange extract, orange juice or an orange emulsion — all three will give your frosting a boost of citrus flavor. Personally though, I find that the orange zest is what gives this frosting the best flavor, and the slight bitterness in the zest pairs really well with the dark chocolate.

How much frosting does this recipe make?

This recipe makes about 3.5 to 4 cups of frosting, enough to frost about 20 cupcakes, or 1 large cake.

Can I make this frosting orange in color?

Unfortunately no, since this recipe uses dark chocolate, it’ll be almost impossible to get this to be a bright orange color. If you wanted to create orange colored frosting, you’d need to use white chocolate and orange food dye.

Chocolate orange frosting mixture in a bowl.

🍫 More Chocolate Recipes!

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📋 Recipe Card