French buttercream is known for its silky smooth, luscious texture. It’s classically made with egg yolks and butter, but my recipe shakes things up just a little bit. Use it to frost cupcakes, cakes, or as a jumping off point for a French Silk Pie.

How to Make Chocolate French Buttercream

There are few things I love more than buttercream. But let’s get even more specific: there are few things I love more than French buttercream. And I’m going to get even more specific: there are few things I love more than chocolate French buttercream. This recipe has quickly become one of my new favorite things to use as a frosting for cakes, cupcakes, and everything in between. It’s smooth, luscious, shiny, light, and really you guys it’s just plain perfect.

One of my favorite things about this buttercream specifically is that the method is fairly fail-proof. European-style buttercreams can be very hit or miss, with lots of different factors effecting the outcome of your frosting. But I developed this recipe to be almost fail-proof. I’m so excited to share this with you today, and I think with these step-by-step photos and instructions, you’ll be on your way to making the best chocolate buttercream in no time!

What is French buttercream?

French buttercream lives among other European-style buttercreams in that it is classically made with part of an egg. Both Swiss meringue buttercream and Italian meringue buttercream (2 of my other personal favs) are made using egg whites. Classic French buttercream recipes are usually made with egg yolks, but for this recipe we’re using whole eggs. Typically, egg yolks and sugar are heated together to the “soft ball” stage and then whipped alongside butter. You’ll notice that my recipe is a little bit different than most other French buttercream recipe, and that’s because I really just wanted to make this tutorial as easy and as fail-proof as possible.

Here on the blog we love a good European-style buttercream. I’ve never really been one for American buttercream because it tends to be just a little bit too sweet for me. Now that’s not to say I don’t love it on this 6-inch Vanilla Layer Cake recipe, because I do love an easy buttercream to whip up in the matter of minutes. I’m just saying that taking a few extra minutes to work on this chocolate French buttercream recipe will lend to incredible results that you won’t be disappointed in.

Ingredients for chocolate French buttercream

This recipe has 8 ingredients, so be sure to pick these up next time you’re at the store!

• Eggs – you’ll need whole eggs for this French buttercream recipe. As I said above, this is a little bit different than most French buttercream recipes, but the result is just as delicious, creamy, and light.
• Granulated sugar – no powdered sugar or brown sugar here. This is something else I love about French buttercream. Measuring and sifting powdered sugar is such a drag to me, so I’ll take a buttercream made with granulated sugar whenever I can!
• Bittersweet chocolate – something else I love about this recipe is that we’re only using pure chocolate to flavor the buttercream. I also don’t love measuring and sifting cocoa powder (hello, big mess in my kitchen), so this is another added bonus. Make sure you use a high quality chocolate though, as this will lend better results.
• Unsalted Butter – For this buttercream we really want to control the flavor, and unsalted butter allows us to do that. I will say though, I’ve tested this with salted butter and it turned out fine, but just don’t add any additional salt.
• Vanilla – pure vanilla extract here, folks! Now is not the time for the artificial stuff.
• Kosher salt – I only use diamond crystal kosher salt in my kitchen, so that’s what I always recommend!
• Instant coffee – I will always be a huge lover of chocolate and coffee. Coffee makes chocolate taste more like itself in my opinion. That’s why you’ll see things like this chocolate cake, these chocolate cookies, and these chocolate cupcakes typically have some sort of coffee in them!
• Heavy cream – this is what we’ll dissolve our instant coffee in before we add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Some equipment you may need…

• Stand mixer: this is the one I have and I love it! I’ve had it for years now and I’ve never had any trouble with it. You definitely don’t “need” a stand mixer for this chocolate French buttercream recipe, but it sure does make life a lot easier.
• Candy thermometer: you’ll want to pay close attention to the temperature of your eggs and sugar when you’re cooking them over the heat. You’ll be bringing them to 160°F, and you can either use a candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer. Whichever one is easiest for you.
• Mixing bowls: I love these glass mixing bowls from Amazon. They’re especially perfect for food photography.
• Wooden spoon: I only use wooden spoons and rubber spatulas when I’m baking, and I love these!
• Measuring cups/spoons: I’ve been linking these in all of my posts because I love them SO much! They are beautiful and look just like some other expensive ones on the market (but wayyy cheaper).

Now, let’s get into the how-to:

Step 1 – Melt the chocolate in a saucepan

It is *vitally* important that when you’re melting your chocolate, you do this over as low heat as possible. Chocolate melts very quickly and if you burn it, it will break up and almost sort of curdle. That is NOT what we’re going for in this silky smooth chocolate French buttercream!

So, put your chopped chocolate in a saucepan and set it over low heat. You’ll want to make sure you’re stirring it occasionally to prevent it from burning as I said above. Then, once its completely melted you’ll let it cool to room temperature while you make the rest of the batch.

Step 2 – Whisk the sugar and eggs together in a heatproof bowl

You’ll want to whisk the eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl until the color changes from a bold orange color to a pale, almost white color. Then, you’ll set the entire bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

Step 3 – bring the eggs and sugar to 160°F

*News flash* in case you didn’t know.. if you heat eggs too quickly over too intense of a heat, you’ll wind up making scrambled eggs. Not exactly the smooth, light, and silky texture we’re going for in this chocolate French buttercream, huh? So, in order to heat our eggs to 160°F and prevent them from turning into scrambled eggs, we’re going to use a double broiler method.

I just combine my eggs and sugar in a large glass bowl and set it over a saucepan with about 1-inch of water in the bottom of it. You’ll heat that water to a simmer and set the glass bowl over top of it. This way, you can gently heat the eggs without the risk of them scrambling. Just make sure you’re stirring the mixture occasionally to prevent that from happening.

Step 4 – whisk the chocolate into the egg mixture

This is actually such a cool process to watch. The swirls the chocolate makes in the egg mixture is so cool to me! I digress.. the great part about this is that you’ve already melted your chocolate and it’s relatively cool now, so adding the chocolate will actually help to cool down the eggs. This way they won’t continue to cook after you’ve removed them from the stove.

Just be sure to scrape the saucepan for every last drop of chocolate that you can get – remember, this is going to be the extent of our chocolate flavor, so the more you can get into the bowl, the better.

Step 5 – whisk in the instant coffee/cream, vanilla, and salt

Like I said above, I love adding any sort of coffee flavoring I can to something chocolate. It makes the chocolate taste more like itself in my opinion. Especially in this chocolate French buttercream recipe though, the little hit of coffee you get makes it that much better. We’ll also add salt and vanilla at this step.

Then, we’ll place the entire bowl in the refrigerator while we start whipping up our butter.

Step 6 – whip the butter with the paddle attachment on high speed for at least 5 minutes

I know 5 minutes may sound like a long time, but just like my classic American buttercream from this 6-inch vanilla cake recipe, it’s important we get a really, almost pale white color coming from the butter. This just helps smooth everything out without whipping too much air into the buttercream.

Step 7 – add the chocolate mixture to the butter

When your chocolate mixture is about room temperature, you’ll go ahead and whisk it into the butter. Then you’ll beat it on high speed for at least 3 minutes. The texture will turn into the smoothest, most creamy buttercream texture.

From here, you can frost the entire batch on cakes, cupcakes, and everything in between!

Troubleshooting your chocolate French buttercream

If you finish whipping your buttercream for at least 3 minutes and it looks like the photo below, don’t worry! You can bring it back to life.

If your chocolate mixture is too warm when you add it to your butter, it will start to look a bit like soup. This is because the heat from the chocolate actually starts to melt the butter. All you’d need to do is pop the entire bowl in the refrigerator in 10 minute increments, whipping the buttercream for 1 minute in between each 10 minutes until it firms up. You should have a perfectly stable buttercream at the end, so don’t settle for something that is too thin to pipe onto a cupcake or cake recipe.

Chocolate French buttercream FAQs:

What if my buttercream looks soupy?

If your chocolate mixture is too warm when you add it to your butter, it will start to look a bit like soup. This is because the heat from the chocolate actually starts to melt the butter. All you’d need to do is pop the entire bowl in the refrigerator in 10 minute increments, whipping the buttercream for 1 minute in between each 10 minutes until it firms up. You should have a perfectly stable buttercream at the end, so don’t settle for something that is too thin to pipe onto a cupcake or cake recipe. 

Can I make this ahead?

You can absolutely make this buttercream ahead, and I would even recommend you do! You’ll just make the entire batch of buttercream and either transfer it to a piping bag or leave it in the bowl, covered in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator. Because this chocolate French buttercream does have eggs in it, I would plan on using it in the next 3 days if you’re going to make it ahead. 

Can I freeze chocolate French buttercream?

Yes! This freezes very well. I’d recommend freezing it in plastic wrap or another container, and when you’re ready to use it place it in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Then, the morning you’d like to use it, place it on the counter and allow it to come to room temperature before using it.

What should I use this chocolate French buttercream for?

There are so many things I love using this frosting for. It’s amazing on these chocolate fudge cupcakes, and works great for this chocolate cake. Another interesting use for it is that it can be used as a jumping off point for this French silk pie recipe. It’s basically the same base, just uses less butter.

I hope you all love this recipe, and I hope this step-by-step tutorial gives you the confidence you need to step up your buttercream game!

If you make this chocolate French buttercream recipe be sure to tag me on socials @sarahsdayoff so I can see what you do with it!!! If you have any questions about this recipe or any others on my site, you can reach out to me at sarah@sarahsdayoff.com and I’d be happy to chat with you!

Happy baking 

Love,

Sarah

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” -Romans 12:2-

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