Paleo Chocolate Frosting
This dairy free chocolate frosting is super easy to make and so delicious you will need to prevent yourself from eating it by the spoonful. Made with dark chocolate and coconut oil, it is a rich and creamy topping that can work on a variety of desserts.
I designed this chocolate frosting for my Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes, which my children (and their friends) have been gobbling up. I know I’ve got a good dessert on my hands when my children’s gluten eating pals scarf down my gluten free, grain free treats without pause, and then ask for more. These cupcakes didn’t last long around here.
Paleo Chocolate Frosting
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and coconut oil
- Stir in vanilla extract
- Place frosting in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes to thicken
- Remove from refrigerator and whip frosting with a hand blender
until thick and fluffy
- Frost over Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
I began working on this dairy free frosting recipe a few weeks ago when I made my Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes. At that point the recipe was very similar to the one above, however, I was using 1/4 cup of coconut oil rather than 1/3 cup.
When I posted the cupcakes I received several comments regarding the frosting recipe. One, from a reader named Reggie contained almost the exact recipe above, except hers called for a 1/2 cup of coconut oil, a dash of salt and much less vanilla. Seeing Reggie’s recipe helped me in that I learned from it that I probably needed to increase the amount of coconut oil in mine. Thanks Reggie, you saved me several hours of testing with your comment.
Here are some other grain free cupcake recipes that you can top off with this chocolate frosting:
You might also enjoy:






Hurray! My son’s birthday is coming up and now I know what cupcakes I’m making! He’s going to love them.
Forget the cupcakes, frosting is always the best part anyways. I think I could eat this all by itself! Thanks for the recipe!
This brilliant! Will try it soon
Delish! The frosting looks so rich and creamy. I have all those ingredients on hand too! Amazing! The cupcakes look awesome too
I love this recipe and I will try it next time we want a cupcake.
This recipe is similar to some chocolate coconut cups I make.
After reading Dr. Fife’s book “Stop Alzheimer’s now”, I decided that my husband and myself could use some prevention and some special care of our brains based on family traits.
In that book it is recomended that those who do not have a mental disorder diagnosis already but they see that it’s been in the family such things as dementia.. etc. that they consume 3 TBSP of coconut oil/day.
I already was cooking with coconut oil but I wanted to be sure that we got our recomended dosage . So I created the recipe for coconut cups.
I make them in muffin mold.
To make 12:
18oz of coconut oil (36 Tbsp)
1 bar of 85% Green and Black chocolate + 1 bar 90% Lindt
I distribute them in the 12 cups, add a bit of almonds or 1 frozen strawberry, sometimes raspberries.
Put in fridge.
They are like delicious truffles that we both look forward to having.
Our minds are already sharper.
Funny how I never thought about whipping it before is solid.
Thanks Elana
You are my hero, Elana! I am so excited to make this! My 13 year old daughter has never had refined sugar and we’ve been Paleo for nearly a year! I can finally make her some cup cakes with frosting! THANK YOU!
Jami
While waiting for your recipe Elana I had some dairy free soy based cream cheese to which I added agave and cocoa. I cant do chocolate with any regular sugar in it. But my cupcakes disappeared while traveling to the Santa Fe Opera :-) I’d much prefer to be taking in lots of coconut oil though so will try your version my way. Wish me luck!
Lynnette
There is now cream cheese make from coconut oil – sold at Publix. Sorry, I don’t know the name of it but research it and I’m sure you will find it.
Oh wow, I couldn’t wait. I just had to make this immediately….so perfect!! I made the flourless chocolate cupcakes (from your cupcake cookbook…with cocnut flour) and wanted to tell anyone who’s watching calories or counting calories that this is the perfect treat! Only 123 calories each cupcake, including 1TBL of frosting! My cupcake batch made 10 cupcakes.
Thank you Elana!!!!
I just wanted to tell you I tried the chocolate cupcakes and they are wonderful. I will try the frosting when I make another batch tomorrow since it was late when I found this. Thanks Elena!
LOVE this recipe. so simple, so delicious. and perfectly not too sweet.
That looks good! Need to get some more coconut oil!
I am always looking for more ways to use my coconut oil. I can’t think of a better way than this delicious looking frosting. Thanks Elana for another great solution to dairy free.
I make a chocolate frosting with coconut oil in the solid form adding cocoa or carob powder as if it were icing sugar. Then I add liquid vanilla and liquid stevia to thin it out a bit. Yum!
Chocolate frosting for one, please? I made a version of this recipe tonight and it wasfabulous! My adjustment – just enough for one person – and no sugar.
1) I melted one Baker’s Unsweetened chocolate square for 2 min on power 2 in the microwave.
2) Using the chocolate/coconut oil ratio above, I added coconut oil to the melted unsweetened chocolate (roughly 3 tsp chocolate liquid to 1 tsp liquid coconut oil).
3) Added 4 shakes Trader Joe’s powdered stevia and 1.5 tsp vanilla.
4) Refrigerated 30 minutes, then fluffed with a fork.
[Next time this might taste even better with the spices from Elana's -Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream- bueno!]
I’m eating it without the spice on a plain rice cake right now. Very good.
Texture is glossy and dark, just like I remember that supermarket tub-o-frosting Mom used for my b-day cakes 30 years ago. Thanks for the walk down Memory Lane, Elana! I have your -Orange Cake- fresh out of the oven. Will add some frosting to my piece tomorrow (for breakfast, no doubt!).
oh. my. gosh. WOW! looks absolutely amazing!
Wow this looks absolutely wonderful!
I am so grateful for this website, your books, and ideas. This recipe looks absolutely scrumptious and I’m psyched it has coconut oil. Can’t wait to try it on your paleo chocolate cupcakes. Awesome!!
Finally, a recipe that I can use to frost a cake for my daughter who can’t eat sugar! thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Oh my, this looks amazing! Love this recipe!
I thought I followed the recipe exactly the way it said. But, when I took the mixture out of the refridge the chocolate and oil separated and the chocolate became shared that I couldn’t mix it. Does anybody know what I did wrong? HELP!!
My first thought (without knowing exactly what you did) would be that the chocolate you used had some additional ingredients that didn’t want to blend with the coconut oil? What are the ingredients listed on the package? Also, how long did you refrigerate?
p.s. darn those iPad spelling errors :)
I used carob chips. And I left in the refridge for a half hour maybe…do you think it was the type of chips?
Hmm… interesting – well depending on the brand, they may have another oil present, like palm oil, and this could be why – let us know what you ended up doing and if they turned out!
I’ve noticed when I add alcohol(extract) to chocolate it freezes up. Perhaps it has to be warm before adding. Or maybe you could add the extract to the coconut oil first?
I ment the chocolate became solid!! My I pads spell was wrong. :)
My frosting came out pretty thin, probably because I eyeball things and added too much chocolate. Never fear, I whipped up some almond butter in my VitaMix, but before I let it get too creamy (soupy) I stopped blending and blended 5-6 heaping tablespoons into my soupy frosting (using an electric handheld blender).
If you’re a fan of “peanut butter chocolate” and don’t need things too sweet, give it a try, SO GOOD!
I’ll try that! Thanks!! :)
Added 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract to the icing. So good! My gluten-eating extended family members were VERY impressed.
I’m not sure why this is called Paleo. Even dark chocolate chips have sugar and sugar is NOT paelo.
Agree.
If it helps – perhaps you might prefer –unsweetened– chocolate instead of dark chips. Unsweetened chocolate could still be sweetened with an alternative/Paleo-friendly sweetener, or not sweetened at all. This way it might be ok to call it Paleo. Viola’! Sans the sugar.
Made this today and everyone likes it. I found the frosting firmed up nicer if the bowl was very cold while mixing.
I just made your Paleo cupcakes complete with frosting for dessert tonight. They turned out so nice and moist and delicious! The frosting was crazy good.
Dear Elana,
I really love your blog that last months,since I’ve discovered that my little boy has celiac disease,has been my bible!
I live in Italy and some ingredients on your receipes are hard to find here.
I’m still looking for a good almond flour..
thank you for sharig!
Bene
Yum!!! The cupcake part was super easy and delicious!!! I loved the taste and texture all by itself.
I struggled with the frosting. Used Dagoba chocolate bar chopped up rather than chips — same quantity and % cocao. The fridge did not firm it up enough, so I put it in the freezer — left it in too long, so it was too hard. Room temp did not soften it, so I reheated, tried the freezer again, and it worked. Though when I refrigerated the frosted cupcakes the frosting was hard like a chocolate bar — tasty but hard. Fabulous at room temp. I just need to work out how long to leave it in the freezer I think — and set a timer.
Wish the frosting were foolproof, but I’ll work it out. LOVE the ingredients and the outcome when I give it proper attention.
Thanks!!!
Does it have to be put on a cupcake? I think I will just eat it with a spoon :)
I like chocolate. Sounds Delicious and simply! Thanks for sharing.
I made this frosting for my stepson’s b-day. He’s autistic on a gluten+ casein free diet, so The coconut oil in this recipe is great for him. However, mine didn’t look like yours at all. Maybe I left it too long in the fridge? I had to shave it out of the cup and make the cupcakes look like they had shaved “chocolate” ( really carob) on them. Then later that night the frosying completely melted. They looked ugly but they were gone in like 5 mins and my stepson licked the frosting off of most of them! Where did I go wrobg w/the recipe?
To the above reader
You did nothing wrong, it’s just the makeup of coconut oil. It’s always best to store in fridge until they’ll be eaten within the hour or so, that way if your room is to warm you won’t have them liquefy.. When you took the frosting out of the fridge it had just set up to long. Next time check it along the way, like 15 mins then 20, then 25 until it is thick but not hard or solid. the time will vary… Try it again….you’ll love it!
to Annie- Thanks so much for your advice! I’ll give it a shot next time
hi I made the frosting and it was initially great & soft but then hardened back to chocolate. Do you need to eat it straight away? Can I do anything to prevent it hardening? thanks
I made it the other day, but I didn’t make any cake or muffins. I dipped strawberries and banana in to it, it was yummy! The only thing I think was difficult was the temperature for it to be spreadable. Room temperature, around 20+ degrees Celsius, was good for me.
I’ve made these 4 times already since you put the recipe out – I’m seriously obsessed with baking the cupcakes & frosting! Yesterday I decided to make the frosting with coconut cream vs coconut oil and it turned out just as yummy!
hi how long does your frosting last before it goes hard? do you frost the cakes and serve immediately? thanks!
I made a version of the vanilla cupcakes and the chocolate cupcakes tonight–didn’t have enough eggs for one but didn’t have a couple of the other ingredients for the other. They are still cooling but look really good.
I have tried making the frosting but it’s too liquid. I did the chocolate chips, the coconut oil and vanilla and let it sit in the refrigerator. I took it out to beat and it’s just liquid. It definitely won’t frost the cupcakes. But it tastes great!
Made this last night with the chocolate cupcakes. The frosting is spectacular. Followed your instructions completely. The cupcakes turned out a little bit dry. Not sure why so I’ll have to work around that a lite bit next time.
You are awesome!
Dear Elena,
Your site is really cool! Thank you for your great creativity and talent !
I am writing from France ! I admit it’s pretty hard sometimes to convert cups in grams… Especially here with the chocolate chips !!
So do you have a page where you indicated for each ingredient what is a cup in grams (and so we can calculate proportions and save time adapting the recipes)… Just a proposition !
Kind regards
Mayanne
why the hand blender? my hand blender is a little older and generates too much heat and it just melts the coconut oil. i’m going to try a stand mixer, but before i waste the time and ingredients, has anyone tried it?
thanks!
I found that my frosting didn’t really get thick at all? Did anyone else have this problem?
So I made this tonight for the paleo choco cupcakes and I forgot about the frosting in the fridge. Now it’s too solid to whip. Any ideas? Can I let it get warm and then whip it and put on the cupcakes? Any one else had this problem? Thanks!
I love your recipes. Chocolate Chips and Bars have milk in them unless specified. Dairy free chips are hard to find for PALEO recipes. I use ENJOY brand. What brand do you use? The recipes do not say “dairy Free” chocolate chips. Thank you
Can this work with any other kind of oil? We have coconut allergies and palm allergies as well as dairy/egg/nut/soy. Can sunflower oil work??
Will the coconut oil melt at warmer room temperatures or in the summer? It sounds yummy!
How can this be a Paleo frosting when it has chocolate chips ?(sugar) Are there any chocolate chips out there that do not have sugar? Thanks for any help.
I just made the frosting with no added sugar dairy free milk chocolate instead and it taste SOOOOOO GOOD! thanks so much