If I offered you a giant spoon of chocolate frosting, would you eat it?
I don’t know about you, but I would devour that frosting and continue to lick the spoon clean. No wasted frosting for me.
What if I told you this frosting was healthy?
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you would probably believe me. If you are new here, however, you might think I’m a wee bit crazy.
I promise I’m not crazy (well, maybe I’m just a little crazy…). I’m just a girl who loves chocolate frosting. Fudgy brownies with frosting. Chocolate cupcakes with frosting. Banana cookies with frosting. Chocolate cake layered with frosting. Chocolate frosting on a waffle. Chocolate frosting on a spoon.
Oh, and I’d still like this all to be healthy.
~This Chocolate Buttercream uses healthy, whole-food ingredients. Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free (when using sunflower butter), Gluten-Free, Paleo, and Vegan.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup mashed sweet potato*
- 1/4-1/2 cup pitted dates
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons nutbutter of choice (I used sunflower seed butter. Tahini or almond will also work well)
- 1/2 cup dairy-free milk (coconut or almond work well)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil. Whisk in the cocoa powder to create a chocolate syrup.
- In a blender or food processor, blend together the dates and milk to create a sweet milk. Blend until smooth. More dates will create a sweeter frosting, less dates will create a darker frosting.
- Add the sweet potato, nut butter, and vanilla to the blender and blend until smooth.
- Stir in chocolate-coconut syrup mix until well-incorporated and smooth.
- Use right away or keep in fridge until later use. The frosting will become more firm while in fridge.
Notes
*I used baked sweet potatoes and take the skin off before mashing.
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http://www.spoonfulofsugarfree.com/2012/07/06/healthy-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/The great thing about this frosting is that it holds its shape. I wanted to make a frosting used the Coconut Whipped Cream trick, but that melts easily when out of the fridge. So go ahead and pipe this onto cupcakes or use to decorate your favorite cake with squiggles, flowers, or poco dots.
Not only does this recipe contain no added dairy, sugar, or soy (no tofu frosting for me, please), but it is chock full of antioxidants and vitamin A from sweet potato! The sweet potato gives it a creamy texture and body, while the dates help sweeten it a bit more. If you are on a diet that limits intake of fruit-sugars (like anti-candida diets), then try substituting the pureed dates for alcohol-free liquid stevia.
Health Benefits:
- Sweet Potatoes: Full of fiber to keep you full. One of the best sources of Beta-Carotene. This pre-vitamin to vitamin A prevent night blindness and other eye problems, skin disorders, enhance immunity, protects against toxins and cancer formations, colds, flu, and infections. It is an antioxidant and protector of the cells while slowing the aging process.
- Coconut: Coconut is widely misunderstood because of it’s high fat content; however, coconut’s saturated fat is made up of medium-chain fatty acids. These medium-chains are easy to absorb and digest, and are converted quickly into energy. This means that the body is less likely to store the medium-chain as fat. Coconut is also a great source of dietary fiber with a whopping 5 grams per oz!
- Chocolate: Click Here for a post I wrote about the benefits of chocolate.
Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:
Would you eat a giant scoop of frosting? Or are you more of a cake person?
P.S. Even if you didn’t win the giveaway for the Sugar Free Challenge, CORE Foods wants to give you a chance to try CORE Meals too! SAVE 20% on a single sample pack of CORE Meals at www.corefoods.com. Use Coupon Code ”sugarfree” after check out. This discount expires 7/18/2012!
awesome photos alex! This sounds divineeeee
Thanks, Katie! That means a lot coming from a great photographer like you!!
Wow! That looks amazing! My birthdays next week and I’m thinking of making my own cake, I wonder if my parents would approve…ah well it’s my day!!
Minerva,
heck yes! it is your cake
Oh my gosh. What an incredible recipe, Alex!!!!
I am totally a frosting kind of gal. I would take the spoon of frosting over cake ANY day. It’s so much faster than waiting for a cake to bake anyways. 
Wow. This looks amazing. Kind of “too good to be true”. Thanks for sharing!
Crazy! I want to try it!!! If I made cupcakes and used this frostign will it hold up or should you keep it refridgerated?
Jennifer,
It will hold up without refrigeration for a couple hours. I would keep it stored in the refrigerator when you are storing it, though, because it is a perishable item.
Alex, I really want to make the chocolate frosting but can’t find the recipe on your web site. Where do I click?
Ben,
It should be on my website under the picture of the jar with frosting. If you still do not see it, let me know and I can email it to you.
Um yes please! I would eat all of that! YUMMY!!
Oh this looks so rich and fudgy! I would be spreading this on everything/eating it with a spoon just like you!
Beautiful photos too
Do you think it would work with pumpkin instead of sweet potato? I just bought one, and have no sweet potato.
Stacey,
I have yet to try it with anything other than sweet potato, so I cannot vouch for pumpkin. I think it might work, though. Let me know if you try it!
THIS LOOKS FANTASTIC! I know what I’m using on my next birthday cake
You are SO freaking clever, Alex!!! This looks AMAZING. I want a spoon. And a jar full of that frosting.
this sounds amazing!! everything in it that I love!
You are a genius. I need to try this next time something needs to be frosted.
Alex, the only things I find under the bowl are the various things to put the frosting on and some comments about whipped coconut cream. There is one other thing
[amd-zirecipe-recipe:44] but I don’t know how to access that.
Ben
Ben,
You are probably looking at the “newsletter email.” For some reason the recipe plugin always looks like that on the email. Go to m actual website to see the recipe, and let me know!
Why wait for a cake to frost; this looks like a healthy dinner to me
Iris,
Definitely! That’s what I did for half of it
I made this frosting this weekend. Yum! Especially with sliced bananas and cherries. Thanks for such a great recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Kendra!
Looks amazing.I am completely in love ith nutella (full of refined sugar and skim milk. Maybe this can take its place.
Briita,
yes! It would make a great substitute for nutella.
Oo this looks awesome! Awesome job. Definitely going to try, no doubt about it.
GENIUS! I must make that ASAP…
[The photos are amazing as well, m'dear.]
I made this & eventually it was great but I had to do some major tweaking. First, to fit our family’s dietary restrictions I subbed palm shortening for the coconut oil & I just used water rather than non-dairy milk. I doubled the recipe & other than that followed the recipe. It was nowhere even close to the color in your picture & didn’t even taste chocolatey at all. I had to about triple the recommended amount of cocoa powder (used a combo of Penzey’s cocoa & Navitas raw cocoa) to get it dark & chocolatey tasting. And then I had to add more sweetener as well. I ended up just using some agave because I was afraid more dates wouldn’t get fine enough if I added them that late in the process. It all worked out & was delicious in the end but the recipe didn’t work as is for me. Maybe you used less than 2/3 cup sweet potato to start with? Or you use more cocoa? Or a darker cocoa? I’m sure the non-dairy milk would have added more sweetness but it wouldn’t have made it more chocolatey. Any idea what went wrong?
Laura,
hmmm…well it sounds like you subbed a lot of my ingredients, so I can’t really vouch for your results. You could also try melting some unsweetened chocolate bars into the mix to make it even more chocolate-y.
No offense, this is a fantastic concept, but I only subbed out 2 ingredients initially. Palm shortening for coconut oil shouldn’t make any difference. I do that all the time. Water instead of a non-dairy milk I would think should have made it more chocolatey, not less. I just wanted to let other readers know they may need to use more cocoa to get a chocolatey tasting frosting which means they’ll also probably want to use the max amount of dates. For what it’s worth it also tasted fantastic before I put the cocoa in at all. I think I may have even liked it better that way. I did think about melting some chocolate into it (fantastic idea) but I only had regular old chocolate chips & didn’t want to add the cane sugar.
Most of the commenters before me didn’t seem to have actually tried the recipe yet. I know I always appreciate reading how others tweaked a recipe & what worked or didn’t work.
If I may comment, although you may not see. I did the recipe and only changed sweet potato and it was perfect. So smooth and very chocolatey. I tried making some sugar free chocolate this past Christmas though, added some liquid (juice) to the chocolate and the texture was all weird. I did some research and found out water doesn’t do well with melted chocolate, maybe that was part of your problem? Just an idea.
Made it, ate it, loved it.
Thank you so!!
So glad you enjoyed!!
Say, could I use a regular potatoe and just add a bit of honey?
Jo,
I really don’t know if that would work because a white potato is extremely starchy and has a different flavor than a sweet potato. You can always try it, though, and see how it turned out.
Hats off to you on this recipe which is not just “not bad for you” but actually GOOD for you! I just added a pinch of salt. Now to see if it passes the kid test . . .
This was sooo good. I have had my family on a sugar/gluten/dairy free diet now for 3 years, made a birthday cake tonight with this frosting, they devoured it, even my sugar eating extended family loved it!
I made this and it was so delicious! Props to a fantastic recipe. I would have never thought to use sweet potatoes (I actually subbed in kabocha squash, since it’s less starchy, and it was still fantastic). I think this would also taste delicious with some added coconut flakes.
Do you also have a recipe for the chocolate cake that is in the pictures? It looks equally divine!
Stephanie,
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Here’s a recipe for a grain-free chocolate cake: http://www.spoonfulofsugarfree.com/2012/03/03/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake-giveaway/
Thank you! I will definitely try this out.