Silky Chocolate Mocha Frosting

Silky Chocolate Mocha Frosting ~ a frosting worthy of the name.

My husband as I've mentioned here a number of times is a true chocoholic; he has to have some form of chocolate on a daily basis. I kid you not - he's addicted. Those ice cream bars with chocolate he loves are expensive frozen treats so I have taken to having on sale cake mixes in my pantry and the staples to make homemade chocolate frosting: cocoa powder, cream cheese and confectioner's sugar. I grab those when they are on sale and today I made cupcakes with this Silky Chocolate Mocha Frosting.
I often wondered why he's so addicted and if it is a true addiction or something I just labelled him with. Turns out chocolate is addictive and there's been research on it. I found an interesting article here that talks about chocolate and cravings in men and women and I know there are other sites that have research information as well. All I know is, he has to have chocolate and if he doesn't he can be a bit cranky so I try and keep something chocolate in the house at all times!

I love cake mixes; nowadays they are downright moist and delicious! Also, baking isn't my jam as much as cooking so a cake mix is as easy as it gets for me. However I think the shelf frostings pale in comparison to a homemade frosting. So from scratch frosting it is - Silky Chocolate Mocha Frosting!

• 1 bar cream cheese - room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 4 tbsp. butter - softened
• 6 tbsp. regular brewed coffee (or 4 tbsp. espresso)

1. Let your cream cheese soften to room temperature.
2. In a medium sized bowl add the cream cheese and blend with the butter.
3. Add in the cocoa, sugar and coffee and mix on low until it starts to come together and increase the mixer speed to medium to finish incorporating until you have a smooth frosting.
4. Frost your cupcakes or cake.

There's enough Silky Chocolate Mocha Frosting for more than the batch of 24 cupcakes so store unused frosting in the refrigerator tightly covered. Lasts at least two weeks! You could buy canned frosting but why bother when homemade is quick and easy to make and the results are 1,000 times better than the canned variety? And, as you'll see below, the cost is not over the top.

The frosting, with the cream cheese, butter and confectioners sugar on sale cost approximately $3.99 to make. This recipe makes quite a bit of frosting - enough to frost a whole cake (sides included) or two or more batches of cupcakes.