Fudge Icing Recipe
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Fudge Icing goes perfectly on so many desserts. Get this heirloom fudge icing recipe that is sure to become a family favorite
For as long as I remember, this Fudge Icing has been a special part of my Grandmother Verdie’s recipe collection. She’d make it each year to top my sister’s Chocolate Pound Cake Grandmother would make her for her birthday.
While the Chocolate Pound Cake was just delicious on its own, it didn’t hold a candle to when it was topped with her fudge icing.
Mercy!
Maybe that’s why I have this obsession with chocolate.
I will tell you though, this fudge icing is thick and rich – and heavenly! I make it while the chocolate pound cake is cooling and then begin pouring the fudge icing over the top once it is ready. By the end, I do end up having to just spoon bits of the fudge icing onto the cake it gets so thick.
Be sure to make this cake WITH the fudge icing soon. It is perfect for celebrations, reunions, picnics, taking on camping trips and just about anything else you can imagine.
Oh yeah – and it works like a charm for those instances when one child is jealous of another’s birthday party.
Believe me, I speak from experience.
How to Make Fudge Icing
- Stir together sugar, cocoa powder, and milk together in a large saucepan set over medium-high heat. Cook until large bubbles begin to form and the mixture reaches a hard boil.
- Boil for 1 minute at a hard boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Beat with a wooden spoon until thick and smooth.
- Pour over the cake. The fudge icing will firm as it cools.
This Fudge Icing also works perfectly on so many other desserts! Here are just a few ideas:
Practically just about anything you would use a ganache on, you can now use this fudge icing recipe. You won’t be sorry!
Here’s Grandmother’s Fudge Icing Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!
Fudge Icing Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (396 g) granulated sugar
- 3 heaping tablespoons (16 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup (151 g) whole milk
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, (1 stick) salted, cubed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix sugar, cocoa powder, and milk together in a large saucepan.
- Cook over medium-high heat until large bubbles form and reaches a hard boil. Boil one minute at a hard boil. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
- Beat with a wooden spoon until thick and smooth.
- Pour over cake. It will harden as it cools.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Im stirring and stirring, and all i have is chocolate soup.
Hi LM,
This icing is one that is poured onto your cake. It should get thick and smooth (like mentioned in the recipe) and it should harden after it’s poured onto the cake. This icing is a different consistency than many other frostings. Hope this helps – Thanks!
When I was a teenager, I was learning to cook (baking is my love). I made the yellow cake with an icing that very well could be this, it certainly looks like it in the picture. I call it Jesus’ Birthday Cake. I promised Him I’d make it for Him every year. All of my family knows this cake. The icing recipe actually came to me from my cousin. She gave me the recipe more than once, but I lost it so many times over the years. This is NOT an easy icing to find online. I’ve looked for months before I stumbled on this one. Can’t wait to make it for Christmas. A promise is a promise. 😉
Tina, this was the recipe my grandmother made when I was growing up. I’m sure this was a recipe that many women in the South made and passed down to their families.
Hi Robyn
I have made this fudge recipe more than once and it has been excellent. We are undergoing a heatwave at the moment and I have made two batches of the recipe and it just won’t set. HELP
I’m so glad you enjoy it! I’m so sorry, but it may certainly be the humidity and the heat, Alfie. Hopefully you’ll have a cool part of the day soon to make it a little easier to pour it and let it cool & set/harden. Thanks!
My Mother use to make this and it was my Daddy’s favorite poured over yellow cake, she poked holes in the cake and it run down into the cake. I never got her recipe and I’m so glad I found this recipe, going to use it for my grandsons BD cake. Thanks so much
Needed a frosting for brownies, that I had all the ingredients for. This is by far the easiest and most delicious I’ve ever made! It is the only one I will use from now on! Thank you!!!
Yum
My mother and grandmother used to make a fudge icing like this one, but I did not have a recipe for it. My mother didn’t know where her recipe was and didn’t remember it from heart, so I hunted for this on-line. I was trying to find an icing that would make a gluten free, dairy free, egg free cake taste better than they usually do for one of my granddaughters, who unfortunately has severe food allergies to gluten, dairy, and eggs. Off course I had to substitute for the milk and butter, which is why, I think, it did not thicken as it is supposed to; however, I had seen a hack for that on another cooked icing recipe. I tried that hack, and it worked great. I also used a cake recipe that I found on-line, along with a couple of changes/additions from a second recipe that I had found for the cake, too. While we were on our way back home after the little party, my granddaughter called on her mom’s (my daughter’s) speaker phone and yelled, “Thank You!” She made me really glad that I went to the trouble. My daughter said that most recipes that my granddaughter can have turn out just edible, but this turned out really really good. Everyone enjoyed it, and needless to say, it didn’t last long….. I used 1/3 cup flax milk and 1/3 cup Silk vanilla almond milk instead of whole milk, and 1/2 cup earth balance soy free, non-GMO, Vegan, buttery spread instead of butter. When it did not thicken after adding the vanilla and buttery spread, I heated it back up to a hard boil again, and cooked it at a hard boil for another minute. When it still did not thicken, I used the hack I had seen on another recipe. I sprinkled powder sugar in until it started getting thick, all the while stirring and cooking it. When it finally started getting thick, I poured it directly onto the sheet cake. Yum, Yum!!! (but very rich…..)
I made this recipe once as written. It was great and well received…maybe too well received. The second time I made it it was a 3X recipe using powdered cacao and Madagascar 3X Vanilla. Everyone went through the roof! I think this is truly addicting. Now family and friends are trying to find new things to coat in the fudge icing.
Hi CajunChef!
I’m so happy you and your friends enjoy this! It’s a family treasure of an icing! We’ve loved it for years! Thanks so much!
I made this because it sounds like my husband’s grandmother’s recipe. It looks pretty and tastes good, but is runny and isn’t thickening. Any suggestions?
Hi Kelley,
I’m so glad that you enjoy the taste! It is just fabulous on Grandmother’s chocolate pound cake! YUM! It sounds like you may need to continue to cook until it thickens as listed in the recipe. xo
I’ve been looking for a recipe like this forever! My mother made cake with fudge icing when I was little and after she passed we couldn’t find her recipe.thank you so much for posting it!
I’m so happy you found it! It’s a delicious icing and I always loved when my Grandmother made it! I hope you enjoy it, Jane! Thanks!
Hi Robyn,
I made your cake with buttercream frosting for my son’s 5th birthday last year and it was a HIT! I’m planing on taking your same recipe, but in cupcake form, to my husband’s work tomorrow for his birthday! Have you ever used the fudge icing on the cupcakes? I like the idea that it hardens and might look better after I transport them.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
I can’t recall using this particular icing on cupcakes but it should be delicious. Do note that it’s not the same consistency as the buttercream frosting and it’s applied by pouring.
I hope you enjoy it! Thanks!
This is so like my French grandmothers fudgevfrosting. But I never had exact ingredient measurements. Now I do! ❤️❤️❤️
That is so neat! This is my southern Grandmother’s recipe we’ve loved for so many years. I’m thrilled you found it and enjoy it! Thanks so much for sharing this with me, Gwen! xo