Healthy Chocolate Frosting Recipe (2024)

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This healthy chocolate frosting recipe has a deep chocolately fudge flavor. It’s low in sugar and fat, and is super thick and rich. This healthy frosting recipe is vegan, and is easily made a paleo chocolate frosting by subbing honey for the date syrup. No powdered sugar!

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Sweet Potato Frosting

Awhile back, I made a healthy chocolate cake for a friend. When it came time to decorate it, I pulled out a bag of powdered sugar I had begrudgingly bought for the occasion.

I wanted the cake to look nice, and my previous attempts at a low sugar frosting always turned out too thin to pipe or use in a layer cake.

Thinking back to the gooey sweet baked sweet potatoes my grandma makes for Thanksgiving, I realized they would make a perfect frosting base.

Ingredients for Healthy Chocolate Frosting

• Sweet potatoes, roasted until very soft and creamy. Read this on how to bake a sweet potato if needed.
• Coconut oil, melted
• Date syrup – I like this low glycemic index sweetener and use it often. It’s a great alternative to honey. I also testing this recipe with whole dates. Whole dates work, and their are instructions on how to use them in the recipe card, but the frosting is more fiberous (still tastes wonderful!)/
• High quality cocoa powder
• Salt & vanilla

We make this sweet potato frosting often now. My husband loves the leftovers — he scoops it into his bowl of yogurt and fruit for dessert! I have even served this to my toddler (who of course wouldn’t know the difference) and his friends, and kids love the stuff!

How to Make Healthy Frosting

To achieve the best textured and flavored sweet potato frosting, be sure to roast sweet potatoes well.

I bake mine at 425 degrees F for 1 – 1 1/2 hours. You’ll want to see the skin sinking in and the potato becoming more concentrated inside.

If you use sweet potatoes that haven’t been properly roasted, the frosting will turn out more fibrous and will have a sweet potato flavor.

Quick Tip: When I’m in a hurry, I microwave the sweet potato for 3-4 minutes, and then bake it for 30-40 minutes.

Steps for Making this Healthy Chocolate Frosting

1. Add roasted sweet potato, cocoa powder, coconut oil, date syrup, salt and vanilla to a food processor bowl. Process until the mixture is very smooth.
2. Add extra sweet potato if the mixture is too thin, or extra coconut oil and date syrup if the texture is too thick.
3. The frosting is very spreadable at room temperature, and becomes thicker and fudgy when refrigerated. If you’d like to make it ahead of time, be sure to allow it to come back to room temperature before spreading it.

Below you see a thick layer of this frosting on a slice of my chocolate quinoa cake! A great pairing.

Vegan or Paleo Chocolate Frosting

This healthy chocolate frosting recipe works well in many diets.

• Make it Vegan:This healthy frosting recipe is vegan as written.
• Make it Paleo:This is the perfect frosting recipe if you follow a paleo diet, or if you just like to choose foods with a higher nutritional content. I have made this healthy chocolate frosting recipe using soaked dates, and it tastes great — it doesn’t look quite as smooth, and if you eat it off the spoon, it’s more fibrous than making it with date syrup or honey. On a cupcake, you really can’t tell the difference though.
• Save time:I like to throw my sweet potatoes in the microwave for 4 minutes before baking them. I have never tried making them 100% in the microwave, because I like how creamy they get in the oven.
• Make it Ahead:This frosting holds well in the refrigerator for up to a week. If making it with coconut oil, it will need to warm up to room temperature and be stirred well before using it to frost cupcakes. I’ve also made this with grapeseed oil, and the texture stays soft, so there isn’t a need to let it warm up prior to using it.

OtherHeathy FrostingRecipe:

• White Chocolate Buttercream, by Sunkissed Kitchen
• Chocolate Frosting Shots, by Chocolate Covered Katie
• Homemade Cookies ‘n Cream Frosting, by Chocolate Covered Katie
• 5 Minute Healthy Frosting, by My Whole Food Life

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