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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Contents
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.
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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
- 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.
- Add extra sweet potato if the mixture is too thin, or extra coconut oil and date syrup if the texture is too thick.
- 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:Â This healthy frosting recipe is vegan as written.
- Make it Paleo:Â 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:Â 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:Â 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.
Healthy Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sweet potato roasted and peeled, mashed
- 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons date syrup or sub honey (or 5 ounces of soaked dates*)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil or sub grapeseed oil**
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sub a scraped vanilla bean for paleo
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Be sure your sweet potatoes are fully roasted and very soft. The skin should easily press in or be sagging around your potato. If your potatoes aren't roasted very soft, your frosting will not turn out as smooth and will have more of a sweet potato flavor.
- Add the roasted sweet potato and cocoa powder into a food processor. Process to combine (it will ball up, and that's okay).
- Add the date syrup (or honey), coconut oil (or grapeseed oil), vanilla and sea salt. Process again for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth and glossy.
- If using coconut oil, it's best to pipe or spread the frosting while it's still room temperature. If using grapeseed oil, the frosting stays soft and spreadable even after being refrigerated.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Other Heathy Frosting Recipe:
- 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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Love that you made this from sweet potatoes! I’ve made sweet potato brownies before, but never a chocolate frosting. I’m beyond excited to try this!
I’d love to hear how you like it! My husband wants it in the fridge at all times now– he likes to add it to his yogurt and fruit at night!
You know what you are my idol because you are for sure Ariana Grande love ya keep up the work miss G
I actually think the birthday cake you made looks great! I would totally eat that. 😉 And yay for healthy frosting! This is such an ingenious idea and it sounds delicious! Coconut oil is always a great health hack because it’s good for you AND it tastes amazing. Can’t wait to try this on my own cakes!
Thanks Alyssa! Yes, I love coconut oil, and use it for so many things. The flavor and smell is amazing. I was hooked the first time I tried it. The cake I made was so lopsided, and the buttercream I had put in the center melted in our hot humid weather 🙂
What a great idea! I feel like this is the kind of frosting you can just eat with a spoon and not feel completely guilty about. Sounds delicious too! Thanks for sharing!
It is Luci! One of those tastes-amazingly-indulgent, but will not give you a sugar crash treats 🙂 And there was a lot of spoon licking going on in this house.
Ooo I love alternative baking ingredients and this looks really interesting! I can imagine that on a gluten free chocolate cake easily. Such a clever idea to use sweet potatoes!
I can’t claim using sweet potatoes was my own idea– I’ve seen it before, but I couldn’t find the recipe I had seen before! It works so well I will definitely be making this over and over again.
Chocolate frosting + healthy? Awesome! I love the addition of coconut oil. Lately I’m adding it everywhere. Thanks for the recipe!
Ooh never knew you could make a frosting with sweet potatoes! This is awesome!
Now what a great idea to put sweet potato in the frosting! I didn’t know you could make healthy frosting
Wow I can’t believe this is made with sweet potato!! It looks so rich and delicious! I will definitely be trying this one!!
What a terrific recipe and idea! I can’t wait to try this recipe.
This looks awesome. Can’t wait to try it. My birthday is coming up, might have to make myself your chocolate quinoa cake and put this on it. A guilty free Birthday.
I wish I could make it for you! Happy Birthday 🙂
Hi Michelle,
I don’t have date syrup so I’m planning to use whole dates. You mentioned that I should soak the dates in hot water. Does it become liquid after that or should I be blending the dates with water for the liquid consistency?
Thanks so much!
Hi Ying! Yes, this recipe works well with dates also. Just pit the dates, and then pour boiling water over them and allow them to soak for a couple of minutes until they are very soft. Then they will process very smooth for you. I also sometimes make date paste to make recipes like this easier, and if you have a Vitamix, you can make it super smooth. For date paste, use 16 ounces of dates with 1 cup of boiling water, and then process it until it’s super smooth and glossy (this takes about 4-5 minutes in my food processor, or 1-2 minutes in my Vitamix). You’ll love this fun frosting!
Absolutely delicous! made it with dates. i love all your fruit sweetned recipes since we dont use any sugars in our house. thank you
Thank you for letting me know Rachel! I prefer date or fruit sweetened treats in our house — I have an eBook I have been writing this year that will be released soon with 30 new date or fruit sweetened recipes — be sure to check back!
wow thats great cant wait! your date bar is definitely the favourite in our house! it just dissapears out of the freezer way too quick!
I hear you on the date bars! They go fast in our house too and I feel like I am constantly making them! I’ve got two hungry boys who go crazy for them.
I’ve tried it tonight and it was absolutely delicious. The texture was perfect. I used maple sirup as sweetener instead or dates sirup or soaked dates and it worked fantastic. Definitely going to made this again.
I love this recipe and I am so glad you do too! My husband eats plain yogurt and fruit for dessert, and now he always asks me to make this so he can add a scoop of chocolate to his bowl! Thanks for taking the time to tell me you enjoyed this, Floriane!
Love this frosting recipe! I will be making this one over and over again – seriously delicious!
Thank you so much for letting me know Shannon! I love getting creative and making toppings like this with healthier ingredients 🙂 I have a White Chocolate Buttercream you should check out also!
Thank you! I made gf cupcakes, but couldn’t bear the thought of making a frosting requiring 4 cups of sugar. Sweet potato frosting to the rescue! My family doesn’t suspect a thing!
So funny — I have roasted sweet potatoes in my fridge for this very recipe! My son is having a sleep over tonight and I just can’t bear to give kids heaps of powdered sugar! It really is so good, isn’t it?
Such a clever frosting recipe. Perfect consistency and so much better for you too. I will be using it again and again.
Wow I can’t believe this is healthy! It looks so good
Well there you go I never would have guessed there was sweet potato in there. What a fabulous alternative. Thanks for sharing!
Love that this is made healthier using sweet potatoes! I will be trying this soon, for sure!
I’ve never used date syrup before, but this recipe makes me want to try it. It sounds so delicious!
I just made this and the flavor is amazing but the consistency is more like pudding even after refrigerating. The only thing I did differently was to make date paste separately. I soaked 5 oz dates, drained them and blended with about 1/2 cup water. Is that what I did wrong? I need to thicken it up but I don’t want to sacrifice the flavor!
I imagine your sweet potatoes weren’t as cooked as mine — that’s all I can think of! I would try to add more cocoa powder and date paste to see if you can get a better consistency. It does have great flavor though!
Any other option than date oil?
Maple syrup or honey both work!
I’m on the AIP diet and it’s very restrictive. I just made this and instead of cocoa, I used carob to make it AIP complaint. It is so good!! I imagine that it is was even better with cocoa. I am eating it right now. I also used maple instead of dates, bc dates are our go to snack and my daughter will not part w that many dates. lol Kuddos to having LISA BRYAN | DOWNSHIFTOLOGY comment on your recipe, she makes the best recipes. I will check out more of your recipes as this one is a KEEPER!! Thank you for your efforts and time recreating this wonderful recipe. Cheers!!
Hi Nicole, wow, thank you! I am so glad this recipe works for you. It’s always a win when sugar can be replaced with whole foods 🙂
I am participating in a no sugar challenge with my gym this month. My coach shared with us your receipt for date squares. I have never really had many date dishes before, so I decided to give it a try. They were excellent! I was pleasantly surprised. So, after that, I decided to look around on your website and I came across the chocolate quinoa cake and healthy chocolate frosting recipes. In reading the ingredients, I thought to myself that there was no way on earth these would be good…quinoa in cake and sweet potatoes in frosting?? Date syrup?? What the heck is that?? Are you kidding me??
Well BOY WAS I WRONG!!!! The cake and frosting are ***AMAZING***!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! I have one of the biggest sweet tooths ever created, and chocolate is my all-time favourite!!!! I have spent my whole life trying to find a way to have my chocolate and remain healthy at the same time, and I figured it was a lost cause. Well, it isn’t!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!! Your website is my favourite! Thank you again!
Thanks to your coach for sharing my site and date bar recipe! That recipe is super popular. Once of my favorites of all time!
I have an ebook coming out soon that’s a collection of recipes that are sugar free or fruit sweetened. I will be sure to notify you (or best, sign up for my email list!).
I just published a sweet potato brownie recipe you’ll also love! It uses coconut sugar, but you can sub monk fruit sweetener in it’s place!
If you haven’t tried it yet — I use monk fruit sweetener in a lot of my recipes, because I also love desserts, but don’t want the sugar — use discount code SUNKISSEDKITCHEN for 20% off! Their chocolate chip cookie mix is so good as well 🙂 https://www.zensweet.com/collections/shop-all