chocolate frosting recipe

[sherri]

A few months ago (cannot recall which issue, maybe last month), Bon Appetit featured a chocolate layer cake that sounded great. However, the chocolate frosting is loaded with calories...I was wondering if the amount of butter could be reduced...any experience with this?
Here is the recipe.
TIA!!

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp freshly brewed coffee, room temperature
3 tbsp buttermilk
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix cooca powder, coffee and buttermilk in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture begins to boil. Cool to room temperature. Melt chocolates in top of double boiler, set aside.
Beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir in cocoa powder mixture, then melted chocolate.

[funniegrrl]

Well, frosting is frosting and is going to be primarily made up of fat. The less fat you have, the less thick and spreadable it will be. That's not to say it won't be good, but it will have a much sweeter, stronger taste and will be thinner.

You might try looking at topping the cake in a completely different way to reduce the calories. Put something like fruit preserves between the layers and top or cover with a thin ganache glaze -- still high in fat, but will be less and you'll use a lot less. Or, maybe a glaze that has no fat, like you would make with powdered sugar and milk or other complementary liquid. The possibilities are endless, just depends on how much you want to cut back and how different you're willing to make it.

[miami]

even if you reduce the amount of butter, it's going to be pretty calorie-dense with all that chocolate in it. I didn't see the cake recipe, but you might try just using the filling, and dusting the top with powdered sugar sprinkled through a pretty doily. That would substantially reduce the fat/calorie count.

[claire797]

One thing you could do is follow the recipe as stated but scale it to half or two thirds and at the end, stir in a few cups of fat free Cool Whip. You'll have to keep the icing refrigerated, but it will cut the calories pretty signicantly.

[sherri]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I make chocolate ganache frosting often, but wanted to try something different and thought this sounded good. I figured there wasn't much I could do to alter the fat content, just thought I would ask just in case...thanks for the suggestions!