And boy, did I eat a lot of them. I’d hover near the kitchen, waiting for them to bring out the brownies. And in later years, I experienced that same frosting on cakes because I tracked down the bakery and bought a lot from them. Until they shut down. Cue dramatic sad music!

Since then, I’ve been on a quest to make fudge frosting. And you know what? Finding a recipe that works ain’t so easy. Turns out that people love chocolate frosting and dark chocolate frosting, but the kind that sits like fudge on cake and yet is still magically spreadable? Not so simple. I’ve had so many fudge frosting fails that it’s no longer particularly a happy topic for me.

Until I ran across this baker’s recipe. She has all these fudge frosting tutorials. I felt renewed hope and had to try it!

Bottom line: this frosting is very thick and fudgy, but there are a few caveats. For one, you need to refrigerate it to make it thicker and spreadable. If you don’t, it has a drippier consistency. Leaving it out to thicken would help, but I didn’t have that much time, so I chilled the whole bowl for about 30 minutes. When it was time to ice this cake, no problem! Here it is in the middle of the smoothing process:

Also, even thicker, this stuff is hard to pipe. I’m pretty sure it will need more chill time if you want to make piping easier. But the good news is, the final result is delicious. This frosting sets up beautifully and stays creamy and thick. One of our friends told me that it was just like his grandmother’s frosting, which he hadn’t eaten since he was a kid. I took that as a compliment.

Enjoy this foray into fudginess! I used my frosting on my brother-in-law’s birthday cake, but this would work just as beautifully on brownies or as a filling between sandwich cookies. Let your imagination run free!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

Instructions:

In the microwave, melt the chocolate for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Transfer the chocolate to the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the hot water and beat until fully mixed. The mixture will look really odd at first, but it will smooth out. Add the butter and beat again until incorporated. Do the same with the powdered sugar. Finally, mix in the corn syrup.

Give the frosting time to thicken to the desired consistency, or speed up the process by chilling the bowl in the refrigerator, checking every 15 minutes or so.

Frosting can be stored in the refrigerator in a covered container. However, you will have to bring it to room temperature and beat it again to bring it back to the desired texture.