Beat butter for 3-5 minutes in a mixing bowl, until pale in color. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
Add in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, almond extract, and heavy cream. Beat for an additional 3-5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl to fully blend frosting until light and fluffy.
Use on cakes and cupcakes.
Notes
There are several cocoa powder options. When choosing a cocoa powder, make sure to use a baking cocoa powder. Baking cocoa powder doesn’t have added sugar and is unsweetened. Hersheys and Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powders are great options because they are sold in most stores and are very affordable.
Beat, beat, beat. I cannot stress this enough. You want to beat your butter very well, then add the rest of your ingredients and beat again.
Make sure you add my secret ingredient to this frosting. It’s the almond extract. This extract adds depth to this frosting. If you can’t find almond extract or don’t like the taste, you can swap it out for vanilla extract.
See blog post for more tips and tricks on how to frost a cake, cupcakes, and how much frosting is needed.