I made this frosting for the first time when my oldest daughter turned eleven & I have stuck with it ever since because it is unbelievably versatile & delicious. Back then, I needed… poop. Yes, really. Poop. Who would have guessed that my sweet, princess-loving little girl would one day beg me for a full poop-themed birthday party? That’s the power of the beloved poop emoji for the new generation, & honestly, I ended up having just as much fun with it as she did.

For the frosting:

• ½ cup (115 g) butter, softened
• 130 g cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup (45–50 g) cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2–3 cups (240–360 g) powdered sugar
• ¼ cup (60 ml) milk (or as needed)

To make this shiny & delicious chocolate frosting, start by beating the softened butter until light, smooth, & creamy. This takes a while..patience! Add the cocoa powder & vanilla, and continue mixing until everything is well combined.

Begin adding the powdered sugar gradually, mixing after each addition. Then add the cream cheese & beat on low just until everything comes together…too much mixing turns it into chocolate soup, & we don’t want that. Add a splash of milk here & there to loosen things up into that dreamy, spreadable texture. If it gets too thick, a little more milk will fix it. If it goes too soft, just sprinkle in more powdered sugar until the frosting behaves again.

Feel free to customize it: a pinch of espresso powder deepens the chocolate flavor beautifully, melted dark chocolate makes it richer, & a little extra vanilla softens the sweetness. This frosting is perfect on cakes, cupcakes, brownies, or anything that needs a smooth blanket of chocolate. It comes together quickly, pipes beautifully, and can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

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Literally a pile of (*!#x). The “Pile of Poo” emoji, also known as the “Smiling Poop” or the “Smiling Pile of Poo”, is that iconic little swirl of happiness with a very friendly grin. Somehow, this ridiculous creature has become one of the most popular emojis ever created. ABC News’ Samantha Selinger-Morris even wrote in 2016 that its charm “transcends language barriers and political differences.” Honestly…wow.

So, when my oldest daughter requested a poop-themed birthday party back then, I couldn’t exactly say no. Decorating an entire party with nothing but smiling piles of poo wasn’t an option, so we went full emoji: all the popular faces, a special spotlight for our star, & a hilarious round of “Pin Your Poop,” where the girls tried to stick paper poops onto a giant toilet on the wall while blindfolded. We even had an emoji Instagram frame with props, with Mr. Poop, of course, front & center. The cake for singing was a cute little “Tear of Joy” emoji, surrounded by cupcakes proudly topped with… you guessed it… a pile of poo.

By now you’ve seen the photos of my “dreadful” results. No matter how much Pinterest research I did to create the perfect poop cupcake swirl, there are always the Pinterest expectations & then the real life reality. Before you laugh at my gooey, slowly collapsing Scheiße, let me explain. If I had wanted perfectly perky, stiff poop cupcakes, I could have made them with mountains of lard, as many, many Pinterest experts recommend. They would have been gorgeous…perfectly instagrammable, guaranteed. But I wanted the girls to actually enjoy eating them, & something in me refused to choose aesthetics over flavor for a bunch of eleven-year-olds who were definitely not posting #poopcakesarelife on Instagram.

So I went for this luscious, chocolatey, cream-cheese buttercream-ish frosting: decadent, delicious, & wonderfully smooth. It betrayed me a little by slowly melting into soft swirls by the end of the evening… but wow, were they good. So yes, visually, these cupcakes were a disaster. But taste-wise? This frosting is an absolute keeper. Rich, chocolaty, silky, & perfect for anything that needs a generous layer of chocolate love. You’ll keep coming back to it for sure (poop theme optional).