Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

hi

i’ve made chocolate ganache for the first time today its in the fridge – it looks pretty runny – once cooled does it stiffen up? Do I then just get back to room temp the amount I want to use and it then becomes speadable?

Thanks

Karen

Hi Sam, please see the ganache recipe below. If using milk or white chocolate you will need to add more chocolate / less cream to get the consistency you see in the video….

Ganache

Is a blend of boiled cream and chocolate.

Ingredients: 1 Pint of Double Cream (0.57 l)

2 lbs of dark chocolate (buttons are recommended) (0.9 kg)

Method:      Place the chocolate in a clean dry bowl. Bring the cream to the boil, remove from heat and pour over chocolate watching out not to splash yourself. Leave for 2 minutes then stir until blended and glossy.

Ganache will keep refrigerated for one month.

right the ganache definately stiffened up in fact its now solid – do i reheat or just bring it back to room temp on its own and then its spreadable ????

thanks

Karen

all sorted not a problem – i’ve coved my first cake with Ganache and it was easier than i thought and i’m totally hooked – the finish was so smooth it was unreal……

I LOVE GANACHE

thanks Paul for the tutorial

Hi Paul, I just found your website.. I love it!!  I was just wondering and I don’t mean to be rude.. but  if you were able to give me the measurements of the ganache recipe as I couldn’t understand if it was pints or pounds you were saying?  sorry 🙂

Hi Karen, thats exactly what happens!  You’ll love decorating this way and your cake eaters will love eating them!   I LOOOVE using ganache, when people ask for butter icing I’m sure they can tell by the look on my face that Im really disappointed lol x

I have made chocolate ganache lots of times and always had great success with it.  However, I made white chocolate ganache with the amounts according to a recipe and it turned out quite greasy and slimey and wouldn’t stick.  I then checked the ingredients listed on the packet and noted that it did not contain any cocoa solids.  I then bought some more white chocolate ensuring that this time it contained cocoa solids and it worked fine.  So am I right in assuming that the white chocolate must contain cocoa solids for it to work and that this was the reason for the first attempt failing?

Hi All,

There are a couple of questions in here that I think are separate enough from the first question to warrant a question of there very own 🙂  I’m going to copy and paste them to new questions.

Thank for all your input

Going back to Karens question.. do you just reheat (pop in microwave) the amount you need to get it moving again ??

Thank you

Ganache can be heated up again via the stove or microwave just keep an eye on it and not let it boil again.  I love using it as it’s so versitile to use, piped or whipped or just spread.  Once the ganache is on the cake you can then smooth it over by using a spatular dipped in hot water.

Yes don’t heat it up too much in the microwave..I made that mistake.. It split and went oily..I fixed it by putting it in the freezer..I put up a question on here about it and someone kindly replied that it’s ok to add milk if that ever happens again. l loved using ganache you get a perfect finish with fondant. I’m making a little girls birthday cake tomorrow  and she wants jam and buttercream 🙁 .  although I do think that maybe a cake covered in ganache would be too rich for a children’s cake??

CAN THIS BE COLOURD AND WITH WHAT?

Hi elaine77

For best results use candy colours which are oil based or powdered colours. Sometimes gel colours do work but generally water based colours will make ganache become grainy. Here are a couple of threads which may help:

Can you colour white chocolate ganache?

What gel to use for colouring ganache

Please post back for more information if you need to. 🙂