Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Most of the cakes demonstrated are chocolate and covered with chocolate ganache. What do you use to cover the cake if it is a madeira/vanilla sponge and the customer wants it filled with jam and buttercream? If you cover the cake with buttercream, it doesn’t give the same sharp edge as ganache?

I must admit I don’t get why everyone loves working with ganache. I find it messy, expensive and time consuming! 90% of my orders are for vanilla cake with jam and buttercream. I crumb coat with buttercream and can get sharp edges by using a side scraper. I then cover with sugarpaste straight away (my cakes don’t go near a fridge and therefore very rarely do I get an air bubble) and with a little bit of work with the smoothers it looks great. The only exception is when I get an order for a carved cake such as a handbag or teddy and I explain that I need to use dark chocolate ganache for stability. If the customer still wants vanilla cake then it also gets filled with the ganache (which is delicious)!

If someone wanted to order one of the wedding cake styles with super sharp corners and wanted the cake filled with jam and buttercream then I would use white chocolate ganache as the crumb coat. I think you can sometimes see dark chocolate ganache through white sugarpaste, especially if you are stacking it with another cake that has white chocolate or buttercream underneath, you will notice that tier looks a different shade.

I’ve been in business for two and half years and not once has a customer requested sharp corners, so I’m not spending extra time on their order that I don’t have to!! x

Hello jcarpel,

I don’t know what everyone else does or Paul for that matter but I would use butter cream. To get a sharp edge I do a crumb coat first, that is a very thin coat of butter cream and then put in the fridge overnight. the next day I do a second coat getting the angles and corners as square as I can and then put it back in the fridge, again overnight if possible. You then have to work quickly and in cool conditions to ice the cake while the butter still has it’s shape and because when the cake reaches room temperature the roll on type of icing can sweat making it impossible to use the smoothers. I know it is a lot of messing around but when someone does not like Ganache it is the only thing to do. I hope this helps and I hope others give you their ideas too.

Hi jcarpel

I wonder whether it is the dark chocolate ganache that your customer dislikes? You could use white chocolate ganache, it tastes a lot like butter cream when used as a crumb coat. There is also the choice of white chocolate butter cream which would set up firmer than buttercream in the fridge. Squires Kitchen have a good white chocolate butter cream recipe on their site. For white chocolate ganache use 3 times as much chocolate to cream for a firmer covering. I use 600gm chocolate, 200ml double cream, it tastes absolutely gorgeous.

To Jgibb and madeitwithlove,

Thank you so much for your suggestions, I will try both the white ganache and buttercream and see what I prefer.

Thanks again.

Is there any chance a pro from the site would be able to answer the above question? Absolutely no offence to anyone on here with their answers, but as a paid member it would be really good to get the professionals opinion on this.

I would like to know if covering a non-chocolate madeira cake (a plain sponge cake) with a dark chocolate ganache is recommended. Will this show through the white fondant covering?

If not recommended then could you please advise what would be the best option in this case. White chocolate ganache? Or white chocolate buttercream ganache. If there is a recipe on the site for the latter, would really appreciate it if you point me to this.

Many thanks 🙂

Many thanks

Hello shellage1

All site members try and provide valuable information from their own experiences on all things cakey including the use of chocolate ganache. Dark ganache is used all the time by professionals and non professionals for covering sponge cakes like maderia or any other sponge. It is the preferred ganache for novelty or carved cakes because it sets faster and is much stronger than white ganache. Dark ganache does not show through white sugarpaste.
If your client doesn’t like dark chocolate ganache they can be offered a choice.
White ganache can also be very strong proving you use the correct chocolate to cream ratio and increase the proportions if the weather is hot and humid. White ganache does not set as fast as dark hence more chocolate to cream ratio is used.
I don’t recommend you use white chocolate buttercream for crumb coating unless you increase the proportion of icing sugar which will make it much too sweet and unpalatable.
If you need a ganache quantities chart you’ll find it here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/how-to-ganache-cakes-without-gnashing-your-teeth

There’s a white chocolate buttercream recipe for filling only, scroll down to see the recipe here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/making-an-egg-free-cake
The recipe can be increased if filling a larger cake, it can be used as a covering but not if enrobing with sugarpaste.

For more ganache related questions and answers type in the above search box ‘ganache’. This topic has to be the most covered on site and provides invaluable information to professionals and non professionals alike.
I hope you find it useful.
ps you’ll also see Paul using dark ganache on sponge cakes in some tutorials.

EDIT

Paul has 18 video tutorials on ganache in the free/beginners here http://www.cakeflix.com/free-cake-decorating-courses/using-ganache-overview

Apologies for not posting the link earlier.

Hi
For my vanilla/maderia sponges I fill with jam and buttercream. I then Ganache under the fondant and it has been tasted my many people and they say its delicious.
Therefore speeding up the process of getting your cake made.

Jackie

I usually fill my vanilla cakes with white chocolate ganache and sometimes also some berry sauce, then cover with white chocolate ganache. Customers have all agreed this is delicious, and also allows me to keep away from buttercream 🙂 The white chocolate hasn’t actually got a ‘chocolate’ flavour so can also be flavoured using Neilsen Masseys extracts, or try adding some liquer.

(I used to fill with buttercream, then cover with white ganache but have now just kept to the ganache to save time and separate mixes – it gives the cake more stability too, specially if you are making sculpted cakes)

Paul, many thanks for a very detailed response, it is very much appreciated. I somehow have only just seen this!

I did post a separate question relating to this, which you again fully answered – so thanks again for that and sorry for the repetition.

Hi shellage1

Don’t worry about repeating questions. Just to point out I’m not Paul but I would love to be as young and talented as Paul, lol 🙂 x