Ok, I've had this great idea for a friend's birthday cake, but I'm not quite sure how to go about doing it...

When covering a cake in ganache, do you do a crumb coat first to get a good smooth surface?

Also, will using a higher quality chocolate make the ganache better?

Finally, is it possible to use milk chocolate to make the ganache or will all the cream make the dark chocolate taste more like milk chocolate?

THANKS! I know these are silly questions to people who know, but I haven't tried this yet, so I have NO clue!

1. Your ganache will only be as good as the chocolate you use. So yes - use good quality real chocolate.

2. A buttercream crumb coat is definately one of the better ways to get the smooth surface with ganache. Make sure you chill the crumb coat well (I usually stick it in the freezer for about half an hour).

3. You can use milk chocolate if you like that better - that's a personal taste that you'll have to experiment a little with

Awesome! Thanks! That's exactly what I needed to know! I can't wait to try it this weekend!!!

Everything you ever wanted to knoe about ganache:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-497433-.html
(Overview, master and other recipes including white chocolate. How to glaze smooth and stack and more.)

Chocolate 101:

http://tinyurl.com/ytby97

HTH

well, I did it... it turned out alright, ended up using left over hershey's kisses- had a TON of those little buggers laying around- but I think I should have used less cream, the final ganache was pretty soupy...

I also tried out the gold piping gel (with home made piping gel) and I need to practice that, too... oh darn need to eat more practice cake!

milk chocolate ganache......you need to add more chocolate than you would if you were using semisweet