I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right place or not.... but I have a question about Chocolate Ganache....

This past Christmas when I received my issue of a certain magazine, they had a picture of a beautiful white cake. The cake was chocolate, with chocolate ganache in the middle, and then frosted with a white frosting. The Ganache was a pretty thick layer. The picture of the cake showed the ganache layer as thick as the cake layers. Never using ganche before in a cake, only truffles... I decided to make the cake like the picture.

I made it for Easter... and it flopped, so I should have posted this in Cake Disasters... The cake itself was pretty good as was the frosting. But the Ganache?? it tasted like you were biting into a large piece of chocolate that had been stuck between 2 cake layers. It was awful! I must have done something wrong...

When you make cakes using the chocolate ganache, how thick do you put it on? Would anyone out there like to give me some tips about Ganache?? I'd really appreciate it.... There are several cakes in the cake gallery that I would love to make, and alot of them do use ganache as a frosting or filling.

Thanks alot
Rhonda

What brand (and what percent cocoa butter) did you use?

sounds 2 me like your cream to chocolate ratio was off... not enough heavy cream....

I just made a birthday cake with chocolate ganache and I use 1:1 ratio ( 16 oz. chocolate to 16 oz. heavy cream) and the consistency is very smooth and creamy....

If I wanted to make a ganache to say cover cake balls or strawberies... I would have used a 2:1 ratio (meaning: 2 parts chocolate for every 1 part heavy cream, so if I use 8 oz of chocolate... then I would use 4 on. heavy cream)....because that would set harder...

hth

I use a 1:1 ratio (unless you are making milk chocolate ganache, in which case use 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream), but I also whip it before using it as an icing or filling. You wait for it to cool completely (8 hrs or overnight) and then whip for a short time - only until it lightens in color. For me that is often as little as 30-45 sec. Don't overwhip or you could break the ganache.

I put it on as thick as any other filling...say...approx 1/2".

Done that way, it absolutely tastes like a truffle, easy to bite into, smooth, and yummmmm.

As you may or may not know from truffles, it does get hard if cold so I always make sure the cake is room temp before serving.

Thank you for the tips everyone. The recipe I used was 1 cup chocolate chips and 2/3 cup of heavy cream. So it sounds like that was the problem....

Thanks again!
Rhonda