Hi,

I've searched the archives and have found lots of ganache threads, but not many about pouring ganache over SMBC.

I am making a chocolate cake that will be filled with dark chocolate whipped ganache and covered in dark chocolate SMBC.  I would like to pour ganache over the entire cake to cover, but I have never done this before.

Questions:

1. SMBC is firmest when refrigerated, but I understand that poured ganache and cold cakes don't marry well.  What to do?

2.  I like to fill/crumbcoat my cakes frozen, and then let them set up in the fridge overnight.  I was planning on covering with ganache tomorrow morning (the cake is for tomorrow night). Is this ok?

3.  How long do i have to let the ganache set up before returning the cake to the fridge to avoid a dull-looking cake (which I understand happens when the ganache is refrigerated too quickly after being poured)?

Thanks for your help!

I put poured ganache over a chilled buttercream iced cake (not a meringue buttercream).  The ganache has to cool down to just barely pourable so it doesn't melt the undercoat.

The undercoat has to be more than just a crumb coat--the ganache has little body so the icing has to have a normal smooth finish before you pour anything over it.

There is such a thing as reading too much on the internet.  Many recipes get the important details chopped off when they are copied out of books. And then somebody else reports a "problem"...that should not have happened.

I started with a Julia Child recipe that described how to make and pour the ganache, and I didn't read anything else--I just tried her method and it worked first time.  The books in your public library will have plenty of useful and accurate information. Look for Dede Wilson, Toba Garrett, Karen Krasne, all good bakers who wrote books.

And in my experience, working with a chilled cake is easy but icing a frozen cake is not a good idea.

I always fill and frost directly out of the freezer with no issues.  I would not put fondant on a frozen cake though!  Maybe I'll take the torted cakes out of the freezer now so they'll be thawed (in the fridge) by the time I'm ready to assemble tonight. 

Then I'll just be dealing with a very chilled cake but not a frozen one.