Hello,

I am new to this forum and I am also a beginner at making cakes. (Other than the box kind lol). I have alot of experience sculpting with polymer clay and I would like to start decorating and making novelty cakes. Since I love to sculpt, and have tried a few cakes before, I think it would be a good fit. I love to sculpt with modeling chocolate and gumpaste.

I would like to know, to make a cake sturdy, to hold up to sculpting shapes and such, do I add extra ingredients to a box mix or could someone share or tell me where I can find a good recipe. The box mixes are good, but from my experience they don't hold up under pressure good. lol.

Ok about the ganache. I have never attempted it until yesterday and it didn't work! I tried twice. I had 4oz of chocolate, and added 1/2 cup of boiled heavy cream, and it did not get a little thick, it was to runny. So I tried again and added more chocolate and it was a little better but still to runny. How in the world can you mess up TWO ingredients? LOL

I used Ghirardelli chocolate, I thought it was a good kind. Any suggestions?
Thanks for all of your help!

By the way

I think I was using bakers chocolate which I think that is the reason I had the problem.

How long did you let the ganache cool? It won't be thick right after mixing, it thickens as it cools.

I add an extra egg and a small box of pudding (just the powder) to my cake mixes to make them sturdier.

For ganache, I prefer Nestle's white morsels, and I always add 1/2 cup of cream to a 12oz. bag...it sets to the consistency of spreadable peanut butter.

(I know some don't consider that high-end enough, but it works great for me)

Try using 2/1 ratio for ganache. If you use 1/2 cup heavy cream heated to scalding, you can use 8 oz of chocolate. Once all the chocolate is melted and incorporated with the cream, it will thicken to spreading consistency as it cools. It takes longer than you think for it to get to the thickness you want.

Thanks for the help! I guess from watching videos of people making ganache it looks like it gets thick kinda fast. I was sooo disappointed the first time I made it lol. I am goint to give it another shot tonight.

Ganache should be measured by weight... 2/1 ratio by weight, not volume. The ratio does change depending on the type of chocolate. 2/1 is for semi-sweet.

Good luck! I love ganache =o)

Here is a fabulous tutorial for making ganache to set up cakes for decorating. HTH

I have a picture of the cake in my album, it's the Chocolate cake with the shoe. You can see the ganache was not thick enough. Better luck next time!