Help! Suggestions, Please! In The Middle Of Decorating....
Decorating By oliver30 Updated 17 Mar 2007 , 5:38am by shelbur10
I have just baked 2 -- 9" rounds of Darn Good Chocolate Cake. I'm planning on torting them and filling with raspberry filling.
I also made a batch of Buttercream Dream...yum!
My original plan was to put a chocolate ganache in the middle of the 9" rounds and cover the whole cake in the same ganache but I think I screwed up the Whipped Chocolate Ganache....very, very "liquid-y"...think I may have used wrong ratio of whipping cream & chocolate. Used what the recipe called for though...1/2 lb. chocolate & 1 qt. whipping cream. Is that right?
Anyway, I don't have the ingredients to try again and I'm not going to the grocery store at this hour--it's 11:30pm here.
So, my question is....what do you suggest that I ice my cake with now? Will the regular white buttercream taste good with such a chocolate-y cake and the raspberry? Is there anyway to make the BC into some kind of chocolate BC at this point?
I just want to get this cake done so I can go to bed...but, of course, I want it to be tasty...it's for my mom
!
Any suggestions or ideas will be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
Lisa
I think that your proportions are off somewhere, it probably should have been a cup of cream to 1/2 # of chocolate. Nonetheless, I think that regular buttercream should be fine, but you can easily make it chocolate. Did you try to whip the ganache? It should still whip, because of the cream. I would take a little, about a cup, and throw it in the mixer, with the whip attachment. This should thicken it up quite a bit, because the cream should be whipping up. Then, little by little add this into your buttercream until you get it chocolatey enough for you. OR you can try to put the liquid ganache straight into the buttercream, but you have to be careful to not add too much because otherwise your buttercream will be too liquidy. Hope that helps.
Thanks for your quick reply.
I'm actually afraid to use the ganache because I used Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate instead of the semi-sweet and when I tasted it, it just didn't taste very good.
I'd hate to add it to my already-made BC and ruin that.
Is there another way to make my white BC into chocolate...without using my ganache?
If not, maybe I'll try whipping up the ganache and see how it is.
If you have regular white buttercream and you need to make it chocolate, add between 1/2 and 3/4 C powdered, unsweetened cocoa powder. That will give you a great chocolate buttercream and you should be fine. This will also thicken it up, so don't be afraid to add water to thin it out if need be.
I agree, the proportions are way off with your ganashe, it shouldn't have been more than 1 Cup of cream. I'm not sure if the recipe was off or it wasn't read correctly (don't ask me how I know that can happen...
) but I'd play with that recipe during a time you don't have a cake due and take lots of notes!
Good luck with your cake and be sure and post pix so we can pat you on the back! 
The regular BC will be fine, I've made the Darn Good Choc. with raspberry filling and white bc and it was delicious.
Your proportions match what I use when I make whipped ganache. It may not be cold enough if it's not whipping up. It has to be VERY cold, I usually stick it in the freezer for a couple hours, even if it gets a little slushy around the edges. However, I usually use semi sweet or milk chocolate - it just depends on your taste.
Have you tried adding powdered chocolate drink mix to your BC, it makes a chocolaty buttercream, it's a little crunchy but it does taste good and its a light chocolate color. Grandson wanted choco cake with choco icing and I was out of chocolate so improvised with the nestle's powdered drink mix and it worked!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%