Hi there,
Does anyone know the secrets to working with chocolate? (i sure don't seem to) Everytime I seem to try chocolate ganache or piping or decorating with chocolate I just end up with a big chocolately mess 
I have spent most of today trying to cover a small cake in ganache and decorate with white chocolate. My ganache never comes out smooth especially on the sides and when I try to pipe or do decorations with chocolate it seems to be so runny I can't control it one minute and set hard so I can't squeeze it through the bag & tip the next. Is it just a matter of practice or are there any tips/secrets?? I have tried putting the cake in the freezer for a while before pouring on the ganache but I still can't get it right.
Any help would be appreciated. I now have 25 mins left to go and clean chocolate off just about every benchtop and bowl and pan and get ready for work
If the chocolate 'sets' in the tip/bag something is not quite right with your ganache. With the added cream, the chocolate should stay soft enough to pipe, unless it gets very cold.
Also, pouring ganache takes quite a bit of 'extra' chocolate to allow coverage on the sides of your cake. Putting a thin crumb coat on the sides will help the surface be more smooth.
Thanks for your replies. 
I tried to pipe with straight white chocolate maybe that was the problem, I was trying to write happy birthday and I tried to do like a chocolate collar where I had piped criss crossing lines of white chocolate that I tried to put up against the sides of the cake (mainly to disguise that the ganache on the sides wasn't smooth) but that didn't come out very good so I ended up scaping it off and putting some more ganache on the sides and covering it up with chocolate panels.
With the ganache originally though I did put two coats on although the ganache was probably a little bit thicker when I put on the second coat maybe that was part of the problem.
I am determined to get this right eventually...
I would suggest that you don't freeze the cake up before pouring the ganache. It will cause the ganache to harden when it hits the cake instead of flowing.
Also make sure you are using the type of chocolate the recipe calls for, don't use milk chocolate if the recipe calls for semi sweet, or bittersweet.
Try using a different recipe for ganache. They are all simple, and pretty much the same, but quantities may be slightly different. Don't use a recipe for whipped ganache if you are trying to pour it, and vice versa.
Keep trying. You'll get it.
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