Making dummy cakes for a cake booth, so no one will be eating them... thought I'd save a few cents on ingredients and bought generic choc. chips for my ganache instead of Nestle... Now my gorgeous ganache covered cake is covered in lumpy ganache! ERGH!!! Nestle's always melt smoothly and goes on so nicely... this is all gritty and bumpy. I am so mad. Oh well, I will act like I did it on purpose... like it's a *look* I was going for! Here it is, although it's not done... just want to show you the magic of off brands!! 
I mean, I've heard that chocolate is bad for your complexion... but this is ridiculous! HEY, SOMEONE GET THIS CAKE SOME CLEARASIL, A.S.A.P!!
Beautiful recovery there! Looks abosutely yummy!
Nice job 
Thinkin on your feet. Sometimes you just gotta wing and see if you can save it. Awesome save Not a chocohalic but it looks Yummy 
Good Job Melvira! You can't even see them now.
Looks good enough to eat. YUMMY!
i use that genercic chocolate crap to writeo n cakes sometimes...just put it into a disposable bag, microwave, write, and then u can let it cool and reuse it again....
i use that genercic chocolate crap to writeo n cakes sometimes...just put it into a disposable bag, microwave, write, and then u can let it cool and reuse it again....
Cakefairy,
How long to you leave them in the microwave? I know it can't be too long, but just curious how many seconds for sure?
Thanks 
Just playing devil's advocate here 
so please don't think I'm being critical of the way your cake looks (cuz I think it looks nice) but do you think it would be a good idea to take that to a show of some kind where alot of potential customers might see it? I've never been to or participated in a bridal show but I would think those ladies are SUPER critical and if your cakes don't look perfect, well then.............forget you and on to the next booth. Is that true (I don't know).
I do think the cake looks nice, especially after you added the nuts, so please, please I hope you accept my comments as nothing but trying to be of help !!
P.S. Thanks so much for the tip on the cheap chocolate chips !!! I just bought three bags at the store yesterday for $1.00 each. I think I'll stick to using them in chocolate chip cookies and not ganache !!
I'm very grateful to be able to learn these great tips from people here !
OH MY GOD!! HOW DARE YOU AUNTSUSHI!!! Ok, I am just kidding. I totally understand where you are coming from, and you are right. Although, in person after I put the nuts in it, you can't see it. It just looks like the nuts are mixed in AND sprinkled on top... and for my money, that's exactly what it is. I do appreciate your input though, even though you are mean and horrible! hahahahah! I am SO teasing you!!!
Edited to add: BTW... I did clean the edges of the board and it's looks nice, I didn't leave the streaks!! 
Yes, they work exactly the same, but I like them better because they melt more quickly and evenly (usually 
) so they are much easier. You just pour the near boiling cream over them, let it sit a minute, then stir and it is done. And if you use Nestle it will not look like the pic above.
BTW, Krysoco... I am shocked that you had that prob with Nestle. Is it possible you overheated them? Sometimes that happens when you get it too hot, I am pretty sure that didn't happen last night with those generic chips, unless their heat tolerance is just that much lower than the Nestle chips. ??? Maybe that was it! Yah, but it's still because they were generic, so I don't feel bad for cussing them! Hahaha!
Overheat the cream? Or the choc. chips?
I just heated the cream mixture and poured over the chips. As soon as it started boiling (seeing bubbles), I poured it. Let it sit for a couple of min. Then stirred.
I even reheated it later, thinking I hadn't heated it enough. Im putting it on the cake now and its still the same way.
If you strain ganache after it is mixed. You never have lumps. We used to strain out 7-5 kg batches at work, as it is hard to make sure all your chocolate is dissolved sometimes. As long as it is hot it will just pour straight through the strainer minus the lumps of course.
I think ghiradelli chips are the best! More cocoa butter in them I believe so they melt much more easily. AND they taste so yummy! Dark chocolate will melt much better than milk or white though - and if you do white, I think you need to add a lot more cream to it - hope it works out better for you next time! SOmetimes you get what you pay for! Unfortunately!
I always use the generic powdered sugar and i have never had a problem with it.
Ok, the cake ended up looking just great, and I got a lot of compliments on it, so all is well. 
I've never strained the ganache with Nestle chips, but that is really a good idea. I've gotten a few little bumps with it before, but since there were only 2 or 3, I just picked them out and kept going. Nothing like the pic I put in this thread. Yikes!
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