I'm making a cake with fondant that will have a chocolate bavarian cream filling.
I have never used ganache before. A couple questions.

How thick should the ganache be (replacing buttercream crumbcoat)?
Do I still put a buttercream dam for the filling?

Any good suggestions for using ganache as a crumbcoat?

Most of us (I think) skip damming and crumbcoating when using ganache. I do anyways. The ganache when set, is quite sturdy and doesn't allow for bulging. But....I'm thinking Bavarian Cream may be a bit too loose and you just may want to dam in this case. You can dam with ganache!


As for crumbcoating, I never do with regular BC and I never do with ganache. Especially since I only do this for fondant covered cakes, I don't get excited over a few crumbs being visible in the icing. Now with a BC only cake, I take care NOT to pull up crumbs that would be visible. Very very picky about that.

I'd say use a thicker layer that a crumbcoat because once it's fully set you'll want to 'hot knife' it to gt your surface really really smooth so you need a bit extra on there to start with to allow for what you scrape off. Does that make sense?

When I do it, I make my ganache layer about 1cm (1/2") then it usually ends up a little less than that after the hot knife.

HTH
Emma

Oh, and I don't dam. But then I use ganache as my filling too

so, since I have the filling already, I will use it on part of the cake because I would like to try it.

But if anyone can give me a good ganache recipe (an easy one please) it would be appreciated. I live in Canada so I will need ingredients that are available here.

P.S. thanks for the info everyone

For dark choc ganache you need to use a 2:1 ratio (by weight) of chocolate:cream. Eg: 2lbs chocolate 1lb cream

Break the chocolate into small pieces. Put cream in a pan and heat until just boiling. Pour cream over chocolate and stir, stir, stir until it's smooth. If the choc doesn't completely melt put it in the microwave for a few seconds and stir again until it's smooth. Don't use an electric mixer or whisk because it'll put too many air bubbles in your ganache.
Leave it to cool to room temp (I let mine sit out overnight) then it'll be a spreadable consistency.

HTH
Emma

I'm in Australia and here it's called pure cream. It has no thickeners or gelatin in it. It's also called pouring cream.
HTH

The recipe for ganache that I use is this: Chocolate Ganache III by pmw109
Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
2tbs butter
2tbs sugar
12oz chocolate chips
Instructions
In a sauce pan, combine cream, butter, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Take off heat add the chocolate chips

Dont stir, let sit for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes pass, stir until smooth.
Maybe foamy from milk. Stir until smooth and glossy.
Let cool or pour on warm.


**I have only made this once and used it on my moms birthday cake (the only one in my photos with ganache) and it turned out great! It was very easy to work with. HTH