I want to start trying putting ganache on my cakes and was wondering has anyone ever tried flavouring theirs to make it have a hint of lemon etc?

Cose i love those blocks of chocolate that have a choc-lemon or choc-orange flavour etc so i thought maybe it would go well with ganache? I have read somewhere that you can use alcohol based extracts and although you cannot add directly to melted chocolate you can add them to a chocolatemixture eg. Ganache which is chocolate and cream

If anyone has, do they taste nice and what are the different types you have done with what sort of cake? Or has anyone tried melting down those falvoured chocolate blocks instead?

I have used orange flavouring - it gives it a jaffa taste and is divine! I just used the oils that you use for flavouring chocolate.

Also, I have made truffles before (they are exact same recipe inside as ganache) and added liquor flavourings (Grand Marniere, Franjelico, Malibu) and they taste delicious! Actually, adding coconut flavouring (Malibu) to white ganache is so yummy!

I have used the white ganache with coconut on a coconut white mudcake (I used the recipe from the Women's Weekly Cupcake book). The jaffa cake was on a chocolate mudcake.

oo all sounds yum! So with the liquor flavorings can you just use the alcohol straight from their bottle to flavour it?

Also does anyone know if i can use orange and lemon juice to flavour or will the acidity or something ruin the ganache?

That's how I did it!

I'm not sure if you could use the juice straight - I'd probably be more concerned that it wouldn't give much flavour - I assume you'd have to use an awful lot to taste it?

i dunno, i think i would only want a subtle flavour of eg orange and i though maybe the juice might be good cose I find the orange essence a bit too fake and 'sweet' but by adding the juice i don't want to muck up the balance of the ganache or anything, havn't tried lemon essence before though

I thought LoAnn oils are safe to use in chocolate, although I've never tried it yet.

I think LoAnn oils would be safe too. You don't need much - I just splash a little in and keep tasting it until it tastes right. Given the amount of ganache you are normally working with, to get just a subtle taste from the juice I imagine you would have to add a lot of juice and then I think you might have problems with the consistency. You could always give it a go and see how you go but I'm just not sure that it would work

Yeh i understand, ok then well just one more question: what if you already have an essence where the label reads alcohol (content 35%) as it's second ingredient: Is that ok to use?

Orange zest works - use a microplaner to grate it really finely and add to the cream when you heat it. Orange liquor (eg Cointreau) also makes good orange. I wouldn't use juice you would need too much to get the depth of flavour and that would affect the consistency.

Ohhh yeh that was the other question i was going to ask: can you use the zest thanks for answering my imaginary question lol

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what the answer is to the secondary ingredient question.

that's alright i am just referring to the 'Queens' essence you can get at coles. Thanks for helping me with everything else so far

I probably wouldn't use it. I still don't think it's concentrated enough and it has a funny aftertaste to me. I bought oils from a cake shop and they are brilliant otherwise just go buy the miniature Liquere bottles from the Bottle-o.

I just made a cake this weekend and put kahlua right from the bottle into the ganache. Tasted great, not to overpowering, more subtle

ahhh good suggestion, i got dad's b'day cake coming up and he loves kahlua!

I've flavoured white choc ganache with:
lime
mango
triple sec

And darc and milk choc with all kinds of liquers, essences, zest, juice,

We often melt all kinds of candy in double creme, then chill for a minimum of 6 hours and then whip it. It's perfect for both filling and icing. My most requested filling actually. Liquorice, lemon toffee, Daim, soft and hard candy, flavoured chocolate and so on. But you can only use about 100 gr of candy to 1 cup of creme if it contains gelatin for example. Otherrwise it will only be a hard lump after cooling and not possible to whip