Hi All
I covered my cake in Fondant and finished it off with a Teale Ganache Drip. When I completed it, it looked beautiful, smooth and shiny.
I just happened to walk past it a few hours later and it has a ripple effect all over the top (photo attached). I was wondering if anyone could tell me why this may have happened? And, should I try to add another layer with the same ganache or would I be better off making a new batch? Or even colour some white chocolate melts and try to add a layer over the top.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Narelle
What temperature was your cake? If your cake was cold then the rippling could have occurred due to the chocolate setting up too quickly.
As for how to fix it, I am not sure.
The only other thing I can think of is that the ganache was too thick. To fix it, I think I would see if I could scrape off the top a little and try again with thinner ganache. Sorry I'm not much help but I hope you come up with a solution!
The only other thing I can think of is that the ganache was too thick. To fix it, I think I would see if I could scrape off the top a little and try again with thinner ganache. Sorry I'm not much help but I hope you come up with a solution!
I would do 1 of 2 things
1) Add more to it and let it appear intentionally messy like stirred paint
2) Add decorations to match the theme of the cake
You don't want to mess your cake up. But I agree that the ganache was to thick
I would not touch it. I would throw a parchment round on top or some candy or cookies in that color scheme. You could even take some of that extra fondant from the bottom and make a thin circle and place it on top.
I think it is beautiful! Tell everyone it is a new, fancy technique and was intended to look that way. You could always make chocolate shards to insert in the top and fill in with cookies or meringues. I think any attempt to "fix" it woud make it worse.
Hi All ... an update on my disasterous drip cake. I ended up trying to cover the top of the cake with the existing ganache and now it has dried with white marks (photo attached). I have never had this trouble working with ganache before ... the only thing I can think is that I have used a cheaper brand of white chocolate. Any suggestions what may have caused this and should I attempt another layer using the same ganache or make a new batch and try to match it. I love the idea of rolling a very thin layer if the fondant from the bottom tier but the colour doesn’t match exactly! Any other thoughts? Thanks in advance!
I would not try it again. It looks great. Decorate the top as mentioned earlier. Or pipe rosettes on the white circle.
Good luck
Not sure what happened. I might put some chocolate curls on it or some turquoise sugar. Anything more might just give you a new issue to overcome.
Thanks so much to everyone for your help and suggestions ... after using a combination of all of your ideas - I got there! Nit the look I originally set out for ... but the Birthday Girl was happy - so that’s all that matters! Thank you again ... you are all awesome! Photo of completed cake attached!
i'm like sandra, i loved the first anomaly -- then i think your ganache got too hot and the white stuff is bloom -- but what a save -- looks wonderful! lovely presentation -- is that sugar or isomalt?
Wow, you have an eye for design. I love how the jewels play against the diamond border.
well -- you didn't say if it was sugar or isomalt jewels -- isomalt will give gastric distress if you eat too much and there's enough there to do in several people if only a few people ate it -- so just saying -- be careful with what is and is not edible -- not to be a debbie downer but that stuff could be very dangerous to a person who already had stomach troubles -- honestly not trying to rain on your parade because it is absolutely gorgeous but when you prepare food for a crowd -- you have to err on the side of super careful caution --
lovely looking cake -- best to you
I agree Kate. If I ingest artificial sweeteners, I get upset stomach and migraines. And I must be careful with alcohol sugars, which isomalt is one. On the information/ ingredients page for isomalt, it says this
”Sugar alcohols can cause diarrhea and flatulence when consumed in quantities over 50 g/day for adults, 25 g/day for children.”
When I’ve used isomalt, it was very small quantities, as in a jewel. I didn’t like that isomalt didn’t keep it’s shine. If I had to make the diamonds as on top of this cake, I would most likely use hard candy mints I could melt in the oven.
I tried using Jolly Rogers candies as jewels and they melted on my modeling chocolate. That was on Cleopatra's headdress. I had to remove all of it and redo the whole front.
erythritol is a 'safe' sugar alcohol, if there is sucha thing -- it doesn't mess up your guts like most if not all of the others -- anything with 'itol' on the end of the word is suspect --
Kate my son is fructose intolerant, well almost anything ending in “tose” . Lactose, fructose, dextrose, certain types of glucose, like corn derived glucose. And he doesn’t tolerate alcohol sugars either. I made flames for a collaboration cake, and I used same recipe I use for peanut brittle. I just eliminated the nuts and the baking soda. Was fine when I first made them, but eventually with the humidity, flames got soft and tacky. I think if you’re doing a competition piece, isomalt is fine. If you have several isomalt pieces on your cake, I would plan on removing them before consuming the cake. If I baked to sell, would tell the customer that also.
oh for sure yes I agree -- isomalt is better than sugar for show pieces -- but it is nothing but dangerous to serve on a celebration cake -- and here -- would we put something gastro-intestinally hazardous on our mashed potatoes and remove it before consuming or on our steak or on our avocados? no -- these cakes are catered food -- serving the masses and we need to err on the far far side of as safe as can be -- nobody needs to put something dangerous to the public on a celebration cake -- what if a kid runs up and grabs something and stuffs it in his mouth -- uh ugh -- we have a duty to be as safe as possible -- not to be as close to line as we can get -- not with someone's health --
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