Lemon Curd, Royal Icing, And White Ganache?
Decorating By craftybanana2 Updated 24 Jul 2018 , 11:37pm by SandraSmiley
I am making a lemon cake which will be sliced into small squares and put into cupcake liners. The cake is an oil based pound cake.
Question #1: Can I cover with white chocolate ganache, let harden, then cut? Does the cake need to be frozen first, or just cold?
Questions #2: What is the ratio for white chocolate ganache? is it like regular chocolate, 1:1 chocolate and cream? I will be using Nestle white chocolate chips. I tried a 1:2 ratio last week to make a whipped icing and it came out soupy, never got hard without lots of powdered sugar.
Question #3: This is kind of a "duh" question..... I'm assuming that I can apply the royal icing flowers later on with some melted chocolate? I was thinking of applying the flowers the day before.
Question#4: I will be buying lemon filling (curd?) to go in the middle, will it be alright as a thin layer or should I put it under the ganache on top? I was hoping to do just the icing on top and curd on the bottom, but is that practical? The cake will only be one layer (1.75" high).
Question #5: (last one, I promise) Can I freeze it with the lemon curd? I've never worked with curd before.
Thank you! These cakelettes are for a friend who is moving away to the other side of the country (from Florida to Washington state).
Q # 1 - You can cover the cake with ganache, then cut it, but I would cut it first and ganache the top and all sides (but that's just me). You could even pour the ganache over the squares before it go too hard to pour.
Q # 2 - The standard ratio for white chocoate is 3 (chocolate) to 1 (cream), which should be fine for your cake. When I am doing a large, stacked cake that needs to be sturdy, I use 4 to 1 ratio. Most people recommend using some other source of chocolate rather than white chocolate chips because they (supposedly) do not melt well. I've made a bunch of ganache with white chocolate chips, before I knew I wasn't supposed to, and it worked perfectly.
Q # 3 - Yes, you can attach your flowers with a dot of melted chocolate or a dot of royal icing.
Q # 4 - Lemon curd is not sturdy and would not hold up either on top of the cake or under the cake. When using as a filling between layers, it is necessary to use a sturdy buttercream dam to keep it in place. I would recommend you inject it into your cake squares as you would a filling for a cupcake. In fact, maybe it would be easier to make cupcakes from the start.
Q # 5 - Yes, you can freeze lemon curd. I've often made curd when I had a surplus of lemons and frozen it until needed.
Thank you. I may go the mini cupcake route and forgo the lemon curd. I'll try that ratio and use different white chocolate. My other kind melted, but didn't mix very well (probably too much cream, it was a very hectic day for both my kiddos). I also think I'll use my lighter cupcake recipe instead of the pound cake and top mini cupcakes with white chocolate ganache while in the wrappers.
You said your ganache did not mix very well - it takes a good bit of stirring before the chocolate and cream are completely incorporated. If you find that you chocolate is not wanting to melt, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds (maybe 5 to 7 seconds) and stir very well after each nuking until completely melted and combined with the cream. Then let it set or refrigerate until it reaches the desired consistency. If you are planning to pipe it on top of cupcakes, you may want to beat it a little bit before adding it to the piping bag, just to add fluff.
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