Glamorous ganache cake
I had heard tales of folk who do not like sugarpaste icing so this would be a great alternative for them. Oddballs.
Ganache covered cakes can be glamorous too! I hope that this design will inspire you to take a few of the techniques that we regularly use for sugarpaste covered cakes and drag them kicking and screaming into chocolate.
You will need to make Charlotte's chocolate mud cake first, to decorate.
Ingredients/equipment:
8” chocolate Mud cake (filled with chocolate buttercream) on a 10” cake drumButtercreamWhite chocolate ganachePlastic piping bag fitted with a small round piping nozzle100g white modelling chocolate mixed with ½ tsp CMC powderSmall non-stick rolling pinFlower cutters and matching moulds (I haves used Petunia and Hydrangea)Hologram white edible glitterGold dragees Ribbon
Method:
Prepare your chocolate mud cake by filling it with chocolate buttercream and then covering in basic buttercream. This layer is our crumb coat and will be used only to prevent crumbs of cake from getting into our white chocolate ganache covering. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.
Cover your cake in a smooth layer of white chocolate ganache, using a palette knife. Try to get the finish as smooth as you can but do not worry if there are any slight imperfections as we will easily cover these with decoration.
Spread white chocolate ganache over the silver of the 10” drum and wrap a ribbon around its edge to finish – I found a fabulous leopard print ribbon and, frankly, could not resist it.
Fill a plastic piping bag, fitted with a small round piping nozzle, with more of your white chocolate ganache. Plastic piping bags are preferable for this task as they are sturdier than parchment. Use the piping bag to pipe interconnecting swirls of filigree around the top edges of your cake. You can be freehand with this design but try to bring your filigree lines down onto the sides of your cake at regular intervals. I have worked my design down at four equal points around my cake.
To make your white chocolate flowers, roll out some white chocolate modelling paste on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. You will need your chocolate to be around 2mm thick. Cut out your flowers and shape them in their matching moulds. Leave these flowers to dry on a bumpy surface made of crumpled baking parchment so that they will hold their shape. A liberal sprinkling of edible glitter will make these babies dazzle.
Fix your chocolate flowers to your cake using a little ganache as glue. Pipe a dot of ganache into the centre of each flower and gently press a gold dragee inside. Gold dragees can be scattered around thesurface of your cake, pressed gently into the surface of the ganache.
Finish your design by piping a line of dots around the bottom edge of your cake. The quickest way to do this is to squeeze your piping bag until you are happy with the size of the dot, stop squeezing and drag your nozzle around to the centre point of where you want your next dot to be. Squeeze your piping bag again until the next dot of icing is the same size as the first and covers the line where you dragged your piping bag. You should be left with a line of dots that nuzzle up to each other nicely.
Serve to your family and friends and sit back as the compliments flood your way!
From Deliciously Decorated by Charlotte White