Chocolate Ganache Glazed Cake

Our next creation is a little different than what we normally do.  The request: A guitar shaped cake for a 40^th birthday.  The design was based off a Fender guitar pick that had a marbled/wood grain look to it.  There are two ways we can go about making this cake; marble fondant or pour with a mirror glaze or ganache.  The poured technique is what we settled on.  We’ve worked with ganache several times and were very familiar with how it would pour.  The mirror glaze, however, is a technique we had yet to try but have been wanting to. 

We decided to test out the mirror glaze and see how it would compare to a poured ganache.  For those of you wanting to try a mirror glaze cake keep in mind this technique is NOT forgiving.  You have little control and pretty much have one attempt at it.  The recipe calls for gelatin, so the texture is very rubbery feeling, which is something we didn’t realize before making this.  The main takeaway we got from this technique is to make sure the glaze doesn’t cool too much.  We read several different blog posts and they all varied on the temp they recommend getting the glaze to.  Most were about 90 degrees, but some suggested 110 degrees.  We waited till it was closer to 90 degrees and we believe this was our mistake.  The glaze didn’t pour as well as we hoped it would.  Yes, we were working with a larger cake, but the glaze would only drip about halfway down the cake before it stopped and as it cooled it thickened up making it harder to pour.  We ended with a bottom layer that stopped halfway down the cake and when we tried to pour more on, it just got lumpy.  If the glaze was a little warmer and thinner, it would have poured a lot better.  We tried to dip our offset spatula in hot water to smooth it out, don’t do this!  Once this stuff sets there is no fixing it, and it sets fast.  Like we said above, this technique is not forgiving.  You also must be very careful not to touch it at all.  Even when dried, the glaze is sticky and anything that touches it will ruin the glaze.  Overall, we were not a fan and didn’t care for the texture or taste.  If you do decide to create a mirror glaze cake and have a terrible experience with it like we did, there is still hope for you and you can save your cake.  Put your cake in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, if not more.  Once the frosting underneath firms up you can take a small sharp knife and cut the glaze off.  Yes, you read that right.  Cut the edge of the cake and pull the glaze away and you will have a fresh surface to work with.

After a failed attempt at the mirror glaze, we decided to do a poured ganache on the final cake.  We knew there wouldn’t be any issues with this technique and were confident in what we were doing.  And who isn’t a fan of chocolate ganache?  It taste so much better than the mirror glaze.  Plus, the inside of this cake is our chocolate covered strawberry cake, so this was a major selling point to do the ganache on the outside.  You are probably thinking why this wasn’t our plan all along.  Well, we wanted to try something new and different to see if we liked the look better.  In some circumstances the mirror glaze would be the better option, but in our case it wasn’t.

Chocolate ganache is very easy to make.  All you need is heavy cream and chocolate.  The cream to chocolate ratio will determine how thick of a ganache you will get.  Since we were pouring the ganache to create a glaze, we needed a semi-thin consistency.  Do keep in mind that you will not use the same ratios when working with white chocolate.  For this cake we used a semi-sweet chocolate for the base and a colored white chocolate to get the gold color to create the marbled/wood grain look. 

Before you pour on your ganache you will need to prep the cake and your works space.  Stack, crumb coat and frost your cake (buttercream is recommended).  The smoother you get the buttercream the smoother your ganache will look.  (As recommended with any cake, make sure you stack your cake on a cardboard round the same size as your cake.)  Chill your cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or in the freezer for about 20 minutes.  Since you will be pouring a warm ganache on the cake you will need a chilled cake.  While the cake is chilling, line a large jelly roll pan with foil or parchment paper.  Depending on how big your cake is, place one or multiple small bowls on the prepared pan to elevate your cake on.  Make your ganache right before you are ready to take the cake out of the fridge/freezer.  We covered the entire cake in the semi-sweet ganache and immediately after while it was still wet we poured on the white chocolate.  Pouring the second ganache before the first one sets will allow the two to blend together and leave you with a smooth finish.  Allow the ganache to set.  Once set use a small sharp knife to trim the bottom of the cake.

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