If you haven’t yet decided ganache is the cake covering for you, this tutorial will definitely sway you. Perfect for trendy tall tiers, drop the fondant or buttercream and opt for pastel coats of luxury chocolate instead. You’ll have a pretty pink ganache cake to impress everyone in no time!
If making your own ganache, melting 3 parts good white chocolate to 1 part heavy cream is a fail-safe ratio to use. Use a fat-soluble coloring such as Colour Mill to color your ganache. Water-based food coloring will seize the chocolate, so it won’t be silky smooth. Because white chocolate ganache has a yellow tint to it, make sure you have white food color on hand to help brighten up your final project.
Since roses are edible, you can use them as decoration. (Organic is best to avoid pesticides!) If you aren’t comfortable working with fresh flowers, then you can ask a florist to prepare them for you.
Edibles:
- 1 preprepared cake
- White chocolate ganache
- Oil-based food coloring: white, blush, and raspberry (Colour Mill)
- Roses (or flowers of any kind that are food safe)
Equipment:
- Mixing bowls
- Large and small palette knives
- Scraper
- Scissors
- Safety Seal or flower picks
Make the Cake
- Pre-prepare your cake. Level, fill, and leave it either overnight or in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.
- Using either homemade or bought white chocolate ganache, warm slowly in the microwave until at a smooth, peanut butter consistency.
- Add the oil-based food coloring and mix well.
- Smooth some ganache over the top of the cake and use either a palette knife or scraper to give a smooth even layer.
- Cover the sides of the cake with ganache and smooth. You can leave the uneven top edge as is, or carefully smooth it off with a palette knife or scraper.
- Take a small amount of ganache and add some deep pink colouring and swirl lightly.
- Using a small narrow palette knife add rough petals to form a flower shape and falling petals. The joy of this is that it is an expression of art so it does not need to be perfect!
- Prepare your flowers by removing any excess leaves, trim to the desired length, and either use a flower pick to insert them into the cake or, alternatively, make them food safe using Safety Seal, double-dipping, and allowing sufficient time to dry to ensure the wax coating stays firm. Then, insert them into the cake.
This tutorial originally appeared in the March/April 2021 issue of American Cake Decorating.
