Hi all.  Well I had a bit of a cake disaster on my DD’s b’day cake yesterday.  It was a chocolate raspberry cake covered in raspberry flavored SMBC. I smoothed the cake and refrigerated it and then tried to pour warm (not hot) ganache over it.  Wanted the drip effect.  Well, to my horror, the ganache separated and slid off the cake leaving an ugly messy trail everywhere.  Why? The ganache recipe had 1 TBS of butter and the ganache was a little thick…...??  Thanks in advance…... Pat

Pat, I’m not sure, but all I can think of is that the ganache was too warm and melted some of the buttercream when it was poured over.  Even a little melting would liquefy the surface of the buttercream and allow the ganache (or anything) to slide off.  I think the “separation” that you saw may have actually been melted buttercream + ganache.  If you try it again, I would take the temp of the ganache and make sure it is below the melting point of butter, i.e., below 90F.

That makes sense….... If I ever do it again I will do that.  I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t hot and was still warm enough to spread nicely.  Maybe that can’t be achieved with the two.  I wanted the partial down the side drip look….... Thanks.

Maybe a chocolate/fudge sauce would work better than ganache for this “draping”?  My Dulce De Leche draped beautifully.  I wonder if you put some unsweetened chocolate in there when it was “doing its thing” if you’d get a worlds-most-amazing chocolate sauce?  The DDL flows when it’s just barely warm and then stops about 1/2 way down.  It’s on my double-choclate whammy, if you want to see it in action.  You can use less if you don’t want so much coverage, also.

Pat, ganache takes hours at room temp to firm, so there is a window when it has cooled to room temp or at least below 90F, but it still liquid.  That’s when you want to use it.  Also, I think cooler ganache is good if you are going for the drip look rather than a full-coverage glaze, as you would want it to set before reaching the bottom of the cake.

A thought for next time:  keep a drinking glass (and the cake) in the fridge.  Stir the ganache once or twice while cooling, without introducing air bubbles.  When the ganache gets to about 85F, spoon a little over the (upturned) glass and see if it sets the way you want it to.  If it’s still too thin, clean the glass and return it to the fridge.  Check again at 82F, etc., until you find the right temp for your particular ganache recipe.

Julie that’s a great tip!

I’ve done ganache glazing over buttercream several times at around body temperature and it worked fine for a complete glaze (sides completely covered). I froze my cake for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour beforehand, so maybe that was the difference? It is more fluid at that temp for even coating, but you would want it cooler for it to stop halfway down—if ganache would even do that and still coat the top evenly.