Hey guys!

I intend to make a chocolate cake for my younger sister’s birthday. I had a couple of questions.
For the frosting, I wished to add dark chocolate ganache between the layers and top the cake with seven minute frosting. Actually I wished to use buttercream but since using buttercream will not give me a stark white look and i do not wish to use vegetable shortening in the icing; I was wondering if chocolate ganache and a seven minute frosting would go well together on a chocolate cake?

I also wanted to know whether seven minute frosting could be piped into pearls or round blobs to form a border to the cake and will it hold form?

And, I also wanted to know if anyone had a white buttercream recipe (no vegetable shortening).

Thanks

It’s been a long time since I made 7 minute frosting, but since you were hoping for a buttercream for the outside, I would suggest using the Italian Meringue buttercream.  It’s not paper-white, it’s more of an off-white color.  (when I have a lactose intolerant client, and have to use margarine instead of butter, I definitely notice that the resulting buttercream is very, very yellow.  When we make our italian meringue buttercream, it looks like a soft white compared to the bright white cake drum it is on.)

Hey Jeanne!
Thanks for your reply.
The thing is that.. I want the cake to resemble a black forest cake..hence an off-white icing wont do. But thanks for ur suggestion. I mean to make a italian meringue buttercream too, soon..but not for this cake. Thanks a again.

Sorry, I don’t have much experience with 7-minute frosting.  But since you’re going for a black forest look, why not use stabilized whipped cream?  If you stabilize with gelatin, you can pipe and freeze just like with buttercream.  That is, freeze the frosted and decorated cake- I don’t think you can freeze a bowl of stabilized whipped cream and then defrost and use it to frost a cake.  IMHO, the whipped cream will be tastier and a lot less sweet than a merinuge, and will pair nicely with the cream-based ganache.

wow! so you are saying that I dont need actual cream (double cream) to make this kind of icing? A powdered form whipping cream is available by Blue Bird that I can get hold of. Whipping it with some water and adding Gelatine to it will make it pipable and hold form? cool!
Thank you so much!
I owe you a lot!
Thank you so much Julie!
Now im very excited to make this cake!
I will surely post a pic

Sorry, I’m not sure exactly what double cream and/or powdered cream are- I was referring to the Cake Bible’s gelatin-stabilized whipped cream. which is best with 38-40% butterfat fresh heavy cream.  The gelatin is melted in a very small amount of water, cooled just to warm room temp, and drizzled into the cream when it reaches soft peaks.  Whipped cream is the classic frosting and filling to use with a black forest cake.

Use the double cream; the powdered stuff may already have added ingredients that might not work with the gelatin you add for the Cake Bible’s superstabilized whipped cream recipe.  Check the ingredient label for the powdered stuff and see what it says….

You can also use a whipped white chocolate ganache or make a white chocolate mousse to use in place of the whipped cream…..

Double cream is heavy cream.. The problem is that I am unable to catch hold of some heavy cream..it is not readily available.
so.. 

thanks anyways Julie

Jeanne - 17 November 2012 08:57 PM

powdered stuff may already have added ingredients that might not work with the gelatin

What kind of ingredients do you mean when you say “ingredients that might not work with the gelatin”.
What do u want me to look out for in the ingredient list?

I can get hold of fresh cream.. will it help if i whisk that and add gelatine to it? It is probably called single cream back in America.

Jeanne - 17 November 2012 08:57 PM

You can also use a whipped white chocolate ganache or make a white chocolate mousse to use in place of the whipped cream…..

The thing is that.. my sister (for whom Im baking this birthday cake..) is a dark chocolate ganache person.. so yeah.. white chocolate is not an option.

thanks Jeanne!

@ Jeanne
Ok.. the powdered whipped cream ingredient list says
sugar
milk powder
glucose syrup
hydrogenated vegetable fat
milk protein
emulsifiers E471 E472
stabilizers E340 E407