There is an abundance of recipes out there for chocolate ganache. This is by far the easiest I have used as there is no need to pre-melt the chocolate or any other fiddly bits to mess with.
Ganache is the rich shiny chocolate topping used on cakes as a glaze, an icing or frosting or even can be used to make chocolate truffles.
Generally for a normal coating or filling I use:
1 part chocolate (white, plain* or milk)
1 part heavy cream
Small knob of butter (for shine can be omitted)
Chop 200g of your choice of chocolate and place in a bowl.
Place 200ml of cream into a pan and slowly bring to the boil.
pour boiling cream over chocolate
When boiling pour over the chocolate and leave alone for 5 mins.
Add a small knob of melted butter or ½ teaspoon of oil.
After the 5 minutes are up whisk/stir everything in the bowl until fully mixed together.
Chocolate ganache - mix well
Leave to stand a short while until almost cool and it starts to thicken then use as a topping or filling or both.
If allowed to cool completely the texture will be more of a frosting consistency
Simple!
*If you choose to use a chocolate that is more than 60% cocoa mass it will be necessary to use more cream. Between 60-70% cocoa mass around ½ the amount of cream again and over 70% up to ¾ of the amount again.
The easiest Mother’s day cake is made by creating a donut cake. Very young children can make this cake quite easily, with adult supervision and it’s a great and fun way to spend quality time with little kid’s on Mothering Sunday morning while Mom is getting a lie-in.
To make the cake you will need:
2 x 12 packs of basic donuts – we used plain supermarket ones
Take the serving platter or plate you will be using and practice with your donuts to get a good idea of how you will stack them once they are iced with the Ganache chocolate icing.
Brush excess sugar and crumbs from donut
Once you have planned your shape take the donuts one by one and brush off any excess sugar
Dip the donuts into the Ganache until half-coated with the chocolate icing.
Dip donuts in Chocolate ganache frosting
Set aside on a rack while the icing sets on the donuts.
Once the icing is set arrange on the serving platter as planned before.
The donuts will stick together better now they are iced.
Chocolate donut cake
Add your decorations of choice. Here we added pretty ribbon and some fake Frangipani flowers.
