Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I am doing a wedding cake this is to be filled and iced with buttercream, to make it more stable I am going to add some ganache, I see you suggest using royal icing sugar would I need to use this or would adding the ganache be enough. I also had thought of buying a sturdy cake stacker but if I dowel and use ganache in between the tiers do you think it would hold,.

Thank you,
nicky223.

Hi nicky223

Royal icing sugar contains egg white/meringue powder which helps to stabilise butter cream. Adding ganache normally would help but it is chocolate so more likely to stay soft. You could use ganache 4:1 ratio for covering and fill with buttercream. However if it’s not possible to use ganache, it would be preferable to use the stabilised buttercream on it’s own. Working in the evening when it’s cooler will help too as will running an air con unit or a fan in your work space.

Hope all goes well. 🙂

Thank you, I am going to use the Royal icing sugar and hope it’s ok, maybe by 18th August it will be a bit cooler, I don’t like doing buttercream cakes but it is for family , i might use a stand as it would be better than stacking them,.I wish fruit cakes would make a comeback and only have a sponge cake for those who didn’t like the fruit cake, it was much easier as they could be iced well in advance and there was less stress.

nicky223.

I rarely work with buttercream, I really don’t like it. Back in the day before we all used ganache, we masked the cake with a a thin layer of buttercream, let it set and then covered it with a thin layer of marzipan before icing. Even now some people still prefer that finish because it is quite smooth. I know what you mean about fruit cakes, they sure are much more decorator friendly. Alas not everyone likes the taste of marzipan! Hopefully the weather will cool down a little by the time your cake is required. Good luck, hope all works out well. X