Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi guys

I have been asked to do a few wedding cakes this year and they are all asking for different flavoured sponges. I want to match my chocolate Ganaches to suit each flavour. I have never ventured outside of the typical dark and white chocolate. Is this possible to do for example lemon and white chocolate ganache maybe with sour cream or white chocolate and raspberry.

Cheers

Hi bekacake

Absolutely you can flavour ganache! You can add home made fruit purees from fresh or tinned fruits or use the many bought natural fruit flavours. Have a look at these http://www.squires-shop.com/index.php?p=product&id=5988&parent=292. You can also add liqueurs, and seedless jams.
If you use fresh fruit purees it is safer to cook the fruit first to kill off any bacteria. You’ll need to reduce the cream because you’ll be adding extra liquid, or increase the chocolate. Add room temperature puree into melted chocolate. Practice first with a small amount to see whether you like the texture and taste. If you’re not confident using purees the link above has powder flavouring options. Infusing flavours into the cream, add vanilla pods to cream while heating, once infused strain off the pod and add cream to choco. You can make infusions with different flavour teas in this way. There are many very good extracts available which give fab flavours. I always experiment first especially with white chocolate which can be cause problems with setting. An easy way to add flavour is to crush flavoured chocolate on top of the ganache filling eg mint chocolate aero or orange aero. Aldi food stores have lots of lovely filled chocolate bars which I’ve used to add interest to ganach filling without making a flavoured ganache. Just a few ideas for you.

Thank you so much! You have opened up another new world for me to explore 🙂 there is so much options there I never considered!

Be careful with the fresh fruit purees, they don’t keep as well and need refrigerating, but please do explore all the other options, there is a big yummy world of ganache out there. xx