Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi mwil
I have just made a small amount of ganache as I wanted to see what the taste would be like using Lidls cheapest 50% dark chocolate. One thing I did notice was that the chocolate took longer to melt down after adding the boiled cream and I had to warm the mix together for about 30 seconds to get it completely melted. Just wondered would that be because of the type of chocolate?

Chocolate orange is to die for but then there’s mint, passion fruit, lime ( Ooooo!) raspberry. And you could also use some of the fruit and spice teas. To flavour the ganache you’d have to boil the zest of the fruits eg the orange, lime. Leave it to infuse for a couple of hours, reboil the cream and strain off the zest before adding the cream to chocolate. Same goes for the teas. The longer you infuse, the stronger the flavour. You can also add zest directly into the cake mix. For the passion fruit I usually take the pulp and put it through a strainer to get rid of the little seeds, add the juice to the made ganache or into the cake mix. I also do a Christmas spice chocolate cake, although not to everyones taste. Add flavours like Loran oils or liqueurs if you don’t want to infuse. Make a flavoured syrup drench by adding liqueur once the syrup has cooled and brush over cake layers. I have to say the orange is my favouite, the whole house smells orangy and the taste develops after a couple of days. I use zest of three oranges soaked in 40mls of Cointreau for the cake mix and also infuse the cream with zest and add more liqueur to the ganache. Flavours are limitless as long as they compliment the cake flavour. Did you have something in mind?

Hi JustJennys Cakes

I find it takes longer to melt as well, it’s quite hard chocolate. You did the correct thing by helping it along, I usually give between 10 and 30 second burst and stir after each burst to incorporate the unmelted bits.
Grating the chocolate first helps so if you’ve got a food processor with a grating blade give it a quick whizz in that. Don’t over do it other wise the choc will melt from the heat of the rotation.
A little extra info, it makes great modelling chocolate and tempers really well. x

Thanks for that little tip. On tasting it wasn too bad, but im not a great fan of dark chocolate and for me it would have to be slightly sweeter if eaten on its own. However I intend to put it on a chocolate fudge cake so im guessing it will taste better with all the sugar in the cake. I know it can be flavoured but at what point do you add flavouring and have you any suggestions to compliment the cake and the chocolate please?
sorry just looked at an earlier post you had on here about adding alcohol to the ganache and iv just experimented with a little countreau. It tastes much much better! It definitely needed something as I was getting a dry aftertaste when it was just plain. If you have any other suggestions though id be very grateful. Thankyou

Oooh sounds wonderful! When you infuse eg fruit zest do you boil in the cream first then reboil the cream once strained? I do like your idea of orange zest infused in the cream and then adding the countreau to the ganache, sounds divine! Do you add the liqueur to the ganache before setting in the fridge overnight? I didn have any particular flavour in mind really just wanted to experiment and see what would lift the chocolate and take away that after taste and also needed some choices to give the recipient of the cake. Thankyou so much, your so helpful!
edit: its to go with chocolate fudge cake

First add the zest to the cream and boil together. Let it sit and infuse, reboil the cream and strain off the zest while adding the cream to the chocolate. Make the ganache and add the liqueur, it will look a bit grainy when you first add but keep mixing gently and it will go in to make a lovely ganache. I don’t put my ganache in the fridge however if your kitchen is very warm then it might be a good idea. If you want to make a raspberry ganache, pulp the berries first, sieve through to get the seeds out and boil the pulp with a little lemon juice, cool and add to ganache. This is to prevent any bacterial growth and to enchance the rasberry flavour. It should be used for filling ganache only. Experiment first to get an idea of flavours. The Lidle chocolate is ideal for that because it’s so cheap and so is Elmslea cream. When you’re out shopping next look at all the different flavoured chocolates to get flavour inspirations. I’m constantly experimenting with new flavours and make small amounts just to get an idea of how well ingredients go together. I get bored easily and need some taste bud excitment! Your fudge cake sounds really yummy.

Thankyou! The fudge cake is really nice and in the past when making for someone else iv used chocolate buttercream but this time I wanted the chance to try the ganache and make it a little extra special. Oh one more question, sorry to be a pain, but is it ok to freeze the ganache with zest of fruit and liqueur added to it?
Thanks for all your advice

They would all be fine, at least I’ve never had any problems. Just make sure the pulp is boiled though and make small amounts first. Good luck with the flavours hope you find one you really like. x