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Hi all, I’m making a 4 tiered wedding cake and I’m looking for some different suggestions for ganache/filling combinations-in particular for the red velvet and chocolate tiers. I’ve already decided on a vanilla sponge with a white choc ganache and strawberry jam filling with a white choc ganache covering for one tier,if that makes a difference?

Any help would be really appreciated!

Hi Kirsty1718

I don’t know anything about red velvet cake apart from the fact that it’s mainly filled with cream cheese frosting.
Since cream cheese ideally needs refrigerating I wouldn’t think it suitable for a wedding tier. Other choices would be either to fill with a flavoured buttercream or ganache. If you particularly wanted cream cheese flavour LorAnn oil have it. They have lots of flavours to choose from, one of my favourites is their cherry. It can be teamed up with a kirch or amaretto syrup for the cake layers. A lovely fluffy vanilla white chocolate buttercream would be good too. I would also suggest Italian meringue buttercream but I don’t know how it keeps at room temperature while decorating. For food safety reasons I think possibly best avoided. If you didn’t want to use oils and other bought flavours it’s quite easy to make flavour infusions at home with citrus fruit like oranges, limes and lemons. Flavoured teas can also be used.
For zest infusions steep the zest in cream and leave to absorb flavours for a few hours. The longer you steep the stronger the taste, strain and boil cream in the usual manner for ganache. Alternatively boil the zest up with the cream and allow to cool, strain off and re boil the cream for the ganache. Tea infusions can be done in exactly the same way only bearing in mind that if you bring tea up to the boil it will be quite a strong flavour depending o what it is. There are many fruity and spicy teas to choose from.
For both milk and white chocolate ganache you’d want subtle flavours which won’t over power delicate flavours in the cake. Any amount of flavours will pair well with both, eg spearmint, peppermint, almond, orange, lime, Turkish delight, caramel, praline, coconut, passion fruit and the list goes on! Be wary of the mints as the flavour develops over time.
Available in supermarkets are many flavoured chocolates. If you’re based in the UK the Lidle and Aldi stores have particularly good choice of fair trade flavoured chocolates which could be used to make ganache filling.
Some would not be suitable for crumb coat as they contain knibs for additional texture. Montezuma also make lovely flavoured chocs too. I think textures adds another dimension to fillings so you could really go to town by adding nuts, crushed up biscuits, honeycombe, Ferreo Roche or anything else apart from fresh fruit which would rot pretty quickly. But you can add specially formulated fruit puree or freeze dried fruit and fruit powders. You could also use some alcohol liqueurs. Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Kahula, Ameretto and fine brandy work well with milk chocolate and Lemoncella, Passoa, Malibu and Marc du Champagne work well with white chocolate. These are just a few ideas.
Good place for LorAnn oils, Nutrfresh fruit powders and other powder flavours have a peek here
http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/catalog/#
Suppliers for Montezuma chocolates can be found online. As with all flavours experimenting is worth while to get the balance right.
Hope some of this helps and I haven’t boggled your mind. x

Hi madeitwithlove,thank you for all your suggestions they’re a big help-although I won’t lie,my mind is slightly boggled!ha.
I don’t know a great deal about red velvet either,I don’t even particularly like it to be honest,which is the main reason I’m stuck! I usually tend to stick to cream cheese frosting anytime
I need to make it,but like you said,I usually refrigerate it and would be extremely nervous of using it for this. I think I’ll probably try keep the RV fairly simple and go with a white choc ganache,although I’ve never tried a vanilla white choc buttercream before-that also sounds good.

As for the choc tier I really like the idea of adding in some other flavours and you’ve helped no end with ideas,thank you. If I were to go down the route of say a dark choc ganache flavoured with orange(zest as mentioned above or otherwise),would you just use that for the filling or also for the crumb coat/ganache covering too? Sorry for all the questions!

Thank you for the great link too,I’m definitely going to get some of the oils and try them out,just might start with some less important bakes first,until I get used to them! 🙂

As long as you strain off the zest the ganache will be fine for crumb coat as well. Baileys cream liqueur do an orange version which tastes great with dark chocolate cake but I tend to stick with the Cointreau. If you want to add liqueur to your ganache, say a tablespoon, just reduce the cream by that amount. Make the ganache up as normal and add the alcohol, gently mix until it comes together again. It might look split for a few seconds but it does emulsify so don’t worry
The vanilla white chocolate butter cream is really lovely, tastes like ice cream. When I do vanilla cake with strawberry jam I make lemon white chocolate ganache. White choc and jam can be over sweet, the lemon helps to cut that. I use lemongrass (white part only slighty crushed) for the cream infusion.
The flavours are endless, experiment with small amounts first to find the right balance.

For ganache quantities for different size cakes, if it helps, there’s a chart here http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/how-to-ganache-cakes-without-gnashing-your-teeth