Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Yes that was very helpful as always, thankyou MIWL.
I have used the recipe calculator for the first time and it a fantastic tool.
Off I go to bake in this very hot kitchen!

Hi Sandra Bibby

What is the cocoa percentage of your milk chocolate and what is the % of the dark? and what is the ratio of milk chocolate to dark you are using? Is it 50/50 or something else?

Hi MIWL,
100g 85% Lindt Dark
100g 70% Lindt Dark
200g Menier swiss milk 29%
I wanted to cover a 10″x5″ chocolate cake no filling, strange shape I know but I am putting two different flavoured cakes together to make a 10″ square.
Thankyou.

Hi Sandra Bibby

In total, you have 400 grams of chocolate of various cocoa percentages. You will need 1k of either double cream or whipping cream to make your ganache.

To break this down for you, you need 200 g of cream for the 400 grams of dark chocolate, and for the 600 g of milk chocolate, you need 200 of cream. The ratios used are 2:1 chocolate to cream for the dark and, 3:1 chocolate to cream for the milk. It’s always best to use white chocolate ratios for milk chocolate which contains such little cocoa solids.

Hope this helps. Nighty nights 🙂

Hi MIWL, Yes that helps a great deal, thankyou.
I used the recipe calculator for the first time today, it is great tool.
X

Hope the heat doesn’t affect the ganache too much.

If you want you can increase the dark chocolate to cream ratio to 2.5 : 1 or more if the conditions become more extreme. The milk chocolate should be increased if needed to 3.5 : 1

Hope all goes well ?

Really sorry if I have read this wrong but in the advice given above might be the wrong way round. Should be much more chocolate than cream. Wonder if you could check.

Hi lynne71

Thank you for picking that error out. I’ve corrected the amounts the right way round.

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Ah good, glad to be of help. ?

Sorry made it with love another entry to change. The first paragraph to Sandra Bobby should read 400g cream to 1 kg chocolate! Before you go on to break it down.

Hi lynne71

You are correct!

200 grams dark chocolate needs 100 cream

200 grams milk chocolate needs 70 grams of cream.

I have no idea why I got into such a muddle over a simple calculation.
Lesson to learn from this, is never answer questions very late at night.

??

Hi MIWL, ye I thought that was a bit strange, then again it was a strange question. so I checked on the amounts in the ganache calculator for just dark chocolate on its own and it was the other way round, but followed your instructions thinking it is probably that way round because of different percentages and brands plus mixing dark and milk, it was very runny so just kept adding more chocolate it all come together so no worries.
\I know you are a very good source of information MIWL and your input and calculators are fantastic. That was naughty of me to ask a question that late I am sorry for that, please accept my apology, it was very good of you to answer. I have only just seen message because the cake was for my 60th on Saturday I had all the family round and they have just gone, PHEW! I am worn out. Your help is always appreciated. x

My apologies to you for the mix up. I had my 70th birthday yesterday and I didn’t bother with a cake. Waist and hips have expanded so much over lockdown, we plumbed for an exotic fruit salad and low fat vanilla Icecream ??

Glad all went well despite the mix up. I would never knowingly give out miss information. ?