Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I am going to ganache a two tier wedding cake before icing. A ten inch and an eight inch cake ,both of double height.
Any suggestions as to how much chocolate and cream I need to do the lot. That is for the filling as well. I am doing white ganache. Also should I use the more expensive Linder chocolate that Paul mentions in one of his tutorials.
I hasten to add I have never made a wedding cake before!!

Hi Meadows342

To work out the amount of ganache required for your cakes please use the site’s ganache calculator here:

Cake Calculators

Any chocolate that you enjoy eating can be used to make ganache. However, you will get best results if dark chocolate has between 50 – 60 % cocoa solids, 42 – 45 % for milk chocolate and 27 – 29% for white chocolate.
These percentages provide good setting. Evenso, how well ganache sets also depends on climate ie heat and humidity. Here in the UK the %ages shown work well. If the weather is particularly hot a little more chocolate can be used to make it stronger so it can set better.

Paul has used various types of chocolate. In the main he appears to use the Belcolade brand couverture which can be purchased online. I use Callebaut which is slightly less sweet than the Belcolade. A good place to get both these brands is the Chocolate trading company. Of course you can just google them by name and use any supplier or brand of your choice. Both brands work out very favourably in price compared to compound chocolate.

If you’ve never made a wedding cake before have no fear! Please take a peek at all of Paul’s free tutorials to set you up for a successful first wedding cake. You’ll find the very comprehensive tutorials here:

Free Cake Decorating Courses

Hope some of this helps. If you need more information on anything just post back. 🙂