Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I’d like to make the Rocket Cake featured in a recent tutorial by Mayen from Way Beyond Cakes but I’m not sure about all the chocolate ganache that’s used in it as I feel it may well be a bit too rich and dense seeing as it’s used as the filling as well as the covering layer underneath the icing.

I can see that ganache would help to keep a vertical, 3D cake all together and make all the sugarpaste icing stick to it nicely but what do people think about using buttercream instead? Or, if you think that that wouldn’t work, what about using buttercream as the filling and then ganache on the outside?

I am thinking of substituting Paul’s chocolate cake recipe for the pound cake-style sponge that Mayen uses as it seems a suitable cake for carving and constructing. Obviously this would mean that ganache would probably be chocolate overload!

Has anybody out there had a go at this cake (or a similar one) and be able to advise?

Thanks, Delphine

Hello Delphine

The cake doesn’t have to have ganache filling, it can have a buttercream filling or just good old plain jam.
Ganaching the outside of the cake will give you a super strong coating to hold the structure together. I don’t think buttercream would make such a good job.
You can use any cake recipe you like as long as it is a dense cake which carves well. Your suggestion for pound cake would be perfect! Happy baking and decorating.