Drip Cake

After David's birthday last month, I wanted to redeem myself for how his cake turned out. It tasted great but it was pretty crumbly while I was icing it. A combination of that and rushing to get it done and it turned out a little sad looking compared with cakes I've made in the past... aaand, he wanted to help decorate his birthday cake so there's also that...

Well, last week I did redeem myself and got to try out a new technique as well. A drip cake!

It was easier than I thought it would be. To make the ganache, you combine equal parts of chocolate and heavy whipping cream (60 grams each to cover an 8 inch cake) by melting them together in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, stirring in between. When the ganache is hot enough (but not so hot it will melt the icing on the cake), you simply drip it over the edge of the cake and then smooth the rest of it over the top.

Although it was pretty easy, I still learned a few tips from trying it out for the first time.

1. Squeeze bottles are great!
I know there are tutorials that show people using a spoon to drip the ganache, and the tutorial I followed by cupcake Jemma just used a piping bag, but by using a squeeze bottle I had a lot more control and a lot less mess.

2. Don't add the drip while the cake is chilled.
When I did the drip on my cake, I had just taken it out of the fridge. The cake being so cold made the drip slow and harden a little more than I wanted it to in a few places. I either needed hotter ganache or a slightly warmer cake.

3. Test the drip on your bowl.
This tip was from the video by cupcake Jemma and works great for checking if your ganache is hot enough to drip at the right speed.

After finding out how easy this was, I will definitely be trying it again. And maybe next time I'll actually make enough icing to decorate the top too. That is, if I can finish the cake before my kids find the icing bowl! Haha!