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Home » Food

It’s a frosting! It’s a filling! Ganache is easy and egg-free

Submitted by Debra on Saturday, 10 January 2009 2 Comments
One of the biggest ironies of Big Guy's egg allergy is that I used to be a pretty skilled baker and cake decorator. I won't say highly skilled, because, like anything, it takes practice and I had limited time to for that. But I was half decent.

A lot of what I learned I discovered at LadyCakes Place, which is a wonderful recipe site/cake decorating forum. That's where I picked up this simple ganache recipe, one of the few that has survived the allergy purge.

The only key to not goofing up ganache is low heat. Otherwise, it takes just three ingredients and patience. It also takes willpower to make sure there's some left for the cake.

Chocolate ganache

  • 1/2 c. heavy cream
  • 1/4 c. sour cream
  • 3/4 c. baking chips -- if you're also dealing with a peanut allergy, your options will be limited because you'll have to make sure they're not contaminated.

Bring the cream to simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Pour the mixture over the chocolate in a glass bowl and stir until smooth.

For a smooth finish as a frosting, pour immediately over the cake. It will drip -- just gently respoon the overflow. Careful, though! Keep that spoon away from your mouth or there won't be enough left for the cake.

Let it come to room temperature and whip with a mixer for a spreadable frosting or filling.

Ganache can be refrigerated or frozen and then brought to room temperature and whipped. If you reheat on a stove top or microwave -- which I don't recommend because it's too easy to goof it up -- be careful because it gets soft quickly.

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Copyright 2009 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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2 Comments »

  • Madhuram said:

    That’s pretty simple Debra. Thanks for sharing this recipe and also for the link for Lady Cakes. I’ve not been there before. Will check it out because I too am interested in cake decoration.

    - 11 January 2009 at 5:47 am
  • Debra (author) said:

    LadyCakes is a great site AND a great community! I haven’t been there in years — you might still find some of my old stuff under DebTheRed — but everyone there used to be very friendly. Knowing Vickie and Scott, the moderators, I’d say it’s still that way.

    I wish I still had time to hang out there. Even though the recipes aren’t much help, the conversation’s great.

    - 11 January 2009 at 8:44 am