Ganaching and Covering a Square Cake tutorial

Preparing and Covering a Square Cake

To Ganache:

1. Layer cake with ganache and affix to baseboard with ganache.

2. Affix baseboard to workboard with ganache.

3. Trim cake so there is a 3 -5mm space between the cake and the edge of the baseboard all
the way around.

4. Ganache sides of the cake, paying particular attention to the corners- it is important to
completely fill the corners with ganache. With scraper edge held directly at the point of
each corner, check there is sufficient ganache.

5. Starting just inside a corner furthest away from you and using your dominant hand, scrape
one side, finishing at the mid point of that side. Rotate cake and in turn scrape each side the
same way.

6. Then, with the scraper in your opposite hand, and again starting just inside a corner furthest
away from you, scrape each side again moving just past the mid point this time so each side
is clean and straight. The corners will still be messy at this stage.

7. Once all the sides are scraped, return the scraper to your dominant hand and use its inside
bottom corner to locate the corner of the baseboard furthest away from you. To do this
angle the top of the scraper away from you, almost lying the scraper flat. Once you have
located the edge, push the bottom inside edge of the scraper in against the baseboard and
then slowly bring the horizontally lying scraper back up from its prone position to the
vertical plane once more. As you “flip” the scraper up to a standing position it should form a
sharp line. Continue moving scraper along the side of the cake toward you now, finishing in
the middle. Rotate cake and do remaining three corners furthest from you, then move the
scraper to your opposite hand and repeat the process.

8. Once all corners have been scraped, hold edge of scraper against the point of each corner to
check that they are straight- fill corners and scrape again if necessary.

9. Using a spatula bring excess ganache on the top edge towards the middle of the top of the
cake to cover, then chill cake till firm.

10. Prepare an additional square board with florist’s cellophane, place on a level surface and
cover a portion of the board the same size as the cake with a 1-2 cm thick layer of ganache.

11. Remove cake from fridge/freezer and tip upside down into ganache. Remove workboard
and level using a spirit level on the underside of the baseboard. Allow to sit till ganache is
firm. Scrape again as per steps 5 and 6- going as close to the corner as possible. At this stage
you can reattach the workboard and freeze the cake for 15 mins so as to remove the
cellophane, then scrape the corners again as per step 7, once the cellophane has been
removed OR….

12. To finish off the corners heat the scraper and using the edge as a guide, hold above the top
of the cake and move the bottom edge downwards, using the scraper to “slice” the excess
ganache off in a downwards motion. Reattach workboard with light smear of ganache
Freeze for 20 mins and then peel off cellophane.

13. Leave cake overnight to set up.

To Cover:

Measure cake from one side, across top and down the other side, add 2 inches to the measurment.

Syrup cake, clean excess from baseboard.

Roll out fondant a little thicker than you would for a round cake- about 5mm thick. Try to roll a
square shape- it should be as wide as the measurement you took earlier plus the extra inches.

Roll the fondant onto your pin and then roll out over the cake, leaving excess fondant around the
base of the cake- this is the “skirt” you will need to “fluff” to remove the pleats.

Quickly run your hand over the top of the cake to remove large pockets of air, then move to the
sides of the cake, lightly touching the fondant to the cake about an inch down from the top all the
way around.

Attach the fondant all the way down one corner, then to the corner opposite. Continue till all
corners are covered, then move to the sides and carefully open the excess fondant at the base of the
cake to remove pleats. Gently smooth the fondant against the sides of the cake.

Use smoothers to press fondant down against base of the cake and then trim off excess with a lnife.

Use smoothers to smooth fondant, pricking air bubbles as you go.

Use two smoothers at right angles all over cake to sharpen edges.

Leave cake overnight before decorating.