Ganache and fondant falling off cake when sliced
Hi, I am new to using ganache under fondant but i have had great results with achieving smooth sides to my cakes and they taste great. I made a test cake for myself which was a vanilla sponge with buttercream and white chocolate ganache under fondant. The problem i saw was that when i sliced a piece of the cake, the icing and fondant fell off on the plate with a few crumbs attached to the inside on the ganache and the sponge was left seperate. I think it looks awful if i gave it to one of my customers who were trying to slice the cake for guests. Has anyone any idea why this would happen?
3 Replies
Did you use both buttercream and ganache? I use only ganache and have never had that problem. If you used buttercream underneath the ganache, perhaps it is not letting the ganache adhere to the cake. If you only used ganache, my guess would be that the ganache sets too hard. Might need to add more cream.
Thanks so much for your reply. The cake I made was a vanilla sponge with buttercream and jam in the middle and white chocolate ganache under the fondant. No buttercream on the sides under the ganache. What you have said would make a lot of sense. The ganache I used had been in the freezer and I defrosted it overnight before hand. I remember when I put it on even after it had been in the microwave it was still fairly thick. The consistency was a lot thicker than when I made a fresh batch for another cake that day. The only reason I got to eat this cake was because I had to redo it due to a problem when I stacked a really tall 6 inch cake on top and my dowels wernt close enough to the edge. (Another thing I learnt that day). And the top went wonky. So now I am worried because my customer would have tried to slice the 6 x6 inch top cake and I would image it was a nightmare if the ganache fell off. The bottom cake that I re did however had the fresh ganache so I’m hoping that one was ok. The cake looked absolutely fantastic when decorated and they were really pleased with it so I guess I have to try and forget about it and put it down to a learning curve. I am completely self taught. Another thing I didn’t know till afterwards was that I believe you are supposed to put a cake board between the 2 cakes if you are making a double layer like I did. Well I just stacked the cakes on top of each other and got perfectly good results but I did wonder how on earth they would cut it. Sorry for my long response!
I’m self taught too and always learning. You are right about tiered cakes. Each cake does need a cakeboard. That is what the dowels need to hold up the cake above. Otherwise, the weight of the cake on top can squash the bottom and the dowels will simply go thru the top cake .
