Hi. I had a lady send me this picture of cupcakes that she wants me to make for next Tuesday. I am planning to make the flowers out of gumpaste. I am not sure what the cupcake is covered with though(fondant or maybe ganache???) I am looking for the easiest option. Has anyone ever covered a cupcake with ganache??? If so...could someone give me a really EASY recipe for ganache. I have not yet tried it and do not want to make a mess. Any advice would be great...but I want the easiest way!!!!

Thanks!!!!

im not totally sure, but they look the same as these cupcakes, and on the website it says they are ganache!

http://www.yummycupcakes.com/gallery.html

It looks like they are covered with some kind of glaze...Doesn't look like ganache to me.

Any good recipes for ganache or glaze???

I would say that it is a thicker ganache. Easiest recipe I have used so far is this...

chop 8 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate into 1/4 inch pieces using a serrated knife (less slippage) place in heat proof bowl and set aside.

Heat 1 cup heavy cream to a boil. Immediately remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Rap bowl on the counter to settle chocolate and wait two minutes. Gently stir chocolate and cream till completely mixed (about two minutes)

For these cupcakes I would let it cool till pretty thick then dunk. Good luck..let us know how it goes.
BTW,
Recipe is from Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard

Warmed liquid chocolate fondant will give you the same result then just dip the tops. That's what donut shops use to do thier donuts.

I will probably try the ganache...however, where do you buy the liquid fondant???

Thanks!

never even heard of liquid fondant ??

baking 911 has recipes for liquid fondant. Great site to look at also.

I think they might be coffee flavoured royal icing

Maple royal icing would be nummy too.

The picture looks the same as in the link below, but they don't mention what kind of topping is used:

http://www.harryanddavid.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?superitem=18766&category_sel=863

why not call harry and david??? pretend you are a potential customer and ask what kind of topping it is

I just called HD and they have no clue

They must have other bakers that do all the work. The people that answer the phones must just take orders.

Does anyone know if you need to put ganache in the refrigerator????

I would kind of like not to because of the gumpaste flowers.

If all else fails I will just use regular smoothed buttercream icing.

I think the dark ones are covered with chocolate. Only melted chocolate maybe with a little bit of coconut oil.
This doesn't have to be refrigerated. I think ganache should or even stay cool.
Luggi

Would the Wilton candy melts work for this. The lady wants them very similar to the picture. I am planning on using more easter type colors for the flowers and a whiter color for the cupcake coloring. She wants some chocolate and some white.

Do you think it would ruin the gumaste flowers if they were put in the refrigerator overnight???

Wilton Candy melts .... I only know them from the pictures in the wilton yearbook
Here in Germany we don't have them.

What we do here most of the time is coating a bunt cake in chocolate. To make this from scratch we use a high quality chocolate, melt it in a bowl on hot water and add some fat - coconut gives a fine shininess. You can use any kind of chocolate as long it's a good one and so you can make it white or dark.

Hope I could help a little!
Luggi

Thank-you so much for the info. How much coconut oil should be added??? I will probably be using a bag of candy melts(14 oz). Also...would I be able to use shortning in place of the coconut oil??? I am tring to use things that I have on hand.

However...I can always go to the store...not a big deal!

I think that they are covered in chocolate...white and dark or milk chocolate....I believe that you can refrigerate the cupcakes so that they are firm and dip them in chocolate or ganache...if you don't have or don't want to use a great quality chocolate, use the candy melts..and with this, I don't think that they have to be refigerated....they should be fine to stay out overnight.

Kita

When I have made cake balls I have used the candy melts with about a TBL. of shortening. That is supposed to help keep the chocolate from breaking into a million pieces when you take a bite.

Let us know how they turn out. Be sure and post a picture.

Cindy

I think you can also use shortening because this is vegetable fat as well. The more fat you add the thinner the consistancy will be. Don't add too much. It's not that difficult because you see the result immediatly. First melt the chocolate or candy melts and than add one ts of fat, stir it in and check with a spoon how fluid it is. You can also put a little bit on parchment paper, refrigerate for some minutes and then check the consistency. You can reheat the mixture several times, it doesn't change the quality. It shouldn't get too hot!
Give it a try - if you fail you can still make brownies
I'm shure it will work!

The finished cupcakes don't have to be refrigerated!
Luggi

cheftaz's recipe on this site for Chocolate Ganache I is awesome! I left out the sugar because I used a sweeter chocolate. You could do white chocolate ganache too.

I think the candy melts would work, but I would probably do the brown ones with ganache just because it's SO YUMMY!

Good luck, and please post an update with what you decided to do and how they turned out.

-Suz

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! I will be doing a trial run tommorrow or Saturday to see which turns out better. I will post a picture of the finished cupcakes and let you know what I used.

Hi Traci:

Did you give her a quote already? I was just wondering how much you were going to charge for these (probably not the $49.95/12 + shpg at H&D)? Just curious. Thx.

Thanks for all the responses! I recieved a PM that this company probably would not want the cupcakes posted on here so I removed the photo. I do not want to cause any issues for Jackie or Heath. I believe someone else did post a link to their website though.

I also saw how expensive these cupcakes were. I have not yet quoted them a price. I will be making 2 dozen divided into 2 party platters. It will be garnished with easter grass and some candy eggs. I am guessing I will charge 25.00 per tray.

Does that sound about right????

I have a cake decorating book that has cupcakes that look very much like the ones in your picture ... it's glace icing

6oz icing sugar
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened
4-8 teaspoons milk or water
food coloring

sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the butter and enough milk or water to make a thick paste. cour the icing at this stage if necessary. Warm slightly in a microwave or by standing in the bowl in a pan of hot aterm until thick and purable. Use immediately to prevent a crst forming and pur over the cake while warm.

makes enough to cover a 9 inch round cake

variations:
chocolate icing stir in 4 teaspoons sifted cocoa powder

Disclaimer: I got this from a book I got a couple of days ago .. I have not tried any of their recepies ... the book is the "Esential guide to cake decorating"

Have you tried a poured icing? You take canned icing (I used Wilton's canned buttercream - colored it red) and nuke it for about 15 seconds - check it for consistency. Your looking fora "pouring" consistency. If not reached - nuke for a few more seconds. Test again. I did a Red Hat cake for a ladies luncheon and used this technique to cover the hat. It poured very nicely and when it cooled it still had a the look of poured icing but it went back to regular icing consistency. The ladies loved the cake. Just a thought.

Thank-you both! I will let you know what I end up doing!

so what did you end up doing?