Hi guys, I am supposed to be making the cake for my big sisters wedding- in october. I have done that many cakes before, however never a tiered wedding cake- freakin out a bit cos I know I am a perfectionist...being my sisters' it will be worse! Question is- the cake she wants is four tiers!..and chocolate mud cake, but all white ganache. I dont know how to hide the colour showing through the icing???? do I just make it thick? and- with the dowels, how many will I need for each layer for decent support?- they just are on top of each other, and because its four teirs- well ya know. I hope that makes sense!!!

Hi melze, I'm just an early morning reader here, not really able to help a lot but wanted to say hello.
I'm just guessing about the cake showing through the ganache, but possibly you would essentially do a crumb coat with white buttercream, and then apply your ganache as you normally would. From what I've read if the ganache is too thick it won't spread and cover your cake properly.

As I said, just guessing, somebody else may come in and tell you something different, and I'm sure they will help with your other questions.

You are very brave to make your sister's wedding cake! Good luck with it, I'm sure it will turn our wonderfully! Janice

Hi, I am also an early riser and I may be of some help on the dowel rod part. Here is a link to Wilton.com on how many dowels to use and different types that can be used.

http://www.wilton.com/wedding/makecake/building/dowelrod/plastic.cfm

Another thought is to use a separator plate under each tier and use "hidden pillars". These are heavy duty plastic dowels that fit into the feet of each plate. They can be cut to a height that would make the tier above look like it is just hovering over the tier below or you can leave them regular height and arrange a wreath of flowers in the space between the tiers. Easy to assemble at the reception and good support for each tier.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E3119F0-475A-BAC0-5772682F766C019C

I have never used ganache, but is it possible to put a double layer on the cake, letting the first layer cool completely first ... or not? (just guessing here)

Im sure Im not going to be much help but I think you will definately have to put a coat of buttercream under the ganache or it wont come out smooth and I read somewhere that you cant double coat. I dont know the reason for that but I was doing a ganache cake the other day and remember reading that.
I always use the coast seperator system from pheil and holing and have never had a problem. Its cheap and you can buy the plastic dowels in different lengths to fit the size cake you'll be making.
Sorry Im not more help hopefully somebody with alot of ganache knowledge will stop in!

I have never heard of the coast seperator system. Please tell me more...

http://www.cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=266

I wish they explained them better in the link but at least it shows a picture. I was to cheap to purchase the stress free system so someone told me about these and I have used them ever since.

thanks- the dowel thing really helped. I am still not overly sure of the icing. To make it taste right, I think it kinda needs to be just ganash- but sme practice types will help with figuring out that I think! The cake has no flowers or anything; just chocolate hearts covering the outside- in different sizes, and the top tier has massive hearts on stems, that can just be pulled out. Sounds like fun, hey! anyway, I will let you know how it turns out.
thanks again, mel

Hello everyone. VERY much a newbie here, but I figured I can offer my 2 cents for what its worth . Make a soft or medium ganache, allow it to cool completely, you can then whip it into a very nice icing (whip attachment on the mixer you may need to add a little extra cream). Use that as a crumb coat and then just do a hard ganache glaze over top of that.

remember to post pics!! we wanna see it when you finish !! lol Good luck with it too