So my wedding cake that is due tomorrow evening is stressing me out. The bride wants buttercream frosting with chocolate ganache drips down the sides and on top. It's a two tier cake, I took the tiers out of the fridge to put the ganache on it. I started on the sides and noticed the ganache was literally sliding down the sides of the cake leaving a brown trail! I wiped it off the best I could, and left them out to let the cake "sweat" and come to room temp.

After it stopped sweating, I tried again and since the cake wasn't cold...now the ganache was too thin and slid down. I don't know what to do! This only happened on the bottom tier ( I didn't touch the other one yet). I'm thinking about just piping rosette's like the I am Baker on the cake instead. I Facebook messaged the bride (I'm friends with her) and told her the problem and showed her a picture of the rosettes. If I don't hear back from her, what should I do? I can't give her a cake that is going to melt because her reception is outdoors tomorrow and the humidity is awful. I also can't give her a cake with brown chocolate streaks all over it.

Hopefully she gets back with me tonight so I know she wants. UGH.

 

Can you do the drizzles with plain melted chocolate instead of ganache? Another tutorial I saw had a little bit of shortening melted into the chocolate.

Or you could remelt your ganache and add more chocolate.

This might help:

http://cakesandcupboards.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/my-first-how-to-demonstration-drizzles.html

I actually JUST tried this on the sheet cake and it didn't work either. Where I live it's been raining and hot and muggy all day...I have my AC on high...but I'm worried that if it's melting in my apartment...it's going to REALLY melt tomorrow at the reception. All I can do is cover the cakes with those buttercream roses to hide the brown streaks, but I'm scared she will be mad that it isn't want she asked for.
 

CALL HER!!!  She is getting married tomorrow and probably is doing other things than checking messages on FB.

Why not try plain chocolate rather than ganache? I don't know if you've ever tempered chocolate before but that might be the way to go. What ratio did you use for the ganache you used earlier?

ADark chocolate melts at right around body temp. If it os hotter than that you are not going to going to be able to use this method especially not adding butter and cream. You have to use something with a higer melting point to mix into the chocolate. I would use parafin wax you can get it in the candy making section at a grocery store.

Very last resort I can think of would be to get some chocolate/brown fondant and do a cut out to resemble the chocolate drips and place this on top of the tiers. It will still have the look, should survive the weather better than the buttercream, and if folks want, they can remove it when it is served.

Thank you guys for helping last night! I figured out it was the brand of chocolate I was using...normally I use 60% cocoa Ghirardelli bars but I got an off brand from Aldi's...but the bride actually loved the rosette idea and the fruit so she agreed to go ahead and do that instead of the chocolate....we didn't want to chance it melting since it's hot and rainy today.


 

Glad you figured out the problem and that your friend was flexible in the design.

I'm so happy that is over with! I was so stressed and the bride and groom (and everyone else) loved the cake! :)

I didn't get a picture of the tiered cake but here's a picture of the sheet cake!
 

Nice save! It's beautiful.

It looked so much better than the chocolate, that's for sure lol