Icing on the Cake

Cliche, I know, but i just couldn't help it! Yes - today i made icing. Well, not actually icing, I made chocolate ganache. And here's the thing, the ganache was excellent. Rich, chocolatey, creamy, in short, everything that ganache should be. The cake however, was a little lacking. The flavor was good, but it was just too dense. I think the problem may have been not whipping the butter and sugar up enough - learn from my mistakes - just whip it!

Still, I highly recommend the ganache filling/frosting. And, i'll try another cake recipe and post again soon.

For ganache frosting and filling

1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate (I used Godiva chocolate chips)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Finely chop the chocolate, or in my case, just get chocolate chips. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Now, smitten kitchen says to do this:
"Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency). I found that stirring this over a bowl of ice water did a great job of cooling it off quickly and evenly. Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides."

But i just poured it right on still warm! Believe me it was deeeeeelish.



I actually have a good trick for frosting a cake, i learned it from my mom. You probably already know it, but just in case, I'll pass it along. The best way to keep icing from getting all over the plate is to use a little bit of aluminum foil - I use 4 separate pieces and overlap them just slightly along the edge of the plate (so they'll be easy to pull from under the cake). Then remove the foil and there you go!