nanefy

Hey Guys, I realise that there are probably one million and one topics/threads/conversations on ganache on here and I've scoured the site looking for an answer, but haven't found anything that specifically covers this topic. So, I'm no chocolate/ganache expert by any means, but I just recently discovered fruit ganache - I had no idea I could make ganache with literally fruit puree and chocolate....no cream! So I made a bunch of fruit ganaches to fill some macarons that I made, and they were fab, however I also want to use them in my cakes (wedding/birthday cakes). My problem is that once my cakes are filled, they get covered in a layer of standard white, milk or dark ganache and then they don't go back in the fridge - they are kept at room temperature until they are served. My question is about shelf stability. I know that my standard recipes for milk, white and dark chocolate ganache are absolutely fine at room temperature for a good long time, but what about Fruit Ganache?? To give you guys an idea of what I am using, the recipe I used was equal weights of chocolate to fruit puree - I melted the chocolate over a bain marie and heated the fruit puree until hot, but not boiling, then combined both together. At these ratios, the firmness was probably slightly softer than I would prefer, so I do intend on decreasing the fruit puree amount, but it was still lovely. I understand this might not be an easy question to answer, having read about water activity and how it varies depending on water and fat content etc, but any information you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jo.

We don't have cake flour here in the UK - I sift my flour three times before adding it to my egg mix. Not sure why mines deflates when folding it in, but even if it didn't deflate, using the whisk attachment on the stand mixer is way easier and quicker, especially if like me you make wedding cakes and need to make about 5 batches, one after the other (I seriously need a bigger mixer!).

Sorry - I didn't get notified of any responses......I mix some flour with all of my butter, this then gets added right at the very end after the flour. Hope that helps

OK - I am going to go against centuries of advice here.........I make wedding cakes and I only use genoise and used to get frustrated at my batter deflating which always happened as soon as I added the flour and butter and started folding them in - it takes too long to fold both the flour and butter in by hand to the point where they are completely combined. Anyway, I found the BEST way to avoid deflating my genoise - I DONT fold it in by hand. Basically, I whip the hell out of my sugar and eggs (probably 10 to 15 minutes at high speed) until they are super thick and as airy as I can get them, then I have my flour all sifted and ready to go and my butter melted. I then add some flour to my butter to get a light paste (not too thick, think of garlic puree - it's the best comparison I have). I then turn my mixer to it's lowest setting (with the balloon whisk attachment) and add my flour, then butter, fairly quickly - once added, I let it mix for until it has literally just all disappeared (about 10 seconds) and then switch the machine off. I then take a spatula and just give it a couple of folds to make sure nothing is sitting at the bottom unmixed.......and that's it! It barely deflates at all......it takes all the arm work out of making genoise and it's far better than folding it in by hand. Mixing some of the flour with the butter prevents the butter from sinking straight to the bottom. Anyway - I hope this helps - I certainly have found this method to be far better than folding by hand.

OK, I'm a pure amateur here and please feel free to ignore what I am about to say, but I know from having worked with silicone, that to get rid of all air bubbles (assuming you don't have a vacuum chamber) you pour the silicone from a decent height, in order to stretch out the bubbles and they pop - now in my mind (bearing in mind I am certainly no chocolate expert) could this not work with chocolate too???

Could you print out exactly the words you want to write (but print it in a mirror image of itself, so it's backwards). Then set that underneath a piece of acetate and pipe the words onto the acetate. Wait for it to set up and then pour your chocolate over the top?

It's for dipping, it's mainly to get a white base colour so that I can get pure colours i.e. today I made red, but because the white chocolate is creamy coloured it made it more of a salmon red than a red red. I've already bought the TD so I'll have a play around with it and see what I think. I might not need that much for what I need, so I might get away with it. It's used to make skimmed milk more 'palatable' apparently lol!

sorry, one more question - does the titanium dioxide have to be food grade? Are there different grades? I obviously don't want to poison anyone! lol

Wow this is fantastic!! Titanium dioxide is FAR cheaper than the powder from Deco Relief and in actual fact I'm starting to think that the powder from Deco Relief is very likely Titanium Dioxide which they've repackaged and whacked an expensive price on it!! I've also just read that the dioxide turns the chocolate super bright white which is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for this info!

Hey, Newbie here, just got my account confirmed today!! yippee!!!! Anyhoozle, my question is this - I need to colour my white chocolate but I'm assuming that because white chocolate isn't actually white that it will effect the outcome of my colours. So I found a product by Deco Flair which is pure white powder colour for chocolate. I just wondered if anyone has used it and if so, how white did it make the chocolate? I'm looking for a pure white colour (or as close as I can get to it). I know that you can get candy melts/merckens in pure white but I refuse to use them because they are full of hydrogenated vegetable fats and other nasties that I won't use in my products. Any info would be fab