Flocking a Chocolate Cake

[Shel_B]

Heston Blumenthal's chocolate cake recipe looks to be a fun and easy recipe to make.  However, he uses a paint spray gun to flock the cake, something that I'd like to avoid.  Is there an alternative to his technique?  I suppose I could just spread the mixture on with a spatula, or could I?  In any case, I like the flocking idea.

 

Click Here to view the video.  The cake demo starts at 7:00 minutes in.

[keychris]

if you're not going to spray it, I would just make a nice ganache to pour over the top instead of thinning chocolate out with oil - I would guess that if you thin it with that much oil and try to spread it, it won't set again. Could be wrong though, it's happened once or twice before

[Tri2Cook]

The spayed chocolate is primarily a decorative texture. If you want something reminiscent while avoiding spraying, cover it with buttercream or gan;ache and while still tacky to the touch coat it in pulverized chocolate. If you're not concerned with trying to get a similar look, just cover it in ganache.

edit: I wouldn't use the chocolate/oil mixture to cover it if not spraying. You'll get a better result from a cream ganache if you're just going to coat it.



 

Edited May 17, 2015 by Tri2Cook (log)

[ChocoMom]

I've done this cake a few times now. When you flock it using a paint sprayer- the chocolate ends up having a velvety sort of look, which is very cool. I had the chocolate tempered, and mixed it with some liquid coconut oil to thin it out. It sprayed beautifully.

 

Another time, I used my Wagner paint sprayer with the thinned out chocolate.  I later decided that wanted more color, so I pulled out the airbrush with colored cocoa butter and went over the whole cake again. Ended up with a sunset sort of color scheme on it. The finished cake looked like a velvet fiery sunset. It was really hard to cut into that.

 

You can do a poured ganache over the outside, and it will have a nice, smooth, sleek sort of finish.  And, the poured ganache is far less messy than spraying. .

[jmacnaughtan]

I'd personally use a glaze rather than a ganache- I find it goes on easier, looks shinier and the raw ingredients tend to be cheaper

[Shel_B]

I'd personally use a glaze rather than a ganache- I find it goes on easier, looks shinier and the raw ingredients tend to be cheaper

 

I don't know what a glaze is.  Cost is not a concern.  How much less expensive could a glaze be?

[jmacnaughtan]

I don't know what a glaze is.  Cost is not a concern.  How much less expensive could a glaze be?

 

A glaze makes cakes nice and shiny, while a ganache can often have a dull, matte finish.  Chocolate glazes don't always use chocolate (rather a combination of cocoa powder, sugar, water, glucose, gelatin and dairy), so are generally pretty cheap.  They also have the advantage of freezing well.

 

I much prefer using glazes on cakes because the layer tends to be thinner, it's shinier, more attractive, and easier to work with because it's more fluid.  You can also work with a wider range of colours and flavours.

 

If it helps, this cake uses a chocolate glaze I picked up from one of Francisco Migoya's books.

[Shel_B]

A glaze makes cakes nice and shiny, while a ganache can often have a dull, matte finish.  

 

For the cake in question, shiny would not be my preference.  I do appreciate the info about glazes, though.

[Tri2Cook]

Just in my personal opinion, while I agree that glazes often tend to look nicer in a shiny sort of way, I think ganaches tend to taste better than most glazes I've tried. The glazes that were demoed here are, again in my opinion, more pleasant to eat than the cocoa/gelatin glazes (pretty close to a good ganache in flavor and not too gummy in texture but with the shiny finish of a nice glaze) but are not quite as easy to work with as the cocoa gelation type, require sourcing ingredients that may not be easy to find for some and pretty much eliminate any cost savings over a ganache. They are my preferred glazes though. I do like the look of the cocoa/gelatin glaze plus it's super forgiving to work with (if the item you're glazing is frozen, you can even peel it off if you don't get the finish you want, re-melt it and try again) and they're not at all unpleasant to eat... just not as pleasant as a good ganache.