Get inspiration for an easy but impressive chocolate drip cake. Sharing with you my mistakes and the tricks that I’ve learned.
A drip cake can be extraordinarily messy but still looks good.
You don’t need to know how to pipe buttercream flowers.
You don’t need to knead and roll fondant until your arms break off.
This kind of cake is hugely liberating. Don’t you agree?
We insert homemade chocolate shards of unpredictable shapes.
We stick sugary treats where it needs a fix (I always do. haha:-)
Here are some recipes and tips I used for the drip cakes. I hope they will be helpful for you.
I cannot wait to see what you come up with!
How to make chocolate shards: easy and fast.
Easy Chocolate Shards
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield about a piece of 4″x8″
This is an easy way to make an impressive chocolate decoration for your drip cake.
Ingredients
- 60g, (about 30 pieces) chocolate wafers like Ghirardelli Chocolate Dark Melting Wafers*
- 40g (about 20 pieces) white Chocolate wafers like Ghirardelli Chocolate White Candy Making Wafers.
- Cake decorating luster dust (gold)
- Wilton Sugar Pearls, White
Instructions
- Melt dark and white chocolate wafers separately in a double boiler.
- Pour melted dark chocolate onto a piece of parchment/wax paper, or a silicone mat, spread it into a thin layer with a spatula.
- Pour melted white chocolate sparely on the dark chocolate layer. Use a butter knife draw a few “S” in the mixture, don’t overmix.
- Sprinkle some sugar peals and gold luster dust on the mixture.
- When the chocolate is completely cooled and becomes solid, remove it carefully from the parchment or silicone mat. Break into several pieces ofdesired shapes.
Notes
*Wilton brand will work too.
**You can also use real chocolate in this recipe, which will taste better but they need tempering.
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Chocolate ganache
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 1 cup
This is a basic chocolate ganache recipe.
To achieve a perfect consistency for dripping, the temperature of the ganache needs to be between 85-90ºF (29-32ºC).
You can use a squeeze bottle to better control the drips.
Ingredients
- 100g heavy cream (about 1/2 cup)
- 110g Semi-sweet Chocolate (1 baking bar)
Instructions
Melt the chocolate and heavy cream in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl in a microwave (heat low and slow.) Make sure ganache is completely smooth. Let it cool until 85-90ºF (29-32ºC) before pouring on to a well chilled buttercream or fondant covered cake.
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TIPS for fixing “not-so-perfect” ganache drips
1. Right Temperature is the key to achieve the perfect drippy consistency for the ganache.
Make sure the temperature of the ganache is between85-90ºF (29-32ºC) before pouring on a cake, you can cool it down or heat it up as needed.
To make sure your ganache has the right consistency, especially if it’s your first time making it, you can do this easy test: chill a plate in the freezer for at least 15 minutes, pour some ganache on the plate and then tilt the plate vertically to observe how the ganache moves. If it dripped slowly and stopped a few seconds later by itself, then it has the right consistency.
2. The cake needs to be completely chilled.
As the previous cold plate experiment can testify: a chilled cake is what makes ganache drippings solidify rapidly. The cake should be chilled in the refrigerator for at least one hour. You should be able to touch the cake frosting, and it will not smear. It can be a Swiss or French buttercream covered cake that is solid to the touch. A whipped cream covered cake won’t work in this case.
3. Use a squeeze bottle to pour the ganache.
A bottle like this have a widebody, so it’s easy to fill and to clean up, and a precision tip will help to control the flow of the ganache.
4. Don’t mess with the chocolate too much once it’s ON the cake.
I’d prefer to start with the top. Pour 1/4 – 1/2 cup of ganache on the top of the cake, use a large icing spatula to spread the ganache without hesitation. Hold the spatula perpetually to the ground and turn your cake stand fast and smoothly. The top doesn’t need to be super smooth because you’ll cover the cake with a lot of decorations. For the sides, squeeze the ganache bottle while turning the cake stand. The drips are about 1 inch apart from each other. Do it in one swoop, and don’t try to be perfect. If you add more chocolate ganache on a drip that is already hard, it probably won’t look too good, like I did with the big blob in the front of this cake. (I know, I should have turned the cake around before I poke those chocolate shards in.:-)
5. Wait for the ganache to solidifier on the cake before you proceed to add more decorations. Chilling in a refrigerator is a fast way.
Chocolate cake
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield two 1lb cakes
This an easy chocolate cake that is moist and fluffy.
Ingredients
- 1 3/8 cup (220g) of All purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (45g) cocoa powder
- 1 cup (208g) water (boiling)
- 4oz (113g) butter (1 stick), softened
- 1 1/4 cup (260g) sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of two 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Sift the first 4 ingredients into a 4 qt mixing bowl.
- Dissolve cocoa powder with 1 cup of boiling water. Let the mixture cool slightly.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. It will double its volumn.
- Add eggs, stop beating until they are incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula when necessary.
- Add half the flour mixture, then half the warm cocoa, beating just until each addition is incorporated. Repeat this process with the rest of ingredients. Please do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into prepared pans. Tap the pans on the counter a few times to remove air bubbles. Swirl the pans so the batter is clinging to the side of the pan about 1 inches high. This will aid the cake to rise evenly.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.
- Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely in the pan(s). Loosen the edges with a thin straight icing spatula, invert the pan(s) to remove the cake, and peel off the parchment. The cakes need to be cooled completely before frosting. Alternatively, you can bake the cake up to 3 days in advance, just cover the cake tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Notes
Make 2 cakes of 6-inches diameters and about 2 inches tall.
For this recipe, we will slice each cake into two layers. So we’ll have four 1-inch cake layers.
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Swiss Buttercream
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 1.5 quart
This is my go-to recipe for buttercream frosting.
My simple Formula: egg whites : sugar : butter=1 : 1 : 2.6
I always start with the egg whites, measure the weight and then determine the quantity sugar and butter.
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites=130g
- Organic sugar=130g
- 3 sticks of butter=340g, soft but still cool. The easy way to test is if you push down with a finger you can make an indentation, but no squishy melted butter will spread.
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (optional, will darken the color of buttercream)
Instructions
- Make a double boiler: Choose a small saucepan that lets you fit the base of the stand mixer snugly into the top of the saucepan. To fit the 5.5qt KitchenAid mixer I use a saucepan that has an inside diameter of 5.5 inches (14cm). Add 1 inch of water to the saucepan and bring the water to a simmer. Place the mixing bowl on top of the saucepan, making sure that the bottom isn’t in contact with the water.
- Add sugar and egg white to the mixing bowl and heated it at least to 110F and below 155F. Some consider at 138F the egg white will be pasteurized (need to keep at that temperature for a few minutes.) I feel comfortable just at 110F with fresh eggs and you should choose the temperature that makes you feel at ease. Don’t go beyond 155F, at which temperature the egg white will start to cook. Using a whisk (I use the whisk attachment of the KitchenAid) mix constantly the mixture to avoid burning of egg white and to dissolve the sugar. You shouldn’t feel any grittiness from the sugar if you rub a little mixture between your fingers.
- Remove the mixing bowl from double boiler, wipe clean the water on the bottom. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in the warm mixture. Attach the whisk attachment of the mixture and whip at high speed (setting 8 on a KitchenAid) for 6-10 minutes until the bowl feels like room temperature when you touch it. NEVER EVER start to add butter while the bowl is still warm.
- Add pieces of butter one by one into the mixing bowl with the whisk still turning until all butter is incorporated. At one moment the mixture will seem to break apart, don’t worry, just keep whisking and it will come back together. Stop whisking when a smooth texture form, about 6 minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract or other extracts you want to add to the buttercream and whip for 30 seconds more.
Tips and tricks:
If you want the buttercream to look extra white, change to the paddle attachment and whip another 2-3 minutes.
Troubleshoots:
I know I said NEVER EVER start to add butter while the bowl is still warm. But I know some of you WILL add the butter when the bowl is kind of not so warm but still too warm that butter melted when they landed in the egg white mixture. In this case, don’t panic. Lucky for you guys, I have done it too. There is a way to fix it if your egg white mixture is just a little bit too warm. Fill 2 Ziploc bag with ice, and wrap them around the mixing bowl with a kitchen towel, it helps to bring down the temperature and you just keep whipping, normally the buttercream will come back together.
Notes
This recipe will be enough to frost outside of this 4 layer, 6-inch diameter cake.
The inside of the cake is filled with whipped cream and a buttercream border for the structure.
To fill the whole cake with swiss buttercream including between layers, you’ll need double the recipe quantity.
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Let’s streamline the assembly of the cake:
Prepare all the components:
- Prepare and bake your cakes (1-1.5 hours). Wait for them to cool down after baking, which takes about another 2 hours.
- Make the swiss buttercream.
- Make a simple syrup (1/4 cup), you just need to dissolve 1/8 cup of sugar in 1/8 cup of hot water, let it cool down) to make the cake even moister and more tender.
- Make chocolate shards.
- Prepare the ingredients needed for chocolate ganache** and candies for the decoration.
- Make 2 cups of whipped cream (you’ll need 1 cup of cold heavy cream, 4 tbsp of icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract, I explained more in the cake recipe). We’ll use whipped cream to fill between the cake layers.
*Step 1-5 can all be made in advance. **Ganache can be reheated too, always heat low and slow.
Assembly the cake:
- Slice each of the two cakes into two even layers. Brush simple syrup over 4 layers chocolate cakes. Put swiss buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a 1-inch diameter round tip.
- On a turntable or lazy Susan, lay a 6-inch or 8-inch cake board, add some buttercream to the board, then put your first layer of the cake. *Using a turntable will make your cake decorating life much easier. I use the one that cost $10 from IKEA. It’s large, low profile (very adapted for a small person like me or for decorating a tall cake), and turns smoothly.
- Pipe about a half-inch border of buttercream all around on the cake layer. Fill the center with whipped cream. You can tuck some berries in the whipped cream if you want. Make sure the berries are not wet if you use strawberry slices, use a paper towel to absorb excessive moisture.
- Repeat until you finish with 4 layers of cake, make sure each layer is leveled and the whole cake is straight. Add a thin layer of buttercream to the outside of the cake to seal in the crumbs, it doesn’t need to perfect at this stage. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes until the buttercream is solid to the touch.
- After chilling, put a thick layer of buttercream on the side of the cake, use a dough scraper or another tool that has a 90-degree sharp angle to smooth out the side while turning the turntable. This needs some practice. But a drip cake is more forgiving than a cake that is covered with fondant, some imperfections are OK. Just do your best not to dig into the cake destroying your crumb coat, so you can always start over with the outer buttercream coat. Add the rest of the buttercream on the top of the cake and smooth it out as much as you can, don’t stress too much since it will be covered with ganache and sweets.
- Chill the cake again for at least an hour. During this time you can make chocolate ganache. The tips for making and decorate with chocolate ganache is already been covered above. Make sure the temperature of the ganache is between85-90ºF (29-32ºC), you can cool it down or heat it up as needed.
The Edible Decorations I used:
- Raw walnuts (roasted for 5 minutes.)(I like to buy bulk in Costco or Amazon.)
- HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolates
- Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips
- Kit Kat
- Pocky Biscuit Stick: Cookies & Cream flavor
Of course, you can use your imagination and whatever you have on hand to decorate a drip cake. Just remember to stick to a cohesive color theme, and don’t worry too much. This is the kind of cake that the messier, the merrier.
Another drip cake I made using chocolate and raspberries as decorations and raspberry buttercream for layering.
Have some fun making your one-of-a-kind drip cake!
Happy baking,
Qi
