Chocolate Ganache Cake
Fantastic Christmas Cakes With Buttercream Poinsettias! by Samantha Mitchell
The poinsettia, known as the Christmas Star in its native Mexico because of its star-like shape, blooms profusely in the wild at Christmas time in Hawaii, the Caribbean islands and its native Mexico.
This Christmas plant is favored so much in the United States that its holiday season purchases total more than the annual sales of any other potted plant here with 80 percent of these plants coming from a California grower. So it stands to reason, your cakes decorated with the perennial popular poinsettia will be a big hit!
Decorating with buttercream poinsettias is a beautiful (and with the following instructions) easy way, to bring Christmas cheer to your cakes whether as a featured decoration or as part of a Christmas scene you create.
Before we go on to the piping how-to’s for this incredibly easy to make flower, here are some striking ways you can use the scarlet red (hands down, the most popular variety) poinsettia on your Christmas cakes.
-A border of small poinsettias will provide a pretty frame for many Christmas cake designs. -Poinsettias can be part of the design. For example, on a cake decorated with snowmen, pipe a poinsettia on Mrs. Frosty’s hat. -Use the Christmas star in lieu of a bow on a cake decorated as a gift (where icing ribbons run horizontally and vertically over the top and down the sides like on a package). Pipe a large poinsettia in the center. -Create a poinsettia wreath around the top of the cake. Pipe a few rows of leaf borders (using dark green icing and overlapping), and then pipe your poinsettias on top of the wreath. Then with round tip, pipe red, holly berries in between the poinsettia. In the center of the cake, write your Christmas message. -Decorate a multi-tiered, stacked Christmas cake (or Christmas wedding cake) with cascading poinsettias. -Create a bouquet of poinsettias with cup cakes. Pipe the Christmas flower on top of each cupcake and then assemble your Christmas cupcakes on a large platter. Or place them on a tiered stand, and on the top tier, arrange real poinsettias in a vase.
And here are the buttercream piping instructions for your Christmas cake poinsettias.
First, you’ll need:
-Icing bags or parchment cones.
-Leaf tips (nozzles) 352 and 366 (Poinsettia petals are technically bracts, modified leaves, so it makes sense we use a leaf tip to create them 
-Buttercream icing in red, green and a tiny bit of yellow.
-White frosted cake or cupcakes. (Cream-cheese frosting or snow-white buttercream works well, but the poinsettias are also pretty on Chocolate ganache.)
Directions
1. If you’re going to write a Christmas message on your cake, remember to leave room for this. Practice first because you pipe these flowers directly onto your cake (or cupcakes).
2. With red buttercream icing and tip 366 in your bag, squeeze and pull out for each petal, continuing around until you have five. The wider end of the petals will meet in the center (it’s ok if the middle is a little empty because you will be adding more petals).
3. For your second layer, stagger the petals on top of the first layer. And, you may want to add a few in between on the bottom layer.
4. Then for a more natural look, use tip 352 with green icing to stagger the green immature petals behind the bottom layer of the red. This also sets off the red nicely and creates a more Christmassy look.
5. Finally, using round tip 3, pipe a few yellow dots in the center.
Variation: You could also create the green leaves with tip 366, making them the same size as the scarlet petals. Or conversely, if you want smaller flowers, use tip 352 for the petals.
Here’s a final, but important tip for your Christmas cakes. The amount of liquid food coloring needed for your red icing will bring a bitter taste (due to Red #2 in the coloring), so here’s what you can do to battle the bitter:
- Use more concentrated forms of color gel, paste and powder colorings are all more intense than liquid. These are found in specialty stores, large crafts stores, such as Michaels, and online.
Begin with an icing that is naturally colored with a pink or red juice concentrate, such as cranberry or pomegranate. Then you won’t need as much coloring to achieve your Poinsettia red.
About the Author
Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2 The World’s First Cake Decorating Video Books For more merry cake decorating tips along with step by step videos that will spread the Yule Tide Joy, sign up for our free newsletter at Cake Decorating Made Easy
|
|
Paderno World Cuisine Ganache Frames This .125 inch Paderno World Cuisine stainless steel square ganache frame is of the highest quality. Ganache, made of chocolate and heavy cream, fills chocolate truffles and glazes cakes and tortes. When warm and liquid ganache is poured within this low rise frame, it creates perfectly flat, thin sheets of the glossy, smooth and unctuous mixture…. |
|
|
Double Guitar Cutter for Cakes Pastries & Confection. With 4 Cutting Frames $2,190.00 GUITAR LEVER CANDY SLICERBase Dimensions: 39cmx45cmx13cm H. Guitar is ideal for cutting ganache, confections, cakes, petit fours, chocolates, marzipan, jellies, in strips, squares or rectangles, etc. Plastic Base is 39cm x 45cm x 13cm high Guitar includes 3 removable stainless steel cutting frames: 22.5mm spacing, 30mm spacing, and 45mm spacing. Guitar also includes 1 fixed frame, 30mm spacing Gui… |
|
|
Barefoot Contessa Pantry Chocolate Ganache Cake Mix $13.95 Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Ganache Cake Mix is an elegant cake that will delight your family and guests. The creamy, rich chocolate ganache makes this cake a truly luscious treat. Included in the box is a 10 oz. jar of Barefoot Contessa Decadent Fudge Sauce. Nobody remembers what they had for dinner, but everyone remembers what they had for dessert. Barefoot Contessa Pantry is the beginning of a … |
|
|
Red Velvet Truffles $7.95 These Red Velvet Truffles are simply delicious! White chocolate covers layers of cream cheese flavored ganache and milk chocolate ganache, beautifully sprinkled to perfection. Made in Portland, Oregon, by The Candy Basket. 6oz…. |
|
|
Cocoa Ganache Frosting Mix $8.95 Sweets4U2 mixes are crafted with high protein Whey and 100% all natural sugar substitutes: Erythritol,xylitol, Fructose and Stevia blend. There are no empty calories ! Also this mix contains Organic Cocoa powder and Date powder…. |
|
|
America’s Top Chocolate Cake Recipes I really, really love chocolate cake. Fudgy, rich, with that catch-you-on-the-back-of-your-tongue chocolate bitterness, and that jaw-tightening non-sticky sweetness…something with enough chocolate in it that the cake looks almost black. Velvety, but still…resilient. Frosting slightly under-sweetened, cocoa-scented, almost gritty at the moment you put it in your mouth, melting by the time you w… |
|
|
Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Fun $19.42 After more than twenty years of running Barefoot Contessa, the acclaimed specialty food store, Ina Garten published her first collection of recipes. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook was an overnight sensation, but it’s the kind of success that can only be g… |
|
|
The Candle Cafe Cookbook: More Than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York’s Renowned Vegan Restaurant $11.44 A collection of vegan dishes gathers recipes from New York’s highly acclaimed meatless restaurant, presenting such offerings as White Bean and Rosemary PTitle: The Candle Cafe CookbookAuthor: Pierson, Joy/ Potenza, Bart/ Scott-Goodman, BarbaraPublisher: Random House IncPublication Date: 2003/07/01Number of Pages: 229Binding Type: PAPERBACKLibrary of Congress: 2002153324… |
Tags: chocolate ganache cake, chocolate ganache cake filling, chocolate ganache cake filling recipe, chocolate ganache cake ina garten, chocolate ganache cake pops