My youngest sister turned 30 last week, so naturally there had to be a cake. Rachel is easygoing about desserts, which gave me the freedom to try something a bit different: a drip cake. She had plenty of her wedding cake left, and because the celebration was informal, a relaxed, playful design felt perfect.
The cake is four tiers of vanilla sponge filled with raspberry jam and American-style vanilla frosting. I made a double batch of the frosting, using the extra for a pink outer coating. Then came the ganache — a beautifully messy step. Warning: you will get chocolate on your hands, clothes, and probably in every pocket for hours afterward.
For the ganache I used:
150g dark, good-quality chocolate (around 80% cocoa)
100g butter, cut into very small cubes
I’m not sure where the exact measurements came from; they’ve evolved over time and work well for a full bar of chocolate. To make the ganache, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl set over a small pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir continuously so the chocolate heats evenly and doesn’t catch. As soon as it’s melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the butter until fully incorporated.
Let the ganache cool for a minute or two but not so long that it begins to set. Test the consistency by dipping the back of a metal spoon to check how quickly the ganache drips. You want it fluid enough to create pleasing drips but not so runny that it pours all the way down the cake — it’s easy to add more ganache, but difficult to remove excess runs.
I spooned a tablespoon of ganache onto the center of the cake at a time, gently nudging it toward the edge so it would drip down. Work your way around the top, adding ganache until the surface was fully covered and the drips were balanced and even. The amount I made was just enough to cover the cake’s top and base, and still had enough left to coat two donuts to match the cake’s finish.
To decorate, I attached the ganache-coated donuts to the cake with a spoonful of ganache. I also added Ferrero Rocher, mint chocolate sticks, fudge pieces, and chocolate shards for texture and variety. A sparkly pink “30” on the cake board and a leopard-print ribbon finished the look, tying the whole design together.
I didn’t manage to take a photo of the final assembled cake on the stand, but the board arrangement and decorations looked festive and fun. As you can see in the photo below, Tara could barely keep her hands off it!