Chinese and/or Frog Wedding Cake and Ganache Recipe

Hi all,

I really have been doing stuff...so busy doing stuff that I don't have time to post it!!

About a week and a half ago, I made this cake (with my sister's help of course!) for my sister in law who had a chinese wedding. She has also collected frogs since she was who knows how old and I was supposed to have a cake that incorporated these two things. Not the easiest thing, that! It was fun though.


I actually planned to do the ganache dripping down the sides of the cake, but the ganache recipe I used wasn't necessarily the best for that. So, after trying it on the big cake (stupid, stupid, stupid!!), we had to take what did drip over the sides and scrape it off (Thanks, Mindy!). Then, reput more butter cream on, then decorate in the ganache. The ganache was very good for piping with.
Disclaimer...I am not very good with flowers. (Mom/Rebecca I should have had one of you do it!)
Can I just tell you a few things I learned this time around with cakes? First, people care more about how it tastes than how it looks...take time to make it taste awesome! Here are a few recipes you can use that were a hit!

Black Forest with Ganache:
Just devil's food cake mix made per the directions on the box
Cherry filling bought from a cake decorating store (there's one in Spanish Fork, UT that's fantastic)
Buttercream frosting (or other frosting of your choice if you have a great one you love)
Ganache topping

Ganache -

2 cups Chocolate Chips - I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate 60% cacao chocolate chips
8 oz Cream
1Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar

Pour chocolate chips in metal bowl. In saucepan, heat cream, butter, and sugar to almost boiling (I accidentally boiled the first batch...still tasted good, but wasn't as smooth as I wanted it). Remove from heat and immediately pour over chocolate chips. Wait 2 minutes and whisk until smooth. You can pour over cake when still warm or wait for it to cool to room temperature, put in pastry bag, and pipe a beautiful design.

This combination was absolutely amazing! I got loads of compliments on the way it tasted and there was not a chocolate piece of cake to spare...those were the first to go!

Another little tip:

Use cake recipes that hold their shape well and have some meat to them, especially if you're going to do a shape!

The bottom layer was a white almond sour cream cake with chocolate bavarian cream filling, buttercream frosting, and ganache. I also really liked this combo although it didn't get as many rave reviews. However, it had awesome moisture retention and was a heavier cake (more like pound) that would be awesome to use in a shaped or cut cake because it would hold so well. You can find the recipe here: WASC Cake Recipe


Here's just a little table that got decorated to kind of get the frog theme in with the Chinese theme. Just a fun little vignette.