Baking Diaries: Whipped Chocolate Ganache - Disaster and Fix

I have had a recent and inexplicable obsession with cupcakes. Inexplicable due to the fact that they are extremely time-consuming and can require advanced skills when venturing to the regions of assorted cake types and, even more finicky yet, strange frosting flavours. The requirement time for butter softening, in addition to temperamental appliances and a grand lack of fundamental baking utensils, leads to the cute little dessert being the most unconventional baking basic in my very limited repertoire.

However, that has yet to stop me from attempting. A balanced mix of incomprehensible stupidity and naive determination has convinced me that I can master every cupcake variation without requiring previous experience or the help of a highly experienced baker. And so, armed with misplaced confidence and inadequate knowledge I resolved to become a cupcake expert... and in the presently-ongoing process, failing miserably several times.

My failures are documented in the forms of unused waste and desperate quick-fix Google searches, an expansive list that includes liquidated cream cheese frosting, sadly dense lemon cupcakes, and possibly the worst of all, solidified whipped chocolate ganache frosting.

It should have been clear from several other posts online that whipped chocolate ganache requires very specific attention to time, but the bakers of the internet were reassuring that it is both simple, and achievable, with ingredients and equipment that even I have on hand. It seems an impressive decoration: fluffy, visually pleasing, and comprised of marginally less fat than a chocolate buttercream. All the recipes I could find for it were bookmarked and carefully scrutinised until the day I chose to make it.

The instructions are simple enough: Make ganache by pouring one part hot cream to two parts finely chopped chocolate and stir to melt before cooling and whipping with an electric whisk. There are warnings galore that over-whipping will lead to it turning into chocolate butter, and while I was confident that I could avoid such situations, my luck tapped me kindly on the shoulder to guide me in the other direction.

What did I end up with?

Yup. My inadequate attention and skill resulted in the dreaded chocolate butter. It may have been that I stopped to check the consistency of the whipped ganache before whisking it again, but the difference between a smooth chocolate ganache and that solid horror was about two seconds.

I frantically searched up on Google any means of fixing it. I was not prepared to sacrifice 220g of my precious chocolate and admit defeat. The answer, however, seemed that it was beyond fixing. It crushed my hopes. I may have cried a little.

Fortunately, I came across an idea so simple I couldn't believe I hadn't considered it previously. All I had to do to fix the ganache was simply to remelt it, and the results are as follows:

Remelt failed ganache over a pot of boiling water.

I cooled the bowl in the fridge and stirred it every so often such that it would cool evenly, and whipped it again when it was at a thick, pudding-like consistency. I then piped as quickly as my insufficient skill will allow me.

I paid careful attention the following time when whipping. The frosting wasn't the prettiest either, it was thick and difficult to work with, solidifying quickly when piped. It will probably not be a first choice for frosting in the near future, but at the same time, I'm vaguely proud at my achievement.

And so my baking adventures continue.