The Last of the Bad photos

My husband got me a new camera for Hanukkah! So this is the last of the pics that had to be taken with a phone.

My husband usually works from home, but is going in to the office for the Christmas party. I asked if I could bake a cake to send in for his co-workers, mainly because I wanted to show off, but I have also been a bit bored and wanted to try ganaching a full cake before having to do it for my mother-in-law for Christmas.

So I got started by deciding that I wanted to use the seasonal Andes Peppermints to make the ganache, that the cake would be chocolate and it would have a vanilla buttercream crumb coat. After reading up on the internet and finding at least 15 different suggestions on ganache coatings, I decided to head to the local grocer to ask their bakery for opinions. I was told to freeze the cake, use heavy whipping cream, butter for shine and some light corn syrup to cut down on crystallisation. The only thing she was really adamant about was to not let the ganache boil.

I added the mints first, 3 boxes worth per application, coated with about 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. I probably added a few more splashes, but I was mostly eye-balling it. After everything started to melt together, I added about 1 tbsp each of butter and corn syrup. It didn't take too long, maybe 5-10 minutes over medium-low heat. Once melted, I had to let it cool since it was over 105 degrees. I couldn't pour it until it was no longer hot to the touch or it would have melted my buttercream crumb coat.

I cut a cake board to the size of the cake to allow dripping, and placed it on a wide can over a cooling rack that was over a cookie shhet lined with wax paper. I started in the middle, poured about half and then spot poured where it wasn't going to cover the side. It came out amazingly smooth.

After the first pour, I could still see cake lines, so I decided to do a second coat after the first was solid. I put it in the freezer to firm up. Freezing is better than refrigerating because a defrosted cake will retain more moisture, the fridge will make your cake more dry.

After the second coating, I put it back in the freezer and started to think about decorating. I couldn't send in a plain, bright red cake. After thinking all night, I decided to put 3 strings of lights on it, with lights in the Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa colors. I didn't want to miss anyone! I began with regular decorator's icing and made my strings and lights, however one thing I didn't anticipate was how fast the frosting would solidify.

I ended up dabbing food coloring on the lights since I really couldn't do anything else with it to get them colored. Not exactly as I had pictured, but it wasn't entirely awful either. I also used some gold dust, which again, not as I imagined, but not terrible.

Anyway, in my opinion, the taste is more important, and if the leftover drippings are anything to go by, that ganache is awesome. I'll update with management reviews once I get them.