Drip Cakes!

Using ganache to create drip effects on the sides of tall cakes has been the in thing for some time now, and if you know me you know I love to jump on a trend. This post is something of whistle-stop tour of the drip cakes I've made so far! Some, such as my most recent cake, were pretty successful, whilst others provided me with plenty of pointers for improvement!

White Chocolate and Lemon Drip Cake:

 My latest drip cake, made just this week for a silver wedding anniversary, is probably the best example of a drip cake that I've been able to produce! 

My latest drip cake!

This White Chocolate and Lemon drip cake, decorated with chocolate coated strawberries, Galaxy Counters, Milky Bar Buttons, Maltesers, Kinder chocolate and Bueno bars, Lindt chocolates and Caramilk bars (the leftovers of which I'm very much enjoying treating myself to after a stressful day at work!), is filled with a home made lemon curd and white chocolate buttercream. The ganache for this cake was simple enough. I simply melted together 150ml of double cream, 75g of dark chocolate and 75g of milk chocolate. I've learned that a ganache made from milk or dark chocolate is somewhat easier, as you simply use equal parts cream to chocolate. White chocolate ganache is a little more difficult though, as you generally need three parts chocolate to one part cream whilst the white chocolate can be a bit temperamental when melting.

The buttercream for this cake was simple to make too. I just combined 1 part butter to 2 parts icing sugar and whisked together until smooth. This is often very messy, to that extent that both my kitchen and front room were coated in a layer of icing sugar dust! Adding white chocolate to this buttercream gives a beautiful flavour, however I needed to add some food colouring to achieve that wonderful white colour. I wasn't too worried about the quality of my piping on this cake, as the strawberries and mound of chocolates on top cover most of it up anyway. The drip and chocolate bars around the base of the cake also draw attention away from the piping. 

When I first tried to assemble this cake, I popped the cake into the fridge to allow the layers and crumb coat to firm up, and when I came back to it the cake had collapsed! I managed to reassemble the cake, applying the lemon curd before the buttercream this time to help the layers stick together, and the cake remained standing. Smoothing the icing around the sides of the cake also took me some time, as it's not something I'm well practiced in, nor do I have the best quality equipment to do this. 

I have to say I felt, and still two days later still feel very proud of this white chocolate cake, particularly when I compare it to pictures of my first ever drip cake:

My First Drip Cake:

My first ever drip cake!

The occasion for this drip cake was probably the most exciting, as I made it to take to a meal celebrating my sister and her partner's engagement last autumn! Before now I've apologised to my sister for the quality of this cake. Yes it was my first try at making a drip cake, but when compared to the quality of the white chocolate cake above I wouldn't blame her if she felt a little short-changed!

With the benefit of hindsight, this cake was all over the place. I had two practice attempts before this cake. The first one, though far from a disaster, was so scruffy that I was too embarrassed to take any photos! On the second attempt, the one I intended to take to the meal, I thought it was a good idea to use melted Nutella for the drip, however when I attempted to drip the Nutella down the edge of the cake it was super thick and one of the messiest cakes I've ever made! In a panic, I had a third attempt at this cake, which became the one above! I only just got this cake finished in time for the meal, and I was very unhappy with it. For some reason I included orange extract in the sponge for additional flavour, which absolutely did not fit the theme of the cake! 

The ganache for this cake was also presenting a fair few difficulties to overcome. Whereas my later cakes used buttercream to cover the cake, this cake featured a buttercream crumb coat which was then covered in a white chocolate ganache. This was my first attempt at a white chocolate ganache, and I was expecting it to be a lot whiter in colour than the final result ended up being. Several bakers and bloggers recommended whisking the ganache to achieve a whiter colour, but this didn't work for me either. With no time left before the meal I had no choice but to use the ganache I had. 

Ironically, the milk chocolate ganache I used for the drip probably turned out to be one of the best drips I've made. This is surprising, seeing as it was my first one. However, the drip on my White Chocolate and Lemon cake was a little thin, and probably not as neat as this one.

Nonetheless, I was still glad to be able to be a part of this special occasion, even if my decorating skills were very limited at this point.

Biscoff Drip Cake:

The next drip cake I attempted was this Biscoff Drip Cake! Made as part of a present for one of my best friend's birthdays, this brown sugar cake is coated in white chocolate ganache, dyed white, and is filled and topped with a biscoff spread-flavoured buttercream. The decoration for this cake was simple, I simply used biscoff biscuits and melted biscoff spread. Likewise, the drip was just melted biscoff spread, which worked much better than the Nutella did for the engagement cake!

This cake was a definite improvement on my last attempts at drip cakes. The cake was still a little squat, but was taller than the last cake. The ganache was a whiter colour, and closer to what I was aiming for. The drip was also an improvement, although there was clearly still some work to do! 

Disaronno Drip Cake:

I have to say I was very proud of this next drip cake, partly because the recipe was completely of my own making!

A rare photo of me with one of my bakes!

Disaronno Drip Cake!

This Disaronno themed drip cake features 5 layers of vanilla sponge, filled and coated with "old gold" coloured Disaronno buttercream, and topped with homemade macarons, chocolate caraque, gold "pearls", and gold leaf.

I was incredibly nervous when it came to making this cake, as it was for the birthday of a good friend's son, an 18th birthday just to ramp up the pressure. What surprised me most about this cake was how happy I was with the colour of the buttercream. I was aiming to colour the cake in a similar way to Disaronno liqueur, but I couldn't quite achieve the colour. However, the colour of the Disaronno in the miniature bottles was very different to that of the big bottles, and matched the colour of the buttercream almost perfectly.  

As drip cakes go, this wasn't a bad attempt in my opinion. Sure, the colour scheme is a little out there, and the piping could do with some work, but at least the drip dripped! The Disaronno buttercream was delicious, if I do say so myself, and I got to experiment with the making macarons, using gold leaf and using alcohol in cake!

If you've made it this far then thanks for sticking with what feels like a dissertation length look at my drip cakes! I might have a lied a bit when I said it'd be a quick look, but I got a bit carried away! I've left out one of my drip cakes, as it was essentially the same as the White Chocolate and Lemon cake, but decorated with a white chocolate drip, rose gold sprinkles and white chocolate.

Next up, I think I'll write about my attempts to create vegan and gluten free bakes, as I've had certain successes and failures in this area!

Gibby x 

Recipe sources:

Biscoff Drip Cake! - Jane's Patisserie (janespatisserie.com)

White Chocolate Drip Cake! - Jane's Patisserie (janespatisserie.com)

Hermine's Lemon & White Chocolate Cake - The Great British Bake Off | The Great British Bake Off

Macarons from the Jane's Patisserie book.
Chocolate Caraque method from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.