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Nice

Nothing like a boxed cake tutorial

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Nothing like a boxed cake tutorial

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You have many dough conditioners in your pantry?

If not, you will be hard pressed to create a cake better than boxed.

I would tell you the very best test of oven capability (Calibration) is to bake a boxed cake mix to package directions (time and temperature). If it comes out ok, then your oven temperature settings are trustworthy.

This statement on oven calibration comes from a person who, for 45 years, was responsible for calibration verification documentation and regulatory control of many many industrial (Ethical drug pharmaceutical) heat transfer devices at numerous facilities and maybe 2500 drug products.

I guess that makes me an expert.

Maybe I'm not a good cook. But I also was a hell of a process and R&D Chemist for a long time.

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DO NOT STIR THEM!

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I’m curious. Why?

What would we see as a difference in quality?

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DO NOT STIR THEM! I’m curious. Why?

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The proper tempering of chocolate is one of the dark arts. If properly done, the chocolate will have a beautiful, shiny sheen, with no visually detectable granulation. Think Godiva Chocolates....

If done wrong, the crystalline structure of the chocolate changes and you get grainy, dull chocolate that eventually will change to surface abnormalities - think powdery dull Cocoa dust on an old Milkyway candy bar, that you hate as soon as you open the wrapper.

I worked out the Process Chemistry (R&D - Product and Process Development) on an OTC hemorrhoid suppository drug product 10 years (+-) ago and learned much more about heating and cooling chocolate than I ever wanted to know (The base for a hemorrhoid suppository is Cocoa Butter, which melts just a smidgen below (94 degrees F) body temperature (98.6 degrees F). You can figure out why that is important. We determined the exact rate of heating to bring the cocoa butter to melting point and then to cool it back to solid state so that the finished suppository would be nice and slick and not granular or nasty looking, because how a suppository looks is important.

Back to the chocolate. Getting a nice granular free (Smooth) Ganache requires the chocolate to be melted slowly and then cooled slowly Cool it too fast and the Ganache will look horrible, like it is full of sand and eventually going powdery. Sometimes it will separate also. These bad chocolate characteristics are caused by the formation of three (out of four) of the potentially bad crystalline structures chocolate can have (Gamma, Alpha and Beta prime structures). The good structure you want from chocolate is the beta structure - what you get when chocolate is properly tempered so that as it cools, only the Beta structure forms. Heat it too much and cool it wrong and you get lots of Gamma, Alpha and Beta Prime crystalline structure in the solidified chocolate and it gets granular, which allows the Cocoa butter to fall (weep) out of the crystal matrix and you get bad chocolate, or in this case bad ganache.

Why do you put a lid on it and not stir the chocolate/milk mixture? That allows the chocolate to melt properly (slowly), to a good temperature and then cool properly when you finally begin to stir it after 15 minutes of existence (tempering) at the proper temperature. Well tempered chocolate is smooth, shiny and has a good snap when broken. Actually consumer preference surveys showed us it was the same with Hemorrhoid Suppositories!

I am certain this is more than you wanted to know about why Hemorrhoid Suppositories and Godiva Chocolate are just alike, but you get that when you ask a suppository process chemist expert a question about making ganache.

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We determined the exact rate of heating to bring the cocoa butter to melting point and then to cool it back to solid state so that the finished suppository would be nice and slick and not granular or nasty looking, because how a suppository looks is important.

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I think I love you. Do you have a sister?

I did a few things differently. Got a question or two only you would be able to answer

When making the cake, I tried to leave the cherries as whole as possible. Which naturally left me running short of liquid. Added a little water to thin it out.

All worked really well.

The ganache was perfect for me. Not too sweet.

Unfortunately the wife liles things a little sweeter.

Rather than ruin your ganache with syrup, I used the only sweet thing I had on hand. Dulche de leche.

I whipped it in with a fork slowly adding it.

The ganache was shiney and soft.

After a day on the cake, it set on the outside. Dried into a very light set, lost its shine, dull sheen. But underneath, it was still soft and very creamy.

Chemically, why?

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I feel like I am wasting your time. Next time, choose a sweeter chocolate and that will help fix the problem.

wow - This is a very rich and sweet cake as it is.

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Not at all. I was just curious how a liquid at any temperature sugar and fat solution caused a panache to have a hard shell.

Reason being, it would make an astounding dipping chocolate if I could reliably replicate it

As for being too sweet, you are 100% correct. The cake was very nicely balanced before the addition of sweetness to the ganache. I had some just now and it reminded me of eating fudge. On by the cake full.

MD,

I made the cake this weekend and it was delicious. I only heated the cream 1:30 and it was bubbling so I took it out and added the chips. Waited the 15 minutes then stirred, but it never got thin like you said. After I frosted the cake and it set up, the ganache became somewhat firm and dull, but still delicious. Do you think I needed to let the cream go a little longer in the microwave.

Thank You for all your information and insight. It is greatly appreciated!