How to make chocolate ganache!

A lot of people find this yummy chocolate treat intimidating to make, but I kid you not, it is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Not only is it fabulous on cakes, it works on cupcakes, fruits, cookies-- pretty much anything you can dream of!

There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing the chocolate to use for your desert. Mainly, how sweet is everything else involved? If you all ready have a fairly sweet treat to begin with, then I recommend using bitter-sweet chocolate, or half bitter-sweet and half semi-sweet

• Ingredients

1. 9 oz of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
2. 8 oz of heavy whipping cream
3. A tablespoon of butter to put in your cream while on the stove - only if you choose to make your ganache shinier

• Instructions

1. Pour your cream into a saucepan on the stove over a medium high heat. When it begins to warm whisk it to keep it moving
2. Dump your chocolate into a stainless steel bowl. You can use any type of bowl you choose, but the stainless steel keeps the chocolate mixture warm longer.
3. Once the cream begins to boil (if you are going to put in the butter do so now, whisk thoroughly), pour it into your stainless bowl and whisk away. This is probably the hardest part, simply because you will be whisking for awhile.
4. When the ganache is smooth and all of the chocolate is melted, continue to whisk to help it thicken up. See video 1.
5. Take a spoon of ganache and drip it back into the bowl to check for consistency. You do not want it to be runny, but you do want it to still pour.
6. Once it is ready, pour it over the cake. See video 2. I will often use a small measuring cup so I have control over how much goes on at a time. On this particular cake, I chose not to coat the sides with the ganache (which is wonderful!) but to let it drip down the sides. 

A few things you want to keep in mind is if you are pouring the ganache over a frosting, as I did in this tutorial, you want to make sure the cake has been kept cold in the refrigerator, otherwise the frosting might begin to melt and slide with the ganache, which you do not want.

I have poured ganache over several mediums: pudding (which makes a nice crumb coat for a cake-but when making it you only want to use HALF of what is calls for in milk and do not let it sit, apply once stirred together), buttercream frosting, and my favorite- cream cheese frosting.

• You can use white chocolate as well, following the same steps above.
• If you would like to whip your ganache, which looks lovely and tastes just as good, you would want to pop it into the fridge to help it cool for about 3-4 minutes. At that point take it out of the fridge and whip it with beaters until you achieve the desired fluffiness. I will often pour ganache over my cake and then use the left overs to whip and decorate with.