Chocolate Ganache Drip Recipe

Recipe · Cake Decorating

Chocolate Ganache Drip Recipe: The Glossy Bakery Method

A simple chocolate-butter glaze for clean, shiny, properly dramatic chocolate drips

If you’re obsessed with getting that perfect, glossy chocolate drip, congratulations, you’ve just found your holy grail. This is the exact formula we use in our bakery, and it’s ridiculously easy. No grainy mess. No dull finish. Just pure, chocolatey perfection.

Although this page has historically been called our ganache drip recipe, technically ganache is made with chocolate and cream. The formula below is a chocolate-butter glaze: butter gives this particular drip a glossy, fluid finish without pretending it is classical cream ganache.

Our bakery team uses this formula for a glossy chocolate finish. Here is why it works so well:

• Shine The high butter content gives a beautiful glossy finish.
• Flavour Dark chocolate is balanced with creamy butter for tempered sweetness and no bitterness.
• Versatility Use it as a chocolate-butter glaze or drip; once chilled, it can also be used as a rich chocolate component in other desserts.

Here is the printable recipe card, followed by the step-by-step method.

Chocolate Butter Drip Recipe

To glaze a 6 inch cake

Ingredients

• 150g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 100g unsalted butter, cubed

We use Callebaut, but Valrhona or Green & Black’s also works well. Use proper chocolate, not compound chocolate, if you want shine and flavour.

Method

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a dry bowl and set it over a double boiler, meaning a saucepan with a few inches of water in it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.
2. Melt the chocolate gently over a medium heat. Once melted, take it off the heat.
3. Add the cubes of butter a few at a time and stir to melt.
4. The glaze is ready when all the butter has melted in to make a shiny mixture and it is at 30 degrees Celsius.

Smooth frosting means clean drips. Chill your cake for at least 15 minutes before glazing, and make sure the chocolate-butter glaze is cool enough not to soften the buttercream.

Drips need drama. Spoon the glaze onto the centre of your cake, then gently nudge it towards the edges with the back of your spoon. Let gravity do the rest.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Drip too thick? Warm the glaze very gently until it flows from a spoon in a slow ribbon. Do not overheat it.
• Drip too thin? Let it cool for a few minutes before trying again. Test one drip on the back of the chilled cake first.
• Buttercream melting? The cake is too warm or the glaze is too hot. Chill the cake and wait until the glaze is close to 30°C.
• Drips turning dull? Use high-quality chocolate rather than compound chocolate and avoid condensation on the finished cake.
• Glaze splitting? Use an electric whisk or stick blender to bring the mixture back together.

Tag @angesdesucre if you make it. If you would rather skip the decorating and order the finished cake, browse our chocolate cakes made to order for London and Surrey delivery.

Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo