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DIY Drippy Chocolate Cake

January 13, 2016 by Erin Gardner

How to make a drippy chocolate cake, with perfect drizzles of ganache, purposefully placed candy pieces and shards of chocolate. A cake decorating tutorial by our contributor, Erin Gardner of Erin Bakes.

How to make a drippy ganache cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com
Aussie cake designers like Katherine Sabbath, Unbirthday Bakery, and Cakes by Cliff (to name a few) have taken the cake design world by storm with their fun new twists on the classic chocolate drip cake.  When these cakes first started popping up in my newsfeed, I was immediately obsessed.  Lush buttercream, glossy chocolate ganache, a more-is-more attitude, and candy – LOTS of candy!  What’s not to love?

I love how easy it is to put your own spin on this kind of cake, but successfully executing a purposefully-deconstructed design can be tricky. Here are a few tips on how to create your own messy masterpiece without making a drippy mess.

How to make a drippy ganache cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

1. Start with a delicious cake recipe, a silky-smooth buttercream finish, and a firm-setting chocolate ganache. I used this chocolate peanut butter cake recipe.

2. Make sure your cake is thoroughly chilled before applying your drippy ganache and work with confidence! Use a spoon to first add a few purposeful drips over the top edge of the cake. Next, pour more ganache on the top of the cake, pushing it just to the edge with a small offset spatula. Gently tap your cake stand against the surface of your table to smooth out any lines left behind by the spatula and so that a little bit more of the ganache spills over onto the sides of the cake.

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com
3. Pick your palette.  For my cake I chose to stick with colors, textures, and candy related to the flavors and colors already occurring in my cake – chocolate and peanut butter.  Some of the items I chose included peanut butter cups of varying sizes, chocolate pirouette cookies, wafer cookies, chocolate coated nuts, shimmery yellow sixlets, star candies and teeny tiny edible gold stars.

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com
4. Add some height! One of the signature elements of this style of cake is a tall element backing the rest of the design.  Some use chocolate shards or chocolate “sails” to anchor their deconstructed displays.  I created mine by pouring some melted chocolate onto a piece of parchment paper.  I dusted on a little edible gold luster dust and swirled it in using the tip of a small knife before scattering on edible gold stars, sprinkles, and sixlets.  Once the chocolate was set, I broke it apart into large chunks and used a few pieces on the top and one on the side of the cake.

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com
5. Fill in your design with the rest of your cookies, candy, and other sweets. Start with larger pieces and finish by adding the smaller elements.  Try to work with odd numbers and to place things asymmetrically.  You can add as much or as little embellishment as your want.  In keeping with the spirit of this style, I went for it!

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com

How to make a drippy chocolate cake | Erin Gardner for TheCakeBlog.com


 
MORE DRIPPY CAKES TO TRY:
Chocolate Funfetti Cake
Banana Split Cake
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cake
Mint Cookies & Cream Cake
Honey Butter Cake
Raspberry Blood Orange Cake

January 13, 2016 by Erin Gardner

Erin Gardner , CONTRIBUTOR

Erin Gardner is a pastry chef and cake designer. Her main focus is ErinBakes.com where she shares fun and accessible recipes and techniques. Read more about Erin on her bio page.

connect with Erin :

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Comments

  1. Lesley Wright says

    January 13, 2016 at 3:16 pm

    Love this post, Erin! Just shared it on my Page. Would you mind telling me if you use a standard 2:1 dark chocolate to cream ratio for your ganache drizzle? This seems so hard to get right. I’ve never tried, but am about to! Thank you!

    • Carrie Sellman says

      January 28, 2016 at 12:31 pm

      Great question Lesley! Erin used this chocolate peanut butter cake recipe, ganache included:

      https://thecakeblog.com/2014/12/peanut-butter-ball-cake.html

  2. Ashley says

    January 13, 2016 at 9:30 pm

    The gold makes it! Love this cake! Any advice on what to do if we want to do a colored drip? Thanks!

    • Carrie Sellman says

      January 28, 2016 at 12:36 pm

      For a colored drip, try a white chocolate ganache tinted your color of choice. Alternatively, you could do a fruit glaze like either of these beautiful pink drips:

      Raspberry Blood Orange Cake

      Raspberry Champagne Cake

  3. Marlene says

    January 13, 2016 at 9:38 pm

    beautiful!

  4. Ilona Deakin says

    January 14, 2016 at 4:54 am

    This is just a chocolate peanut butter heaven!! Love the golden effect on the chocolate, very clever!

  5. June @ How to Philosophize with Cake says

    January 14, 2016 at 6:39 am

    Wow, that is really something! I’ve been wanting to try one of those ganache-drip cakes, so I’ll have to use some of your tips 🙂 Love the swirly chocolate bark too 🙂

  6. Lorna Lovecraft says

    January 15, 2016 at 9:39 am

    Wow this looks amazing – and so delicious too!

  7. Rebecca S. says

    January 17, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    I mad is last night for my birthday party. It was gorgeous and quite yummy. I used a variety of things I had on hand to use in the chocolate hard toppings. It inspires me to try more. The drippy part was a blast.

    • Rebecca S. says

      January 17, 2016 at 12:31 pm

      Sorry for the typo…made not mad.

    • Carrie Sellman says

      January 22, 2016 at 12:28 pm

      Glad you gave this cake a try Rebecca! Thanks for the feedback!

  8. Rahul Yadav says

    January 19, 2016 at 12:06 pm

    Thank u so much for this wonderful post.

  9. SkinnyMe says

    February 2, 2016 at 3:19 am

    The gold designs made it look even yummier and elegant. It’s a perfect gift for a loved one. I will definitely give this a try for my hubby.

  10. Olivia says

    April 22, 2016 at 12:07 am

    Hi very elegant cake . Love it so much! May I know how many inches is the cake pictured above? Thanks.

    • Carrie Sellman says

      April 28, 2016 at 12:28 pm

      This cake is a 6″ round. The chocolate and peanut butter cake recipe used was written as an 8″ round. Hope that helps!

  11. Lisa says

    April 30, 2016 at 11:09 pm

    I made this today for a dessert auction. When I placed it on the table, people were in disbelief!!! Thanks for the great blog and photos!!

  12. Verity says

    May 16, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    This cake looks incredible! I’m making a cake for a 30th birthday and thought this would be a fantastic showstopper. Unfortunalty, she’s not a fan of peanut butter! Is there a chocolate or even a caramel buttercream recipe I could use instead of the peanut butter one but will give just as nice finish?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      May 18, 2016 at 11:44 am

      Sure Verity – we’ve added links to some of our other drip cake recipes at the end of this post. Hopefully one of those will work better for you!

  13. Rachel says

    September 6, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    Hello I’m making a drip cake for a friend. The cake has buttercream sandwiched between each layer and I have covered the whole cake in buttercream, my problem is that my friend has told me that she doesn’t need it for a few more days than I thought. I haven’t added the chocolate panache drips or chocolates to the top of it yet, but I have put the cake in the fridge. Will this be ok? I’m worried about the cake drying out in the fridge. How do you think I should store it for the next 2 days? Thank you

    • Carrie Sellman says

      September 7, 2016 at 1:14 pm

      If your cake is completely covered in buttercream, you should be fine. Buttercream helps lock in the moisture and protect the cake inside. Just keep it in the fridge and add the finishing touches when ready. Enjoy!

  14. Rose D says

    September 8, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    Where can I find the metallic tubed-looking sprinkles or did you make those? In between the candy stars and the miniature peanut butter cups?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      September 14, 2016 at 11:54 am

      Hi Rose – those are gold jimmie sprinkles. You can find them in your local craft store or cake supply store. Or you can purchase something similar online here, but we haven’t personally tried this particular brand. Hope that gets you going in the right direction!

  15. Lisa M says

    October 18, 2016 at 6:53 am

    Hi, the gold chocolate looks fabulous and I really need to make it! I was wondering if the chocolate needs to be tempered first?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      October 20, 2016 at 10:46 am

      If you’re using a good quality chocolate, it’s a good idea to temper it first. If you’re using chocolate candy coating or chocolate bark, you can skip the tempering step. =)

  16. Carolina Mondello says

    October 19, 2016 at 8:50 am

    Amazing! Looking forward to trying this – thanks so much for the tutorial. Quick question – what brand are those long chocolate wafer sticks? Have been trying to find plain ones like that and can only find the two tone twirly ones! Thanks 🙂

    • Carrie Sellman says

      October 20, 2016 at 10:44 am

      Pepperidge Farm makes a chocolate fudge pirouette!

  17. Rotem Regev-Jackoby says

    November 8, 2016 at 11:35 pm

    Can I coat the cake with whipped ganash instead of buttercream? Not a fan buttercream usually.

    • Carrie Sellman says

      November 14, 2016 at 1:53 pm

      That would work just fine!

  18. handf says

    December 10, 2016 at 4:46 am

    hello erin
    i lurrvve this cake! can you tell me how many layers the cake is??

    • Carrie Sellman says

      December 12, 2016 at 3:03 pm

      Here is a link to the cake recipe Erin used. It was a three layer cake chocolate and peanut butter cake: https://thecakeblog.com/2014/12/peanut-butter-ball-cake.html

  19. Rose walters says

    January 5, 2017 at 7:58 am

    Hi can you make this drip cake the night before the party…and place it in the fridge ?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      February 5, 2017 at 1:48 pm

      Yes, it will store in the refrigerator just fine. Enjoy!

  20. Jack says

    February 11, 2017 at 11:35 am

    Will a drip cake travel well? I need to deliver it about 2 hrs away and was wondering if I would have trouble with the drips melting or anything?
    Also- for a 2 or 3 tier cake do you do the drips after stacking the cakes or before?

    • Louise says

      February 28, 2017 at 4:16 pm

      Have you tried it yet ? Did it travel because I have the same question?

    • Carrie Sellman says

      July 6, 2017 at 8:13 am

      As long as your cake is chilled, the drips will stay put without any issues. They set up much like frosting once refrigerated.

  21. Deedee says

    March 29, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    Hi,
    If I make colorful drips a couple days before I serve the cake… will they bleed or do anything wierd?
    I can’t seem to find an article about how early I can ganache drip my cake…
    Thanks

    • Carrie Sellman says

      July 6, 2017 at 8:17 am

      I’ve successfully make regular chocolate dripped cakes several days in advance. And this colorful drip cake was good for several days as well, but it was a fruit based drip. If you’re concerned about your specific recipe, a test run never hurts!

  22. timmie says

    June 1, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    this was a fun cake to make…. thanks for sharing your designs with us all.

  23. SKYE says

    July 12, 2017 at 3:26 am

    Hi! I think this May have been slightly covered in previous comments just want to confirm that nothing wonky will happen if drip is added and then placed in fridge. Drip shouldn’t change color or anything right?

  24. Sally says

    July 18, 2017 at 6:51 am

    Well, I liked the way you decorated the cake!

  25. Roger Rosentreter says

    September 4, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    Yummmm…

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