How to do a Chocolate Drip on a Cake

chocolate cake decorated with a chocolate ganache drip

How to do a Chocolate Drip on a Cake

While it may look complicated, adding a chocolate drip to your cake is actually SO simple! Today I'll be walking you through the process using my favorite ganache drip recipe.

Includes a how-to video!

Course Frosting, ingredient

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 7

Total Time 22

Servings servings

Calories 1083kcal

Author Sam Merritt

Equipment

Frosted Cake
Heatproof bowl
Small saucepan
Aluminum foil
Squeeze bottle (see note if you don’t have one)
Offset spatula

Ingredients

4 oz (113 g) semisweet or dark chocolate bar coarsely chopped (may substitute chocolate chips)
½ cup (118 ml) heavy cream

Instructions

Preparation

Begin with a (preferably level) frosted cake. The icing should be as smooth as possible. Place the cake, uncovered, in the refrigerator so the frosting can harden a bit.
Meanwhile, prepare the ganache by placing the chopped chocolate in a medium-sized heatproof bowl.
4 oz (113 g) semisweet or dark chocolate bar
Pour the cream in a saucepan and bring just to a simmer, then immediately remove from heat and pour evenly over the chocolate. Cover with foil and let sit, undisturbed for 5 minutes. Once 5 minutes has passed, remove foil and gently stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Allow ganache to cool for 15 minutes before pouring into a squeeze bottle (it should, at most, feel only slightly warm to the touch).
½ cup (118 ml) heavy cream
Do a test before decorating your cake! I like to use a paper plate but a cardboard box would work as well. Drop a small bead of ganache on the surface and then turn vertically to allow the bead to drip. If the chocolate runs too fast or runs completely off the plate, it’s still too warm, cool a bit longer! If it is manageable, remove your cake from the refrigerator.

Decorating

Hold squeeze bottle vertically and drop a single bead of ganache on the very edge of the top of the cake. Squeeze the bottle until the bead drizzles over the edge and begins to drip down the side of the cake.
Pause and assess! If your ganache is too thin and runs all the way to the bottom of the cake, let it cool longer. If you squeezed too much chocolate and it went all the way to the bottom, simply know to squeeze less next time. If the ganache didn’t go as far as you wanted it to, simply squeeze a bit more.
Draw a line along the top of the cake to the next point where you’d like your next drip to be (typically only a few centimeters!). Repeat the above step, squeezing another bead of ganache over the edge of the top of the cake.
Continue to go around the edge, varying the length of the drips as desired. Once you have dripped ganache all the way around the cake, drizzle a thin layer of ganache over the surface of the cake. Use an offset spatula to spread it evenly.
Return cake to the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes to allow ganache to set. If desired, top with swirls of frosting on top the set ganache.

Video

Notes

Squeeze bottle alternative

A Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off could be used if you don’t have a squeeze bottle, but it is a bit more difficult to have precise drips this way. You could also drip the ganache off a spoon, but again this takes a bit more practice to do well.

Cake decorating tools

You can find all of my favorite cake decorating tools at Amazon shop "For the Cake Baker & Decorator"

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