Forum Archive -> ALL CAKE DECORATING QUESTIONS ANSWERED FORUM
GANACHE & FOOD SAFETY!
Paris Cutler
11 Nov, 2007 8:33 am
Hello Everyone
I am sorry I have not been on the Forum for a while, I have been watching you all and I think a lot of the answers that have been given have been FANTASTIC, if we keep sharing our knowledge like this the Forum will be such a rich resource of information and I am learning a thing or two just as everyone is - we can all benefit - YEH
I want to expand on Handi's post and share with you now one of the most important aspects of our business and potentially the most dangerous - FOOD SAFTEY! I am really pleased to see that there are members of the forum already concerned about this, I wanted to give you a warts and all account and what Cake Decorators talk about in hushed tones behind closed doors!
DISCLAIMER: I am not a Food Technologist and I do not hold a certificate, these results are based on our experience alone and I must caution that each kitchen has its own environment and own temperature.
DARK CHOC GANACHE: You really need to keep your dark chocolate ganache under 20 degrees, if you can do this in your air conditioned home or kitchen then a week is fine, if you cannot then you must stick it in the fridge. (take out little at a time and melt in the microwave, or store in smaller containers)
WHITE CHOC GANACHE: If I have ever had a problem with Ganache it has been the white chocolate, it structure is much more fragile than dark ganache. We used to keep our white ganache out of the fridge along with the dark however we were still averaging 1-2 off cakes a year and it was always the white ganache, we now keep it in the fridge and have not had a problem since. YOU MUST KEEP IT IN THE FRIDGE for guranteed safety.
REHEATING GANACHE: It is wise to keep the ganache in smaller containers and heat as much as you need. We are very cautious in this area and we have never had a problem.
IMPORTANT Check the used by dates of the cream you are using and make sure you have at least a week life!!HOW DO I KNOW A CAKE IS OFF?: IN saying all of this, if a cake goes off people don't even get the chance to eat it....Have you ever experienced an off cake? As soon as you cut into it the smell hits you first, it smells like perming solution and the cake tastes sour - it just ends up being embarrassing for the decorator but I have never met anyone that has eaten it, like a skunk it warns everyone first!!
The biggest and most dangeous problems in cake decorating is actually mould! More of this later....
Belinda
13 Nov, 2007 2:24 pm
Thanks for the info Paris.
Just to get into this a bit more - sorry I have to check as I would hate to experience the likes of an 'off' cake. Is there a maximum time limit you would recommend on leaving ganached cakes prior to icing. (just wondering if those cakes have been off due to bad ganache or left too long once made).
At this stage I've ganached and then come back to ice 24 hours later (cake left in suitable environment).
Appreciate your help.
Belinda
maddy
25 Mar, 2008 5:10 pm
Hey Paris,
I would like to know if you have any more info on the "off" cakes with white chocolate ganache?
I had my first customer problem recently, where she left the cakes in the kitchen with the caterer for 5 hours with ovens etc blazing and when finally cut, the cake was off. I can only imagine that this is from the heat of the kitchen as this has never happened before, and I tasted cake scraps, etc just before decorating and they were all fine. This is the first issue in 4yrs for me.
I wondered how many days prior to eating you would decorate your cakes with white choc ganache under the bakels?
Thanks!
handi
25 Mar, 2008 9:45 pm
hi maddy,
i am so sorry to hear your off cake story.
i am one of the cake artist at planet cake.
just from my knowledge it could happened from endless reasons.
its just one of those unfortunate situations that happened.
first it could start from the way you set the cake up.
when fat mixed with water, its not a good idea too (cross contamination)
dirty equipment, warm weather the list go on and on.
we are doing our cutting on monday.
and we work in air conditioned room.
we are very carefull with white choc ganache.
we store the ganache in the fridge and take it out untill we need it.
and make sure all the containers we used are sterilised using food grade alcohol wipe.
hope this off cake incident wont happen again
all the best
handi
maddy
26 Mar, 2008 9:00 am
Hi Handi,
Thanks for your reply!
The thing is this was 2 seperate cakes, 2 different muds (one white, one dark) baked on seperate days, decorated on different days and using different ganache to each other. I also make my ganache fresh every day and when cooled ice the cake immediately so don't store my ganache except for under bakels on a decorated cake. Once decorated, my cakes are stored in my licensed kitchen in air conditioning for up to 3 days maximum.
My thought was that for both cakes to go "off" it had to be how the customer stored them after I handed them over. The only thing we could pin down was that she put them in a hired hall's kitchen where a caterer had the ovens "blazing" and was cooking next to them for 5 hours in significant heat.
I just couldn't figure out how they went "off" any other way since they were baked and decorated so individually. Not even the same batch of ganache was on them both. (oh and the cream wasn't off, cos I used leftovers in some soup for lunch later on and it was fine).
In your opinion, could the hot kitchen for 5 hours have been enough to turn a white choc ganache off?
Thanks again!
handi
26 Mar, 2008 7:40 pm
i dont think in 5 hours the ganache will turns sour (off)
i took at least a day.
hhmm, not sure what could be the coused of it.
its just one of those thing i guess.
even if the room was so warm with the oven and everything
before it goes off the ganache will melt away.
never mind.
handi
Mandy19
27 May, 2008 10:09 am
Hi Paris and Handi,
I noticed on your website you ganache crumb coat all your cakes prior to icing with pettenice. How far in advance would you ganache before you would cover with the pettenice? How long will the iced cake last with the ganache underneath?
Thanks for all you advice on the forum, your website is by far the best around.
Mandy