Chocolate Ganache For Cupcakes – What Kind of Ganache Recipe You Should Use For Cupcake Decorations

When it comes to chocolate ganache for cupcakes, there are many recipes you can follow, but choosing the wrong recipe can mean a disaster.

Believe me, I’ve tried some chocolate ganache for cupcakes, and because I haven’t tired most of them before, I ended up with some bad recipes that weren’t even fit for use in cupcakes.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. None of the recipes were bogus ones, but some were meant for cakes coating and not for cupcake decoration piping.

So what are the 2 main kinds of chocolate ganache for cupcakes you should be looking for? Allow me to differentiate them for you here.

Cream Ganache

In case you don’t know, the cream I’m referring to here is dairy based whipping cream that you can get from all major baking supplies stores.

Cream Ganache is generally thicker in its consistency, and it will hold its shape well when you pip it out.

And here’s the general recipe I use for my cream chocolate ganache for cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1) 150g Dairy Whipping Cream
2) 250g Chocolate, chopped
3) 15g Melted Butter

Directions:
1) Combine the whipping cream with butter and heat over a double boiler until butter has melted. Turn off the fire.
2) Combine all the chocolate into the mixture from (1), and let it sit in the hot cream mixture for 10 minutes.
3) Start stirring the chocolate. You’ll notice it has softened after the 10 minute wait. Keep stirring until all is well combined.
4) Allow it to cool till it holds its shape. Once ready, use it for piping.

Milk Ganache

Now, this is the ganache that gives me the most problems when I first started out, because most milk ganache recipes are used for cake coating, not piping.

That means you can except milk ganache to be really wet and runny, even after it’s cooled down, making it an undesirable chocolate ganache for cupcakes.

However, I realised that when I vary the amount of milk in my recipes, I can also get a great consistency for piping out cupcake decorations.

So be careful of milk ganache recipes you see out there. Use the wrong one and you’ll end up with a big mess.

Here’s my recipe for milk chocolate ganache for cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1) 80g Milk
2) 200g Chocolate, chopped

Directions:
1) Heat the milk over a double boiler until it starts to bubble. Turn off the fire.
2) Combine all the chocolate into the heated milk, and let it sit in the hot milk mixture for 10 minutes.
3) Start stirring the chocolate. You’ll notice it has softened after the 10 minute wait. Keep stirring until all is well combined.
4) Allow it to cool till it holds its shape. Once ready, use it for piping.

As you can probably see, both recipes are very similar in preparation. So it shouldn’t take you long to learn how to prepare them both.

My Conclusion

So now that you have both recipes, which chocolate ganache for cupcakes should you be using?

In my personal opinion, always use the cream ganache. They taste better, are easier to work with, and give better results everytime.

Only use milk ganache if you can’t find cream in your local area.

Give both chocolate ganache for cupcakes a try. Find the one that suits you best, and above all, have fun.