Beautiful smudges on the cake. Photo gallery: cake design options with flowing and mirror glaze

Meet "Dark Larry", a discovery cake for all chocoholics on the planet. The proportions and ingredients of the dough give us indecently sticky cakes that are so porous that they weigh nothing, while being amazingly soft and juicy. Strong chocolate taste put on the shoulder blades even the sensational “Cake for one-two-three”, and this is a serious application, do you agree? Real revolution in ingredients, their proportions and technology of preparation. And if you promise to follow all the steps exactly, this cake will become your favorite. He absorbed the best from the world of brownies, chocolate cakes and air mousses, thereby becoming the standard chocolate cake. I even admit that a third of readers will not even have time to make cream for cakes, because they will no longer be. Actually, don't try it. ready-made cakes or pieces before you assemble the cake, otherwise you will have to come up with stories about why the cake disappeared. And at the same time, I give the long-awaited step by step guide on chocolate icing, beautiful smudges and fashionable today kandurin.

Look, a 16-18 cm cake will be cooked, for other diameters I will make a traditional plate at the end. We take the ingredients as much as I write in the text and in the composition, we don’t take the photo into account, here I experimented with the number of cakes.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl: flour (375 g), cocoa (90 g), baking powder (10 g), soda (7 g). Please take the maximum good cocoa. No green packs. We need taste, color, and the absence of particles that squeak on the teeth. I recommend Barry Callebaut Belgian alkalized to everyone, I have it in my shop.

Read important!

Repeatedly said that you need to mix everything carefully, with a whisk. Especially mixtures where there is soda or baking powder. Otherwise, you may have different parts of the cake in composition, in one there are more of these agents and the cakes will go in bubbles. We take it aside.

And in the mixer bowl we combine any vegetable oil(150 g) and sugar (450 g). The attentive reader will notice that I have oil Green colour. This grape seeds I decided to try it and I liked it. Not only is the color cool while cooking, but there are also no familiar smells. But this is not critical, replace with your favorite oil.

Beat well with a mixer. It is clear that such butter will not whip into foam, like butter, so we just wait for the uniformity of the mass. I continue to test the SMEG mixer, I will soon be ready to give a review.

Then lower the speed to low and add all the eggs (3 pcs) and vanilla extract (5 g). According to vanilla, everything is as usual, we do not replace vanilla or chemical flavors better don't add anything. Beat the mass for 2 minutes.

We introduce half of the dry mixture. We beat.

Pour milk (150 g), the temperature is not important here.

And now the most interesting - hot coffee(340 g). Once again I draw your attention - yes, grams. Because the bowl is on the scales and it's easier than measuring with glasses. You can take instant coffee, brew it yourself or use a coffee machine. The main thing is boiling water. By the way, if for some reason you are afraid of coffee, just add water. What is happening at this moment? Boiling water activates the baking powder, and although we are used to seeing it work already in the oven, in this case we need air in the dough right away. Then you will see the difference. The second moment, cocoa is brewed. It literally turns into hot chocolate(we have cocoa, fats and temperature to heat up) so the cakes will be surprisingly darker. Alcohol (75 g) must also be sent there. I took Marsala, you can whiskey, cognac, liqueurs, in short, everything that has a pleasant tart flavor (not wine, of course). Again, special housewives can replace this with water or juice.

Beat on low speed and add the rest of the dry ingredients.

Look, we get quite a lot of dough. Now is the time to decide how we will bake. It is more convenient for me to bake one cake at a time, so I made for my 16th form and I will bake SIX cakes. The weight of each dough is about 300 grams. In principle, if you are in a hurry, you can make three doubles (then just cut off). If you are confident in your abilities, you can make two calls (in each form, then you will have three cakes). The dough will be liquid, this may confuse you. Do not be afraid if everything was done by weights - then you have right dough, and although it seems that it runs straight - this is normal.

We bake at 180 degrees, preheated the oven, top and bottom.

We bake a single cake for about 25 minutes, if there are more servings in the form, the time will increase. There is a subtle point here - the dough is very dark, and in the process of baking it will turn completely black, so you may not catch the moment when the cake burned out. Check with a skewer, as soon as it comes out dry - take it out. You can simply press the center of the cake with your finger, as the pros do, if the cake springs, it is clear that it is completely baked. The remaining cakes can be safely baked for exactly the same amount of time. And don't worry about the dough, it will wait. There will be a bump on top, we all know that it will need to be trimmed.

They took it out of the mold immediately, put it on a wire rack and removed the parchment. We use it again for following games. I always turn the cake over so as not to deform the bottom important edge.

So in turn we bake all the cakes. We repeat every time. For silicone, only parchment at the bottom, but I would make these cakes in metal.

When the cakes have completely cooled, wrap in cling film and put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (preferably overnight). During this time, moisture from the center of the cake is distributed to the edges, and the film does not allow it to leave the cakes. Look, the cake seems to be sticky. It turns out so juicy, it's unbelievable.

We cut the cakes to the same thickness, we talked about this in a special lesson.

Since the cakes are very wet, I line each with parchment so that they do not stick together.

Next cream. I took my standard, 2.5 servings. Which cream to take you, decide for yourself. Also in portions - this is always an individual parameter. It is clear that we tint it with dye, I take those that I have in my store - Americolor. For some reason, few people go to the Mistress section for a note, there is a collection of creams, choose the one you like, everyone has their own taste.

We are building a cake.

We follow the geometry.

Remember about the rough coating.

Now about the icing, I will add this block in , but let it be here too. The first thing we need is a well-cooled cake. It's great if you cover it with cream in the evening, and pour glaze over it in the morning. A cold cake will help to quickly cool the icing and it will harden in beautiful smudges.

How do I make frosting? Dark chocolate and butter. You can also use ganache, but you still need cream.

For such a cake, you will need about 80 grams of chocolate, I took it with a margin. If you take tiles, chop them finely, we need a homogeneous paste, and if there are large pieces, they melt for a long time and the process stretches.

Melt it in my favorite way - pastry bag into boiling water. This way you will NEVER overheat the chocolate.

Once the chocolate has melted, pour it into a wide bowl.

Add chopped pieces of cold butter. The calculation is this - for 100 grams of chocolate - 60-80 grams of butter. Why is it? Firstly, the chocolate will shine, and secondly, the icing will be softer on the cake, and not become a hard crust that cannot be cut and eaten.

Stir the mass with a silicone spatula until smooth. If the chocolate does not cope with the oil, you can put it in the microwave. 15 seconds, removed, mixed everything, another 15 seconds. You should get an emulsion - that is, a completely homogeneous mass without lumps.

Let the chocolate frosting cool down a bit. At first, it will run from the shoulder blade like water, it will gradually become thicker, like kefir, this is the state we need. In the meantime, let's get decorating. Many asked to tell about kandurin. This is a harmless powder of gold or silver color (I have it in the store). Used for coloring and decoration.

For example, we can cover blackberries with it. Pour the part onto a plate, dip a soft brush into it and gently grease the berries. It is clear that we will work gently with raspberries, but we will not stand on ceremony with strawberries at all. You can cover the berries completely or lightly dust them.

And here is how the cakes are covered. Pick up kandurin on a brush, bring it to the surface of the cake by 4 cm and blow strongly on the side of the cake. Gold dust is applied to the sides of the cake. You can't just apply with a brush. Hair streaks will be visible and the gold layer will be too thick. And in this way you very clearly regulate the density of application. I went over the bottom third of the cake like this, creating a slight gradient. At first it may not work for you, but gradually you will understand the essence. We apply dust again and again, to the desired shade. Clearly, the darker the cream, the more beautiful and obvious the gold coating will be.

And now for the frosting. I made a video. And now I'm summarizing everything for you. First - the cake is cold, waiting in the refrigerator. Secondly, the chocolate icing is liquid, without lumps, similar in texture to kefir, it flows from a spatula like a ribbon.

Prepare a small spatula or spatula. We will “draw” our smudges with it. Pour frosting onto the center of the cake. It is necessary to pour so much that 1.5-2 cm remain from the edges. And carefully, slowly distribute the icing with a spatula from the center to the edges. To get a smudge, you just need to “push” the icing down with a spatula, that’s all, gravity and the cold sides of the cake will do the rest. If you want thicker smudges, cool the icing a little more. But it seems to me that not everyone likes a thick hat of chocolate, so we have cute smudges. Did you notice that they are different heights? This is also achieved by the fact that we bring more or less glaze to the edge of the cake with a spatula. Practice, I think that your second cake will turn out perfect.

When the glaze has cooled, you can also cover it with kandurin, it will give a pleasant shine and specularity.

I chose the color of the cream in the theme of Halloween, but at the usual time you can take turquoise, it looks good with the filling.

By the amount of dough for cakes (3-6 cakes from 1.5 to 2.5 cm):

What kind of "beast" is this - "ganache"? Let's deal with you today with what it is, how to cook it and in general about everything connected with it :)

The word came to us, like many "delicious" words, from France, of course. Ganache is an emulsion (if you can call it that) of chocolate, cream and butter. Butter is not always added, and you can make ganache on any chocolate - from white to dark. The scope of its application in the confectionery craft is so wide that it is impossible not to fall in love with it! From it you can make those very (so fashionable now) smudges on cakes, cook a wonderful chocolate cream for cakes and cupcakes. It is also very convenient for them to level the cake and make the filling for pasta or profiteroles. In general, it is simply incredibly tasty and practical.

But the thing is that the cooking technique and proportions will differ depending on the purpose for which you will use it and what kind of chocolate you are going to make.

As for the proportions, I will say for sure: no one forbids you to experiment and choose the most correct ratio of ingredients for yourself. After all, everyone is individual, and what one likes, does not necessarily have to be to the liking of another. Especially when we are talking about food, anyone.

In order to make ganache, you need to remember the standard ratios. However, I myself do not always adhere to them, since each time I simply select for myself more suitable option. It all depends on what I'm going to do with the finished ganache.

The ratio is (in the order chocolate/cream/butter):

• on dark chocolate - 1/2/10-50% by weight of chocolate;
• on milk chocolate- 3/2/10-50% by weight of chocolate;
• on white chocolate - 2/1/10-50% by weight of chocolate.

Oil is not always added, but if, for example, you are going to make smudges, then it is necessary. And in general, it is added to make the mass shiny and more pliable in work. Try it and choose for yourself what you like best.

On the example of dark chocolate: we take 100 grams of chocolate and 200 grams of cream, and, accordingly, 10-50 grams of butter. Cream must be from 33% fat, and butter - 82.5%. The oil must be very good, of high quality, not cheap. Otherwise, it will spoil your final result both in terms of consistency and in terms of taste.

Here is the basic way to make ganache:

• Bring the cream to a boil over a fire, remove from heat, add chopped chocolate, stir until smooth. Then (if desired) add finely chopped butter. Mix thoroughly until smooth.

Based on my experience, then, for example, to even out the sides of the cake or make a layer for it, or a cap on cupcakes, I take the proportions 1: 2, this consistency is ideal, in my opinion. Of course, the cream must be cold.

Next, if you are going to make a cream for layering or leveling, you need to let the ganache cool when room temperature and covering cling film“in contact” (this means that the film should touch the surface of the ganache), put in the refrigerator for several hours. Remove from the refrigerator after the specified time and start beating with a mixer, as regular cream. The timing is the same, don't beat it up. Everything, the cream can be used.

If you are going to make smudges, then just let the ganache cool at room temperature and get to work.

As for smudges on the cake, here I sometimes deviate from generally accepted rules. I often make icing based on the following proportions (but this is mainly for homemade cakes, not to order) - 100 grams of chocolate + 70 grams of butter. I melt the chocolate in short bursts of 15 seconds each. microwave oven. Every time I stir the chocolate, because outwardly it may seem that it is still strong, as it holds its shape, but as soon as you start stirring it, it melts. So don't rely on appearance, always stir the chocolate. It is very easy to overheat it, and then it will curl up.

Next, when the chocolate is ready (on average, it takes 50 seconds if it's one bar of chocolate), add small pieces butter and mix thoroughly. At first it will seem that nothing is working, but gradually the oil will begin to melt. If the oil is too cold, then you can put the mass in the microwave, but just for a few seconds! And keep interfering.

When the mass becomes absolutely homogeneous and smooth, shiny, the glaze is ready. We add butter so that the surface of the cake shines beautifully and the chocolate does not harden too much. Since it will be impossible to cut it and no less unpleasant - there is.

Now another one important point- Glaze must be allowed to cool slightly. Here, too, only practice will help you, since only in this way will you learn to determine by eye desired consistency. All the nuances are important here: how cold the cake itself is, what is the temperature in the working room, what is the consistency of the glaze and how do you cover the cake.

If you pour the icing as soon as you prepare it, this is what happens: since it is still too liquid, the icing will rapidly drain over the cream, not having time to harden and seize. Accordingly, you will get transparent smudges, under which the cream will be visible, and which will collect in a puddle at the base of the cake. There is nothing beautiful in this. Again, if you “miss” the right moment, then it will harden too quickly, and instead of smudges, you will get a dense hat of chocolate, which you simply begin to smear. If you see that the consistency is too thick, then just put it in the microwave for a few seconds. But do not overdo it, otherwise the mass will exfoliate and the icing can be sent to the trash can, or allowed to harden and eat)))

Someone prefers to pour the icing into the middle of the cake and then, gently moving the icing, makes smudges. But this method is only suitable for those who have already at least a little stuffed their hands. Because otherwise, you should not expect that the icing will spill beautifully around the edges, from the fact that you just poured it into the center)) easy way For beginners, do the following:

type carefully a small amount of glaze on a silicone spatula or tablespoon. At the same time, the glaze should not be completely liquid, but should not cool down so much that it thickens too much. It is necessary that it slowly drain from a spatula or spoon. Pour close to the edge of the cake and use a spoon to help the frosting run down the side of the cake. Do this in small areas, otherwise it will not work.

Those with a full hand also enjoy confectionery syringes and act a little differently. You have probably seen how pastry chefs do this, leading a syringe along the edge of the cake, and at the same time capturing small areas.

These are so complex and at the same time simple recommendations. I hope that I have helped you with this detailed article by sharing my observations and skills with you. Good luck to everyone who loves to pamper their family delicious sweets!) Leave all questions under this article.

When the possibilities for making complex decorations for cakes and the rest home baking no, frosting will come to the rescue. The confectionery component is able to turn pastries into a real work of art. He happens different types: chocolate, mirror, ganache, sugar. The list is quite large, because you can make icing from various ingredients. Her choice will depend on tastes, ingredients, time and complexity of preparation.

mirror glaze

Such decoration requires great skill and many years of practice. Mirror glaze is rightfully considered an art and a standard of beauty, its perfect shape and beauty will not leave anyone indifferent. But, as with any other work of art, decorating pastries will require a lot of time and effort. Such a glaze got its name because of the surface, which, if the requirements are met, really looks like a mirror. But when transporting and cutting ready-made confectionery need to be careful. A dense film can easily crack.

You can prepare a mirror glaze from white and dark chocolate. White in most cases is used in conjunction with food coloring to obtain a colored mass.

Preparing the mirror glaze

Ingredients:

• Gelatin - 15 g.
• Condensed milk - 125 ml.
• Syrup - 200 ml.
• Chocolate - 2 bars (180 g).
• Drinking water - 100 ml + 75 ml for gelatin.
• Sugar sand - 200 g.

Cooking sequence:

1. Soak gelatin in warm water until swelling.
2. Warm the syrup and mix it with sugar. Put this mixture in a water bath.
3. Stirring constantly, bring the sugar to the syrup completely.
4. Remove syrup from heat and cool.
5. Add the swollen gelatin and condensed milk to the cooled syrup and mix thoroughly.
6. If food coloring is required to prepare the glaze, at this stage they are added to the mass and mixed until a uniform color.
7. Melt the chopped chocolate in a water bath, mix with syrup and beat with a blender.
8. The finished mass should be placed in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
9. The same step is recommended for baking. When it freezes, the surface becomes smooth, and ready composition will cover more evenly.
10. After the refrigerator, heat the mirror glaze to 30 degrees, beat again and quickly pour this mass onto pastries without smoothing it further.
11. To harden the glaze, you need to put it in the refrigerator for a few more hours.

Smudges - as a decoration for desserts

If there are no opportunities and experience in working with a mirror composition, but there is a desire, you can facilitate the process and decorate homemade smudges on the cake. The cooking process, of course, will be facilitated, but the beauty of the decoration will not fade from this. The ingredients for this method are identical with the components mirror glaze. The difference lies in the application technique.

If care and skill are required in working with mirror glaze, then a novice cook can also cope with smudges. It is enough to turn on the fantasy. With the help of cutlery, it is easy to create smudges from colored icing on the cake. When the process is over, the pastry must also be removed in the refrigerator to harden.

original recipe

For next recipe colored icing for smudges on the cake, which, by the way, has a low cost, you only need three ingredients:

• sunflower refined deodorized oil - 40 ml;
• white or dark chocolate- 130 g;
• food coloring.

The process of preparing colored glaze for smudges on the cake:

1. First you need to melt the chocolate in a water bath. It is important to constantly stir it.
2. After you need to pour in and mix until a liquid mass.
3. Add food coloring to the composition and beat with a blender.
4. Place the resulting frosting in a pastry bag.
5. The cooled cake should be placed on a wire rack with a stand.
6. It is required to apply the composition for dessert along the edge in the form of smudges.
7. The remaining mass can be distributed over the baking surface.

Thus, the process of making colored icing for cakes at home is not difficult. If desired, any confectioner can get the desired composition, you just need to carefully follow the cooking technology, take into account the amount of ingredients, and everything will work out!

Appetizing chocolate smudges, shimmering, make the cake incredibly seductive and photogenic. It is not surprising that many chefs use this particular decoration when creating their creations. This is a spectacular and uncomplicated decor that even a novice confectioner can do. But in order not to fail in their creation, you need to know the technology. This review has answers to the question of how to make chocolate smudges.

What should be the "correct" smudges

A culinary mixture designed to create smudges (or streaks - as it is more convenient for anyone to call it) is called ganache. It's chocolate and buttercream. Correct consistency chocolate ganache and the force of gravity - that's the whole recipe for success. But, as practice shows, this skill is contradictory and can be subject to an ordinary housewife, but not amenable to professionals. There are certain parameters for what a special chocolate cream should be for a perfect coating.

• The consistency of ganache should be moderately thick so that bald spots do not form on the surface. It is better to test it before applying it to the cake, if it is too liquid, add more chocolate.
• Do not let the smudges spread to the substrate. From this, puddles are formed that spoil the look of the cake, making it untidy and unappetizing.
• The surface must be well cooled. In addition, it should be as even as possible.
• This will ensure smooth application of the cream.
• Watch the temperature of the cream. Too hot will spread all the way to the substrate. Check the temperature on the skin of your hand. Combination cold cake – hot cream gives excellent results.
• For a test check, you can use the surface of a glass beaker, strongly chilled in the freezer.
• The streaks should be of different lengths, but better decoration looks if it barely reaches the middle of baking.
• Ganache should spread volumetrically and take a convex shape.

How to make smudges: step by step guide

Surely more than one hostess made a similar decoration for the cake. But it's never too late to improve your skills. It describes not so much the recipe as the technology and chips that will help you avoid making mistakes. Here's what we'll need:

Inventory:

• Small saucepan;
• Silicone spatula;
• Kitchen scales;
• glass cup;
• Thermometer;
• Spoon.

Ingredients:

• Dark chocolate - 90 g.
• Cream 33% fat - 70 g.
• Butter - 40 g.

1. Before you start making chocolate smudges, weigh the ingredients on a kitchen scale. Skewed concentration can affect the density of the future ganache. In the recipe, we focus on small cake 18 cm in diameter. If there is no scale, you can add the ingredients by eye, testing the consistency along the way.
2. Pour the cream into a saucepan and put on fire. The liquid should heat up well, but not boil. Remove the container from the burner in time - neither cream nor chocolate can be overheated. By the way, if you want to experiment with color and add food coloring to ganache, now is the time to do it.
3. Chop up the chocolate with a knife and fold into the cream. At first, the cocoa product will crumple and will be difficult to melt for some time. Just be ready for it and stir silicone spatula until the mixture is smooth and shiny.
4. At this stage, add butter in pieces. Some recipes do not have it, but it has a good effect on consistency and shine. We continue to stir.
5. So the ganache is ready. The most crucial moment has come. It is necessary to choose the temperature of the products with which we will work. While preparing the cream, put the cake for half an hour in freezer. While it is freezing, take a chilled glass beaker and practice on it. Catch the moment when you like the consistency of the spreadable mixture. Technologists use ganache at a temperature of 33 degrees.
6. Once the cake is chilled and the ganache temperature is set, it's time to start creating. chocolate smudges. Take a little cream with a spoon and pour around the edges of the circle.

Tip for beginners: don't pour all of the cream in the middle of the cake, hoping that you can then elegantly spread the smudges around the edges. This requires skill. When gaining experience in the art of creating smudges, use a spoon. This makes it easier to correct your mistakes.

Hi all. Today there will be the most burning topic - how to make beautiful smudges on a chocolate cake. This is the most popular request to my direct, everyone who was waiting - catch the article.

Chocolate smudges... This is perhaps the most common mistake made by beginners (unfortunately, not only beginners suffer from this, I often meet works and more experienced colleagues with ugly smudges). How to find that edge so that the smudges do not flow down in puddles on the substrate and at the same time do not lie in thick waves on the top? Today I will reveal the secret of my chocolate drips.

I will describe not so much the recipe as the technology itself. It is important here to understand the very essence of the process in which the drip will flow sexually on the cake, reaching its middle.

There are many recipes on the Internet on how to make chocolate smudges for decorating a cake. And you will be surprised, but almost all of them are working!

At one time I tried ganache for smudges both in butter and cream with the addition of butter. And today I will tell you the most elementary recipe for chocolate drips with cream, but not with 33% fat, but with the usual 10%. Yes Yes! Even with such cream smudges can be made beautiful. There are a lot of myths that chocolate will curdle in such cream. No no and one more time no! The fat content of the cream has nothing to do with it, smudges can be done with baked milk 4%. This is a matter of practice.

Today I will cook drips on a dark chocolate cake, but, as you understand, black, milk, and even White chocolate. Proportions, respectively, will be slightly different. Each chocolate will have its own grammar! I never weigh, I measure everything by eye.

In this article, I will teach you to understand what needs to be done in different situations. And in the future, you yourself will experiment and everyone will find for themselves the most comfortable proportion for themselves.

So, how to prepare streaks for sponge cake from chocolate and cream 10% at home recipe with photos step by step.

Ingredients:

1. bitter chocolate - 50 grams
2. cream 10% - 40 grams

Cooking:

To begin with, I will write about preparation. The cake should be as cold as possible, which means that in the refrigerator it should stand leveled for at least 1-2 hours, and preferably all 4. If you recently covered it with a finishing layer of cream, then you can send the cake to the freezer for 30 minutes, to speed up the process. It is because of the difference in temperature that a cold cake is a warm chocolate ganache, and good smudges are obtained.

What kind of cream can make chocolate smudges? Yes, almost anyone! For us, the main condition is a smooth and cool coating. I make smudges on such creams as -, ganache, swiss butter meringue(all creams are available via links). Smudges on these creams lie down without problems. Even on mousse cake you can make smudges, as in my version with

Before you start making ganache, take a clean glass cup and put it in the refrigerator to cool, then you will understand why we need it.

Let's start cooking chocolate coating for the cake.

Break the chocolate into pieces and pour over the cream (I have the cream from the refrigerator, the temperature is not important here).

Let's send our bowl to the microwave for 30 seconds. We don't have to wait for all the chocolate to melt! So it can be overheated. The chocolate should slowly disperse from the warmth of the cream.

So, warmed up for 30 seconds. Take out and mix. At first, our mass will be lumpy, confidently interfere.

Slowly the chocolate will disperse into the cream.

If there are pieces of unmelted chocolate left, then we send the bowl to the microwave for 10 seconds, no more! You can heat for a long time only the first time, then we heat only in impulses for 10-15 seconds, otherwise the chocolate will curdle.

So, warmed up. Take out and mix thoroughly again. You should get an emulsion without lumps and bubbles! Ganache should flow from a spoon with a ribbon, if it barely drips from a spoon, then the mass is too thick, you need to add more cream, literally half a teaspoon, do not add a lot at once. We mix everything and wait for the moment until the ganache will drain from the spoon.

Is it draining? Great. We take out a glass from the refrigerator and check our drips on it.

If the smudge reaches the bottom of the glass, then the mass is liquid, you need to add more chocolate. Literally a slice, added - mixed. Microwave for 10 seconds if needed.

Let's try again. Did the leak stop in the middle of the glass? Great.

We get the cake. We choose the ugliest side (of course, we must try to make the cakes perfectly even, but anything can happen). In this cake, the top coating is ganache, I experimented with a new recipe, and as you can see, the experiment has not yet been successful. We let the first drip, for this I choose a small spoon, you can also let smudges from a disposable bag. But I'm more comfortable that way. It is more difficult to control the length of the smudge with a bag, but with a spoon you can add drop by drop exactly where you want.

Let's start our smudge and look. So, if the smudge has reached the substrate, then either the temperature of the ganache itself is high (we try, it should not be hot for the hand), the working temperature is 27-30 degrees, or the ganache is liquid, then we add a little chocolate again. Melted, mixed.

Let's try again.

Did the drip freeze almost at the top? So the glaze is thick - add cream drop by drop, knead.

Let's run again. Did you reach the middle? Great! Feel free to water the entire cake. In the picture, I specifically gave an example of 3 smudges. The first is too long - the ganache is liquid, the second is too "fat" smudge from thick ganache, and the third is normal.

I do smudges first, run a spoon around the entire edge of the cake, and then pour over the top if it requires it.

If, as you start dripping, your glaze thickens, put the bowl in the microwave to warm up, literally for 5-10 seconds and continue.

How to evenly pour the top of the cake chocolate icing? Very simple. Pour the icing into the center, take the spatula, heat it under hot water, wipe it off the water and level the surface, while turning the turntable (at the moment, I work in the field and there is no table at hand, this is why my cake is not evenly covered with cream)

That's all! The surface of the cake is completely ready for decoration.

You can decorate the top of the cake with whatever you want. From banal sweets to figurines made of mastic, because, as you know, mastic does not flow on chocolate.

Perfect smudges of chocolate on the cake are ready.

I hope you now have a clear understanding of the process. Drips - it's not difficult at all! With experience, you will measure everything by eye. Literally one trial lesson and chocolate smudges will submit to you.

What I want to add is that you don’t need to make a picket fence from smudges, it looks beautiful when the smudges are of different lengths: one is a little shorter, the other is a little longer. Their length can be adjusted with a spoon, letting somewhere a little more chocolate, somewhere on the contrary is smaller. Well, in my opinion, one or two smudges of chocolate flowing down to the substrate are still acceptable, but when half flows down in puddles, it does not look very aesthetically pleasing.

I will publish the recipe for the cake itself the other day - do not miss it.

Enjoy your appetite.