This whipped chocolate ganache is rich and chocolatey without being overly sweet and so simple to make. It has the consistency of buttercream frosting which makes it so easy to work with for cake decorating, whether you’re filling a cake, frosting a smooth finish or piping details. It’s made with just two ingredients: semi-sweet chocolate and heavy whipping cream. For those of you who want a more sophisticated filling or frosting for your cakes, whipped chocolate ganache is sure to impress!
Whipped Chocolate Ganache Ingredients
This simple whipped chocolate ganache recipe uses just two ingredients: chocolate and heavy whipping cream. It’s important to use good quality semi-sweet chocolate to create a rich and smooth ganache. I use Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips for this recipe, but any semi-sweet chocolate with “cocoa butter” in the ingredients list will work. This ingredient indicates that it’s an authentic chocolate and not just chocolate-flavored candy melts. As an alternative to chocolate chips, you can also use a good quality chocolate bar roughly chopped until the pieces are the size of chocolate chips. And if you’d rather use other types of chocolate (like white chocolate or dark chocolate), see the notes portion of the recipe card below.
The heavy whipping cream is also known as double cream. It has the perfect fat percentage to create a rich ganache and is heated until simmering before you pour it over the chocolate and combine. I don’t recommend using other types of creams or milks for this recipe since the fat percentage won’t be comparable and may yield a ganache that is too thin for whipping.
How to Make Whipped Chocolate Ganache
If you’ve ever made chocolate ganache for a drip cake before, you’re familiar with making a 1:1 ratio consistency ganache that’s nice and thin (but not *too* thin) for creating a decorative drip. Whipped chocolate ganache uses the same process of making the ganache, but then cooling it until room temperature and whipping it up until it’s the consistency of frosting. First you’ll simmer the heavy whipping cream, add it to your bowl of chocolate, and whisk until combined:
Then, you’ll cover the ganache with a layer of plastic wrap. Be sure it touches the surface of the ganache.
After this, refrigerate the ganache until it thickens to the consistency of peanut butter. Depending on the depth of your dish, this could take anywhere from 50 minutes to 2 hours.
Finally, whip the ganache until it lightens in color and maintains a nice peak. This takes about 2-3 minutes.
Now you’re ready to use the whipped chocolate ganache! It has the rich chocolate flavor profile of chocolate ganache, but the texture of smooth buttercream, making it ideal for filling and frosting cakes, piping onto cupcakes, filling macarons and more.
Whipped Ganache Tips & Troubleshooting
There are a few things that can go sideways when it comes to whipped chocolate ganache, but all have easy solutions! Here are the most common problems that can occur with whipped ganache and how to troubleshoot:
- Oily or Separated Ganache. If the ganache has separated, you’ll see oily spots in it. This usually happens if the cream wasn’t heated properly or too much fat was added somehow. To fix it, heat the ganache over a double boiler over low heat and whisk vigorously until the ganache comes back together. Once it looks uniform again, cool it down to room temperature before whipping.
- Grainy Ganache. This likely means your cream was too hot when added and scalded the chocolate. To fix this, add your ganache into a double boiler set over low heat and gently stir until it comes back together. If it’s not coming back together you can stir in more heavy whipping cream, 1 Tablespoon at a time, until the ganache starts to incorporate.
- Ganache looks curdled after whipping. Over-whipping the ganache will cause it to look curdled or grainy. The only way to fix this is to place the ganache back into a heatproof bowl and set it over a pot of simmering water (or double boiler). Melt it back into liquid, whisking constantly, and re-cool it to room temperature before whipping it again for less time than before.
- Ganache is too thin to whip. This means too much cream was added and you’ll need to fix the ratio by adding more chocolate. Reheat the ganache over a double boiler, add 1-2 Tablespoons of additional chocolate, and whisk until uniform before cooling back down and re-whipping.
Cake Decorating with Whipped Chocolate Ganache
This whipped chocolate ganache frosts and pipes like a dream. I used it in this Hostess Cupcake Layer Cake recipe, both for piping a dam for the soft marshmallow filling and to frost a smooth finish on the exterior of the cake. It also pipes well for detail work on a cake, cupcakes, or using as a macaron filling.
The one real difference between working with buttercream frosting vs. whipped chocolate ganache is that you might need to re-whip the ganache if it solidifies too much while you’re decorating. For instance, if you fill and stack the cake with ganache, crumb coat it, and then you’re waiting for that crumb coat to chill in the refrigerator before moving on with decorating, the ganache that’s sitting out at room temperature might solidify over time. At any point in the decorating process, you can re-whip the ganache for 30 seconds to one minute to bring it right back to smooth consistency.
Here’s a quick video that shows how to make this whipped chocolate ganache:
If you love recipe videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of cake recipes, decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 2 Cups (16oz, 370g) semi-sweet chocolate*
- 2 Cups (16oz, 480ml) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Place the chocolate chips into a heat resistant bowl (glass or metal) and set aside. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the heavy whipping cream until it just starts to simmer. I always look for small bubbles forming around the edge and a soft simmer starting in the middle. When it's reached this point, pour the cream into your bowl of chocolate, cover it with a plate, and let it sit for 2 minutes.
- Whisk the chocolate and heavy cream mixture together until it’s uniform in consistency and there are no bits of chocolate left on your whisk. Cover the surface of the ganache with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate until the ganache is room temperature. This can take up to 2 hours depending on how deep your bowl of ganache is (the shallower the container the quicker it will set). With my medium sized bowl it took 50 minutes to chill.
- When the ganache is ready to whip it will be about the consistency of smooth peanut butter. Use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer, whip the ganache on medium-high speed just until it lightens in color and maintains a nice peak (similar to the consistency of buttercream frosting), about 2-3 minutes**.
- Use immediately to fill and frost cakes, pipe onto cupcakes, or fill macarons. If at any point you need to re-whip your chocolate ganache frosting after it's been sitting out, just add it back into your stand mixer with the whisk attachment or use a hand mixer to bring it back to smooth consistency.
Notes
- Dark Chocolate: use the recipe above, but add 4 extra Tbsp of heavy whipping cream.
- White Chocolate: use a 3:1 ratio, or 2 Cups (370g) white chocolate chips + 2/3 Cup (160ml) heavy whipping cream.
- You can make the chocolate ganache, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks before bringing it back to room temperature and continuing on with Step 3.
- The already whipped ganache frosting can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip until it reaches smooth frosting consistency.
Did you make this whipped chocolate ganache recipe? Let me know what you think in the comments below, or by tagging me on Instagram! I love to see your creations and hear your feedback.
Excited to try this today!! Can I pipe this onto cupcakes? I’m going to make ahead and pipe the ganache on tomorrow. Any recommendations?
Hi there! I’m excited for you to try this recipe too. If you’re making it ahead, you can either 1) make the ganache and store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks before bringing it to room temperature (peanut butter consistency) and whipping into frosting consistency, or 2) make the whipped ganache ahead, store in the refrigerator and bring back to room temperature before re-whipping into frosting consistency. Hope that helps!
I made this and I thought it turned out amazing but when I started spreading it on the cake it hardened.
Just so you know It wasn’t because of the cake.
I don’t know what happened I didn’t over-whip it….
Could it be that I use chocolate chips?
Hi Dina! Chocolate chips are totally fine with this recipe. This frosting will harden when it starts to set, so next time gently warm it in the microwave in 5 second intervals until it’s smooth frosting consistency (you may need to re-whip it for a minute as well) and then it should be way easier to work with.
Hi can I use this recipe and the incorporate the chocolate ganache to vanilla buttercream for filling a cake? I wouldn’t want to just use the chocolate ganache for a tall cake I am scared it will not hold and fall apart.
Thanks
Hi Lori! You could mix chocolate ganache with buttercream to make it more stable, but that will basically make chocolate buttercream. I have a recipe for that here if you want to use chocolate buttercream instead: https://sugarandsparrow.com/chocolate-buttercream-recipe/ otherwise I’d recommend making a buttercream dam and filling the center with chocolate ganache. This should give you plenty of stability when filling and stacking your cake.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I plan to fill chocolate cupcakes with this whipped ganache and top them with your raspberry buttercream. Will the filling get hard or will it stay soft? If I make it 2 days ahead, do I need to refrigerate my cupcakes? Thank you!
Hi Kelly! That sounds delicious! The filling will be soft at room temperature but should be refrigerated since the ganache contains a lot of dairy. I would either 1) make the individual elements ahead of time, store them separately (ganache and frosting in the refrigerator, cupcakes at room temperature covered in plastic wrap), then assemble them the day you need them after bringing the ganache and frosting back to room temp. Or 2) Make and assemble the cupcakes, then store them in a cupcake box in the refrigerator. Take them out of the refrigerator a few hours before serving so that the frosting and ganache can come back to room temperature. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for the quick response. I will definately hold off on assembly until the day of and just make and refrigerate the ganache. Your recipes are just as phenomenal as the support and encouragement you give bakers.
I made this today using Nestle dark chocolate chips (53% cacao) and made exactly as written. We don’t like very sweet desserts, so this was perfect for us. When making this to put on a cake I am taking somewhere I think I would use semi-sweet as others tend to like their desserts a bit sweeter. Either way, you can’t go wrong! This is so easy and so delicious. Thanks for a great frosting recipe!
Hi, so glad I found your recipe and site!! So easy to read and follow. I have a question: I made the ganache up to step 2 and have it in fridge with plastic wrap and trying to figure out if once I take it out of the fridge after a few days do I need to wait for it to return to room temp (vs cold out of the fridge) before whipping? Thank you!
Hi Sydney! So happy to hear you’re finding my site helpful! For the ganache, you might want to take it out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before whipping. You want it to be the consistency of smooth peanut butter before you whip it. If you wait until it’s room temperature it might be too soft and won’t whip into the right consistency. Hope that helps!
Made it with dark callebaut chocolate. The best thing! But do I have to cling wrap my cake after i crumb coat it and put it in the refrigerator? Thanks!
Hi Anne! So happy you love this recipe and I bet it’s amazing with that chocolate! You don’t need to cling wrap it after crumb coat unless you really want to. It would be an extra layer of protection against refrigerator scents.