Does a ganache frosted cake need to be refrigerated?

Happy Holidays. I baked a cake and am trying to decide on a ganache frosting or a frosting made with 1/2 cup heavy cream, chocolate and sugar. Would I need to refrigerate the cakes frosted with either one? The heavy cream gets heated first in both recipes, if that makes any difference. I'm frosting the cake today and serving it tomorrow.

Hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well!

Reply to
Karen Salomon
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I suppose that the correct answer is that it has to be refrigerated. However, if you keep it in a cool place, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless it is very warm, I don't bother to refrigerate cakes frosted with ganache. There is a lot of sugar that will act as a preservative.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Karen My Mastercook recipe for Ganache states in the recipe "Do not refrigerate" If you wish I can send you a copy Ken'

Reply to
Ken'

Leave a small glass of your heavy cream next to your finished cake and leave them out. Tomorrow, If you think that the cream is not OK to drink the cake frosting is probably not OK either.

In other words, I would refrigerate cake frosting (overnight) whenever it contains milk or cream.

Reply to
pilgrim

Considering that the cream was pasteurized (by law), heated to boiling, and combined with a lot of sugar, I can't imagine it would be a problem. When you make cream fresh, you not only leave it out for 24 hours, but you leave it in a warm place and inoculate it with bacteria.

Reply to
Vox Humana

These both sound like ganache to me, at least if the second one, containing added sugar, has only a minimal amount added. If the amount is extreme, it might be more of a sugar frosting, but otherwise, the differences would be small. You will not need to refrigerate either one unless your ganache had a very high cream proportion, say, 2:1 cream : chocolate, in which case it isn't a frosting anyway, but rather a pouring ganache.

What type of cake is it? This may be more relevant than the keeping properties. If the cake is very low in sugar, or very light in texture, the second frosting, with the sugar, might be a better fit. Pure ganache frostings work better with cakes that are somewhat denser and sweeter (e.g. it doesn't work well with angel food cake).

Reply to
Alex Rast

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