Chocolate Cake with Whipped Ganache Filling, y’all. Rich and wonderful. And Whipped Ganache is just one of the cake fillings in my cake fillings post if you need some more ideas. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure page.

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How This Cake Happened

I have never wanted to be The Cake Lady. Wait. I take that back. I used to want to be The Cake Lady until I made a couple of wedding cakes and realized that it turns me into a snarling, cursing mess for the duration of the project. But, when friend Thomas calls and asks for a cake or other dessert, I have learned to say Yes. Because sometimes my creations end up on a buffet along with braised nutria. Sometimes I get to make a cake for a dude named Webby. And this time, rather than writing Happy Birthday insert-name-here, Thomas wanted me to write the Birthday Girl’s employee number. (The other folks at work wanted it to say, “Have a Good One, Slave Driver,” but Thomas voted them down because he’s the dude with the cake connection).

Anyway, I got to thinking that it would be the kind of cake that the folks who worked at Skynet would make. You know, before the Rise of the Machines. They’d nudge each other and say, “Hey, let’s make a birthday cake for our Robot Floor Sweeper. We dreamed that thing up four years ago next Tuesday. We can have the bakery write a message like a dot matrix printer, and we’ll all eat cake and sing Happy Birthday to RuFuS. (Because that’s what they’d call it. Obviously).” So, maybe they didn’t realize that old RuFuS would Harbor Resentment on account of he didn’t have a mouth or stomach and couldn’t eat the cake. All he could do was envy the humans their whipped ganache and then sweep up the crumbs. And before you know it, you’ve got a HAL malfunction—Open the pod bay doors, HAL. I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that—that snowballs into machines inserting cyborgs into rebel barracks. And it all started with a cake. I hope you’re happy, Thomas.

Dave. (Please click through for attribution to slagheap).

But, if you are Dead Set on making a cake decorated with M&Ms and you are determined enough to pick out only the orange, blue and brown ones, and you also decide that upside-down mini chocolate chips make a reasonable facsimile of a dot matrix printer readout, by all means, go for it. I won’t stop you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t blame me when your whole house automation system locks you out in the yard and starts your sprinkler system. And then laughs at you. Because this is how it starts. Again, you’ve been warned.

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In all seriousness, whipped ganache is a frosting and filling you want to have in your arsenal. It’s not hard to make, but it can be a little bit fussy. Read on for the Rules!

side of chocolate cake showing candies placed in the whipped ganache filling and frosting — *Pipe whipped ganache into the space between the cake layers and around the bottom as glue for your candy decorations.*

Baking and Decorating Tips for This Chocolate Cake with Whipped Ganache Filling

I made the layers in 9″x2″ cake pans using RLB’s formula for Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake in The Cake Bible (p 54 in my edition). Yes, I boiled the water and “steeped” the cocoa powder in it, cooling it to room temperature before mixing the batter. Rose suggests (and I used) The Two-Stage Method of mixing. The cake bakes up richly chocolatey, buttery and moist. You will dig it for sure.
Whip the ganache BY HAND. It is too easy to over-whip ganache using a stand mixer or even a hand mixer, and over-whipped ganache equals grainy ganache.
It’s almost impossible to get the filling to “stick out” enough all the way around to attach the M&Ms (or whatever else you want to attach). Just fill in with a piping bag. Ditto around the base.
Try to line up all your candy so that you can slice cleanly between them without smooshing your cake.
I highly recommend learning to pipe. If you don’t know how and think it will be easier to spell stuff with mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, Pez or licorice whips, you’re wrong. Learn to pipe; you’ll save yourself a ton of time.
If your name is Sarah Connor (or Dave, for that matter), change it. Now.

How to Whip Ganache

I want to reiterate this: whip ganache by hand. If you use your mixer, especially on high speed, it is too easy to over-whip it and have it turn out grainy.

Make ganache by heating cream to a high simmer (bubbling all around the edges and steaming but not at an actual boil).
Pour hot cream over finely chopped chocolate and let sit for a minute or two so the chocolate melts.
Whisk slowly to emulsify your ganache into a smooth, shiny, thich, gorgeous liquid.
Chill until completely cold.
Whip by hand (with a whisk) until lightened in color and at about medium peaks. Do not over-whip.

Always whip ganache by hand to keep it smooth. Over-whipping leads to grainy ganache.