Does a ganache frosted cake need to be refrigerated?

[Karen Salomon]

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!

[Vox Humana]

Post by Karen Salomon
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

Post by Karen Salomon
frosting the cake today and serving it tomorrow.
Hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well!

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.

[Ken']

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

Post by Karen Salomon
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

Post by Karen Salomon
frosting the cake today and serving it tomorrow.
Hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well!

[pilgrim]

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.

Post by Karen Salomon
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!

[Vox Humana]

Post by pilgrim
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.

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.

[Alex Rast]

Post by Karen Salomon
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.

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.

Post by Karen Salomon
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.

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).