White Chocolate Drip Cake Recipe

This simple recipe and technique will give you the perfect ganache for a white chocolate drip cake – every time!  

Drip cakes are such a fun cake decorating technique!  They’re incredibly versatile, which is why they’re great for everything from birthday cakes, to baby shower cakes, to a 4th of July drip cake.

But, did you know you need a totally different recipe for white chocolate drips than regular chocolate drips? Anyone who had tried making a white chocolate ganache drip recipe by simply substituting white chocolate for regular chocolate knows that it ends up with super thin watery mess of ganache, not a perfect thick drip. 

Yup, white chocolate ganache behaves totally different and the ratio of cream to chocolate is much smaller.

While a normal chocolate drip recipe is about a 1 to 1 ratio of chocolate and heavy cream, white chocolate drip is typically 1 part cream to about 2 to 3 parts chocolate.  

Plus, you need to let it cool significantly longer, up to 20 minutes to get to the correct dripping consistency.

This tutorial will give you the full instructions on how to make a perfect white or colored ganache drip for your cakes, every single time!

Ingredients

• Candy Melts: I personally prefer to use candy melts in my white ganache drips. I think it makes for more of a consistent drip. And, you can use colored candy melts for colored drips, rather than use food coloring (one less step!).
• Frosted Cake: you can use your favorite cake recipe such as chocolate cake or white cake, and your favorite buttercream frosting recipe. 
• White Food Coloring: This is optional, but helpful for getting a bright white color. Otherwise, the drip can be a slightly yellowish color. 

Type of Frosting for Drip Cakes

Ant type of buttercream frosting will work for drip cakes.  Here are some great ones:

• Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Italian Meringue Buttercream
• Vanilla Buttercream
• Chocolate Buttercream
• Lemon Buttercream
• Ermine Frosting

As long as it’s a buttercream frosting, it should work just fine. Other types of frosting such as whipped cream or cream cheese frosting are the not the best for drip cakes.

How to Make

Step 1:  Frost and Chill a layer cake

You can use your favorite cake and buttercream frosting recipe.    I have a full tutorial on how to frost a layer cake.   After frosting, chill the cake in the fridge for at least 30-60 minutes. It is very important that the layer cake be cold when adding the drip. 

Step 2: Heat Candy Melts and Cream

If you haven’t done so, chop the candy melts into very small pieces. This helps for even melting.  Then, add the heavy whipping cream to the chocolate and microwave for 15-20 second intervals, stirring in between, until all the chocolate is melted. 

You can also use an immersion blender, to blend any small pieces that have a hard time melting.

Once it’s fully melted, add in a few drops of white food coloring if desired. This will help the drip have a bright white color.

Step 3: Let ganache cool

This is the most important step, once you’ve made the chocolate ganache it needs to cool down. Often for much longer than you think, anywhere from 15-30 minutes. It really helps to have a candy thermometer to get it to the correct temperature. You want it about 85-95 ℉.

Ways to tell it’s the right temperature:

• A candy thermometer:  This is my preferred method to get the drips exactly the right temperature, of about 85-95 ℉ (30 to 35℃).
• Test Drips: You can a test drip along the side of a cup or bowl. You want it to run down fairly slowly and looks like a nicely formed drip.

Tip: If you cool the drip too much, you can reheat it and let it cool again.

Step 4: Add the Drips to the Cake

Now for the fun part, adding the drips to the cake.  Make sure the cake is properly chilled before adding the drips. This helps slow down the ganache drips down the side of the cake. 

There are a few different methods to add drips to a cake.   How to add chocolate drips to a cake:

• Piping Bag: Add the ganache to a pastry bag and cut off a tiny piece of the end. The, add the drips where you want them, and fill in the middle.
• Squeeze Bottle: This is a very similar method to the a piping bag, but instead of the bag you add to a squeeze bottle. Similar to the piping bag method, this also allows for very exact drips.
• Spoon: You can use a spoon to add the ganache towards the edges of the cake allowing the ganache to fall down the sides. Then, spoon in the ganache towards the middle and if necessary, even out with an offset spatula. 
• Pour: You can also just pour the ganache on top of the cake and then use an offset spatula to spread the ganache towards the edges. This makes for a more organic drip down the sides. 

I personally perfect the pastry bag method, but they all work just fine!    That’s it, once you add the drip you can chill the cake until you’re ready to finished decorating.  

Tips and Tricks

• Make sure the chocolate or candy melts are chopped to small pieces. If you don’t, it can sometimes take awhile to make sure it gets fully melted and incorporated into the cream.  
• Use an immersion blender if there are pieces of candy melts that have trouble melting.
• Be patient when letting the chocolate ganache cool. It takes longer than you think, normally between 15-30 minutes to cool down to the right temperature.
• Use a candy or instant read thermometer – this is key to getting the chocolate the right temperature. You want it between 85-95 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Make sure the cake is cold. Keep it in the fridge and take it out right before you are going to add the drip. This helps slow the drip falling down the side of the cake.

FAQ

DECORATING IDEAS 

For this recipe I did a pink champagne cake, decorated with chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallows. But, the great thing about these chocolate drip cakes is you can use whatever type of cake you want decorate them however you want!  

Here are some more fun decorating ideas:

• Sprinkles
• Macarons
• More Piped Frosting
• Flowers (fresh or piped)
• Cookies

And, unlike floral cakes or rosette cakes, which tend to be used around Easter, Mother’s Day or at Wedding showers, these drip cakes are incredibly versatile and can be used for birthdays, Halloween, and really any event of party you can think of.

Looking for more Unique Cake and cake decorating Ideas? Check these out!

• Fault Line Cake
• Lunchbox Cakes
• Cakesicles
• Cake in a Jar

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