This post chocolate icing for cake contain affiliate links. This White Chocolate Cake is both decadent and delicious! White chocolate is incorporated into the cake layers, the frosting, and the drip for a stunning monochrome effect.
Classic white chocolate cake with scalloped sides, a ganache drip, and truffles on top. I may be just a little bit obsessed with how pretty and perfectly matchy the monochrome colors worked out here. It’s the ultimate White Chocolate Cake! I actually don’t like white chocolate. Not on its own, anyhow, and rarely as part of something else. Something about the flavor is just too sweet or artificial tasting, I don’t know.
BUT, this White Chocolate Cake is all sorts of deliciousness. Even though the white chocolate is incorporated into every element, it’s not overpowering. Each element on its own is completely delicious, and they all combine to make the perfect White Chocolate Cake. Cross section of cake showing the inside and three layers. From Classic Cakes to Holiday favorites and everything in between.
White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids. It doesn’t contain any cocoa solids, which are found in milk and dark chocolate varieties. The remaining cocoa butter doesn’t have a ton of flavor on its own, so sugar and milk solids are added to transform it into white chocolate. There is some contention about this but, technically, no. In order to be classified as chocolate, there must be cocoa solids present. White Chocolate Cake with a chopped up bar of white chocolate on the side.
How to make this White Chocolate Cake I have made variations of this cake a couple times before, but I wanted to have a smaller pure white chocolate cake on the blog, as many people have asked for it. The cake layers of this White Chocolate Cake have white chocolate incorporated right into them. I melt down some white chocolate with the milk, and add that to the cake batter once it’s cooled. The flavor isn’t crazy strong, but it is quite noticeable, especially to anyone who loves white chocolate. White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream Despite not being a white chocolate fan myself, I LOVE this buttercream. There’s something about the subtle white chocolate flavor in it that makes it so delicious you’ll want to eat it with a spoon.
Adding chocolate to buttercream is very simple. You just need to melt the chocolate down, then cool it before adding it to the buttercream. It’s important that your buttercream isn’t too cold, as it could cause the chocolate to solidify into chunks when you’re adding it. This helps ensure they are perfectly incorporated together. White Chocolate Ganache Drip White chocolate can be trickier to work with than dark. You need to adjust the chocolate:cream ratio for it not to be a complete runny mess.
For my dark chocolate ganache drip, I do a 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. For a white chocolate ganache drip, I recommend a 2. 5:1 or even a 3:1 ratio. 5:1 ratio here, and it worked well.
Except it wasn’t actually, and I ended up straining the last bits of white chocolate out of there. The white chocolate I used for the drip was more on the yellow side, so I added a few drops of bright white color gel to it once I strained it. Just eyeball this until you get the color you’re looking for. Angled overhead shot showing the drip and white chocolate truffles.
Make sure your cake is well chilled before applying the ganache. And be sure to let the ganache cool completely and thicken a bit before using on the cake. I let my ganache sit out for over an hour. It’s hard to describe the right consistency. I always do a test drip first to see how it drips down the cake. If it’s too thick, I warm it up a bit. I find it’s easier to start with a ganache that’s too thick vs.