Whipped Ganache Frosting (& Decorating a Retirement Golf Cake)

My friend asked me to make her a cake for her dad's surprise retirement party. The party was going to have a golf theme and it was going to be outside and the only requirement was that it had to be a chocolate cake so I did some brainstorming and came up with the idea to do a chocolate frosting with coconut grass on top to look like a golf course. I didn't want to use buttercream because I didn't want it to get too soft and melt all over the place so I decided that a ganache-based frosting would be much more stable.

The best part of this frosting is that it's super easy to make. All it takes is a few ingredients (namely chocolate and cream) and you don't have to whip butter or worry about making a mess with icing sugar.

Ingredients:
12 oz. milk chocolate
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
4 oz. 60% cacao chocolate
3 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter

Start by adding heavy cream and butter to a saucepan and heat over low until it comes to a boil. Watch carefully so that it doesn't boil over and make a mess all over the stovetop.

While the cream is heating, add the chocolate to the bowl of your mixer.

Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and set aside for 5 minutes. The heat of the cream will melt the chocolate.

Carefully stir until all of the chocolate is melted and the ganache is smooth. Set aside to cool completely to room temperature; it'll take about 2 hours.

The ganache when it's hot will be really runny. Once it's cooled, it will be thickened, to the texture of chocolate syrup.

Use a whisk attachment to whip up the ganache until it's light and fluffy. The dark brown ganache will lighten in color and in texture. Be careful not to over-whip the ganache or it will break. The heavy cream will want to try and become butter.

Use the ganache immediately; as it continues to cool, it will get stiffer.

I was able to ice my four layer cake perfectly with this amount of ganache.

I pressed some cake crumbs to the bottom of the cake. Then, I dyed the coconut green by massaging it with gel food coloring, sprinkled it all over the top, and made the golfing green with sanding sugar. I wanted it to look like a chunk of sod removed from the golf course. The flag was made with a bamboo skewer and red paper. The golf ball is just a mini marshmallow squished into a sphere and dipped in white chocolate. I think it came out really cute! Oh, and I know the cake was good because I had to level off the humps and I ate them all and they were delicious.

Here's the recipe page: