Chocolate Gold Drip on Buttercream

Hi everyone! In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a beautiful gold drip effect on a buttercream cake. Gold drip cakes are a very popular trend in decorating, and for buttercream frosted cakes, a chocolate ganache gold drip is the best option. For fondant cakes, a royal icing gold drip may also be used (and we will cover this in an upcoming video.)

We hope that you love this elegant look. Make sure to check out our Materials and Notes beneath the video!

Materials:

A note about the double barrel cake construction: In the video, we created a double barrel cake from four 6 inch cake layers. The cake is resting on it's own cardboard cake circle, cut down to size. Then, 4 bubble tea straw supports were inserted and cut to the height of the bottom two layers. Another 2 layers (resting on their own cardboard cake circle) were added to complete the double barrel. For the base, use 4 cardboard cake circles glued together and wrapped in your preferred covering (we used a plastic tablecloth). We hammered a sharpened (¼ inch width) dowel into the cake to act as the central support. The central dowel isn't always necessary, but if you are traveling with the cake, it is a good idea!

White Chocolate Ganache: We used a 3:1 ratio of chocolate to heavy cream. {12 oz Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips to 4 oz heavy cream}

Edible Gold Luster Dust (we used Rolkem Super Gold)

Classic Vanilla Buttercream- We used the hot knife method for smoothing...butter based frostings can be easily chilled and firmed up.

Bench Scraper/Spatula

Misc. Small Paintbrushes (I also used a larger soft brush for dusting on the top. Optional)

Vodka (High proof clear alcohol is ideal for mixing with luster dust to create paint.)

Americolor Ivory Coloring Gel (optional. We tinted our ganache)

Rice cereal treats- I used the packed 22g bars. Three for the largest pumpkin, one for the medium sized pumpkin, and one split in halves for the two smallest pumpkins.

Shortening- I lightly greased the rice cereal treats before covering with fondant.

Lollipop stick stems- optional. You'll only need one or two.

Floral Wire- I used paper covered floral wire (painted gold) for the pumpkin vines. 22 gauge (or any gauge that can easily be coiled.)

Leaf cookie cutters (optional) We used a small maple leaf and ivy cutter.

Notes:

Your paint should be a thick "paint-like" consistency. Mix vodka into your luster dust a very small amount at a time until you reach the desired consistency. If too thin, add a bit more powder.

You may find that you need to apply a second coat of "paint" after the first as dried.

If your ganache drip is too soft to paint, or takes a long time to set up at room temp, refrigerate the cake to speed things along.

The chocolate drizzle is very simple, but painting is more time consuming. So, allow yourself plenty of time to decorate! ;0)