Movember is a big thing in Ireland, and UK, as well I think. It’s the month where the chaps grow a moustache for charity to help raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer. I sponsored a couple of guys to have their legs waxed.
There were two baking fund raisers – I made the chocolate biscuit cake Christmas pudding for one of them (last post) and a rich sponge with brandy buttercream filling topped with white chocolate ganache with chocolate stars, chocolate silver balls and a ring of Malteasers for the latest one.
Ganache
Ganache is very easy to make. It’s just double cream and chocolate – generally a ratio of 2 choc to 1 cream.
Weigh the cream to tare it in grams then break the chocolate into a bowl.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring it to the boil; stir it so it doesn’t burn and stick to the pan.
When it’s broiling and roiling, take it off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 30s or so.
Stir until it’s melted and blended together. Let it cool a bit if it’s on the hotter side of warm then use it on your cake.
On the way in there was some minor damage.
Some of the Malteasers got dislodged but were quickly pressed back into position and a few stars got broken.
My cakes sales (the two together) raised nearly €100 so delighted they were enjoyed and raised money.
Wind Rose
Spoon Graphic blog posted a free set of treasure map assets for Illustrator. There’s an Illustrator tutorial here:Wind Rose Compass that’s easy to follow and the end result works well with the map; this is how mine turned out:
Three Bees in My Bonnet 