Have you ever noticed that the sauce on chocolate cake differs from shop to shop? Let's break down the toppings on chocolate cake, soft top (na nim), ganache and glaçage, and see how they differ.
Does this sound familiar? After a main meal, the stomach space you saved for dessert starts calling for something sweet, and soon a chocolate cake is sitting in front of you. Chocolate cakes come in many styles, but the most familiar to Thai tastes is the soft-top chocolate cake. Recipes are all over the internet, and it's easy to make yourself. But beginner bakers face another challenge when they come across the words ganache and glaçage. What are they, and how do they differ from the sweet chocolate cream poured over a soft-top chocolate cake? Let's find out.
Soft Top (Na Nim)
A soft top contains flour or starch and works as a cream or filling, not as a coating for the cake. The soft chocolate topping Thais pour over cake falls under the category of "crème" in France: it isn't meant for pouring over or covering cake, but for eating on its own, as a cream or as a piped filling. What defines a soft top, or "crème" in French, is that it contains a starch, whether wheat flour, cornflour or tapioca starch. A soft top or chocolate cream contains milk, cream and eggs, all three of which are sensitive to microbes. A soft top poured over a cake is exposed directly to the air, so airborne microbes can land on it. Importantly, sweets that have spoiled still smell good and taste sweet, so it's hard to tell whether a soft-top chocolate cake has gone off.
Ganache
Ganache contains chocolate and fat. It has countless uses and is the most delicious of the three, but it isn't meant for covering cakes. Its main component is cream, and its thick texture comes from fat, either the cocoa butter in chocolate or regular butter. It's used to "garnir" (pronounced ga-neer), meaning "to fill or pipe". Ganache is a baking fundamental that can be used and built on in endless ways, such as chocolate tarts, chocolate bonbon fillings and whipped into mousse. The one thing ganache can't do is coat the surface of a cake. Some people mistakenly see it covering a cake, notice it's soft, and call it a "soft top" too. But it isn't a soft top, because a soft top relies on starch for its creamy texture, and ganache has none. Ganache is quite thick, about as thick as sweetened condensed milk, and its thickness comes from chocolate or butter. When poured onto a cake, ganache barely flows. And because ganache contains chocolate or butter, after a while in the fridge the water evaporates while the fat stays, and the ganache sets back into hard chocolate, as if you'd laid a chocolate bar on top of the cake.
Glaçage
The last of the three is glaçage, which Thais call glaze. It's a mixture that is fairly runny at high temperatures and sets at low temperatures, with a thick but flowing texture, all thanks to gelatine or chocolate. Its use is the opposite of ganache: it's meant for coating or dipping, not for making the body of a dessert, filling or chocolate tarts. The gelatine in glaçage locks in water molecules, keeping the cake's moisture from escaping into the air, which is why it should be used to coat cakes.
If you plan to make a soft-top chocolate cake, the best approach is to find an easy-looking chocolate cake recipe and make it yourself to enjoy with someone special at mealtime, but don't keep it or leave it overnight, so the cake stays delicious and hygienic.
Soft-Top Chocolate Cake Recipe
Cake ingredients
- 100 g cake flour
- 65 g powdered sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 75 ml water
- 25 ml evaporated milk
- 50 ml rice bran oil
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Soft chocolate topping ingredients
- 75 g sugar
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp agar powder
- A pinch of fine salt
- 100 ml water
- 150 ml evaporated milk
- 50 g unsalted butter
Method
- Put the cake flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a sieve set over a mixing bowl. Whisk everything together, then sift it all into the bowl (sift at least 3 times so everything combines and the flour becomes lighter as it takes in air). Set aside.
- Combine the water, evaporated milk, rice bran oil and vinegar in a mixing bowl and stir well. Set aside.
- Crack the 2 eggs and separate the whites and yolks into two cups (take care not to break the yolks).
- Stir the yolks into the mixture from step 2, then add the vanilla and stir. Set aside.
- Pour the step 2 mixture onto the step 1 mixture a little at a time, whisking until everything is smooth.
- Put the egg whites from step 3 in a mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer and whisk attachment at top speed. When they start to foam, add 50 g sugar in about four additions, beating well. Then lower to a slow speed to break up large air bubbles. The mixture will turn white and glossy. Don't beat to stiff peaks; stop at soft peaks.
- Gently fold the step 5 mixture with a whisk, then add the step 6 meringue and fold until combined. Spoon into no. 7618 moulds, filling each about halfway (makes about 10). Bake at 180°C with top and bottom heat for about 15–20 minutes.
How to make the soft chocolate topping
- Put the sugar, cocoa powder, agar powder, a pinch of salt, the water and the evaporated milk into a pan (hold back about a quarter of the evaporated milk to dissolve the cornflour). Stir to combine, then heat over medium heat, stirring from time to time.
- Mix the reserved evaporated milk with 15 g cornflour, then pour it into the pan (wait until the mixture starts to boil first so the agar dissolves). Once added, lower the heat and stir slowly to reduce air bubbles until the mixture thickens and boils.
- Turn off the heat and add the 50 g unsalted butter while the mixture is still hot, stirring gently until the butter melts in (butter adds aroma and gives the cake a beautiful glossy top). Stir until the mixture is warm; you can use a fan to help it cool faster.
Once the chocolate topping has cooled to warm, spoon it over the prepared cakes and serve.
Tips
- Dissolve the cornflour in the evaporated milk without lumps.
- When adding the cornflour mixture, keep the heat low and stir continuously, letting it boil only briefly. Don't leave it on the heat too long once boiling, or the cornflour will over-cook and turn gluey, and the top won't be smooth.
- Stir until the mixture is just warm before pouring; pouring it hot will leave an uneven top.
- Don't stir hard when there are lots of air bubbles; stir slowly and gently.
