Can I Put An Extra Ganache Coating On The Chocolate Meringue Truffle Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Meringue Truffle Cake has a rich truffle-like filling sitting on a thin disc of meringue. The truffle mixture itself is a type of ganache, a mixture of cream and chocolate. The texture of a ganache depends on the proportion of chocolate to cream, with the basic ratio of equal weights of chocolate and cream, and also whether the ganache is whipped or just left to set. The filling for the cake uses lightly whipped cream and a higher proportion of cream to chocolate, to give it a slightly soft centre.

We are not sure of the reason for coating the cake in a layer of ganache but we assume it is to make the cake more like a birthday cake. And whilst it is possible, if you make the ganache too solid then it will be difficult to cut. The other problems with making and chilling the ganache are that the ganache could start to melt the truffle cake as it is poured on and also the ganache will loose its shine very quickly and become more matte in appearance once it is refrigerated. You would need to make sure that the ganache has a higher ratio of chocolate to cream (probably 1 to 1) and make sure that it is not too warm, chill the truffle cake well and refrigerate it immediately after adding the ganache. On balance we would prefer to leave the cake as it is and if you wanted to add something extra then serve it with a chocolate sauce, such as the glaze that is served with Nigella's Chocolate Cheesecake.