How to Store Ganache Cake? How Long It Lasts?
Whenever I cook chocolate ganache cake, I prefer the dough itself to be also with chocolate, so for me, it is always a 100% chocolate dessert, and I must say it is the one I love most. As I prepared it as much as possible, I faced almost all scenarios with this recipe. Therefore, I am writing today to all people who mostly ask me how to store ganache cake and how much you can keep it around safely.
There are three ways to store ganache cake: at room temperature for two days, refrigeration for five days, or total freezing up to 1 month. Each of those methods has its advantages and disadvantages, so it is up to you as a consumer to decide which you will apply.
Read this article for all possible scenarios of how to store chocolate ganache cakes, for technical details that affect the shelf life, and which circumstances can make ganache melt.
How to Store Ganache Cake? Should You Refrigerate It?
There are three ways to store Ganache cake or a three-phase plan if you want to apply them all.
Room temperature
As soon as the cake is finished, I prefer to let it cool at room temperature, but I make sure to be at an average temperature, not too hot, and away from the stove heats. I feel that environmental temperature leaves the cake soft if it gets colder gradually.
The ganache gets thicker very fast, but the cake stays warm for more, and the texture is softer, smoother, and maybe a little more delicate. So if I am craving it, I can eat and enjoy the cake, which is still warm. You can keep it outside for up today, although I propose staying out no more than 24 hours.
Refrigeration
This process is also possible in two ways: you can refrigerate it immediately after it is ready if you want it cold and with a firm texture, or you can keep it one or two days at room temperature and then put it in the fridge.
When doing so, consider wrapping it with paper so the cake won’t get dry out or absorb smells from the fridge. Or if you feel that you want to serve that to other people and you want the appearance to be on top, use a cake platter with a fitted dome and put the cover of it so the cake will be the same.
You can always warm it up in the microwave when you want to eat it again, and if you don’t mind, the ganache to be melted.
Freezing
Freezing can also be an option if you feel that you cannot finish it and don’t want to throw it away. Firstly you need to let the cake chill and thicken for several hours in standard refrigeration. When you see that ganache has a compact form, then it’s time to proceed with freezing.
To protect the cake from getting affected by the smell of meat, fish, or other things you may have frozen before, it is better to put it in an airtight box, or if you are going to store it on a plate, cover it with transparent paper, so all the air is out.
It will stay good in the freezer for at least one month. When you feel like eating it again and want to unfreeze it, get it out, let it in refrigeration until it is entirely back to normal and thawed. Take into consideration that this process may take from 8 to 24 hours, maybe even two days.
Still, if you ask for my personal preference, I choose to finish it while it is fresh, as I think that freezing may lose a little the magic and the cake itself is not that amazing anymore, but ganache for sure stays unchanged.
But at this point, you can remodify the recipe a little by adding hot mascarpone cream to make it smooth.
Does White Chocolate Ganache Cake Need to Be Refrigerated?
White chocolate, even though in its composition it’s not the same as black chocolate as they are made of different ingredients when it comes to ganache, is almost the same. Cakes made by white ganache can stay at room temperature for no more than two days, and then it needs to be refrigerated.
How Long Does Chocolate Ganache Cake Last?
From my experience, this type of cake can last from 2-5 days if kept in refrigeration. But I have to mention that the shelf-life of chocolate ganache cakes depends on many components.
Firstly, the freshness of ingredients. Check carefully with what are you preparing the dough of the cake: consider fresh eggs instead of industrial ones. If you have yogurt or milk, check the expiration day and make sure you are some days in advance, as the cake will stay some days more.
Secondly, the presence of specific products is proven to affect the shelf life. One of them is sugar. So if it’s an accurate sweety selection of cake, it will last longer. The presence of the acidification process is also a good life extended in the bread industry. If you follow a recipe that includes a little vinegar or lemon in the dough, for example, the cake may resist a little more.
Thirdly, the balance in the recipe also affects. Sometimes when preparing it at home, we intend to improvise according to your preferences or ingredients we may have. Research papers studying the shelf life of cakes state that the ratio of ingredients is essential. This does not mean that we should sometimes give up our recipes; they make them perfect for our tastes. Just consider that maybe it will affect the shelf life.
Although we don’t have the tools to do the precise measurement in each of the mentioned factors, the best this is to stick at the five days, so make sure to freeze it or consume it before.
Can You Freeze Ganache Covered Cake?
As I said above, one of the techniques to store the chocolate cake may be freeze. Freezing keeps the cake safe for a longer time and stops almost every type of bacteria from growing. If you isolate the cake in an airtight container and wrap it with paper, you can put it in the freeze together with all other foods.
Still, consider that freezing is okay in other foods like soups and unfreezing can happen fast because you can reboil the soup again. Ganache cake will take at least 8 hours in refrigeration and maybe more, but the taste won’t be as impressive as the cake will obtain moisture.
So yes, deep freezing affects a little the taste of the cake. But you can still fix it by warming it up and accompanying it with other products like creams, fruits, or just milk.
Will Ganache Melt at Room Temperature?
For the chocolate to melt, it requires a high temperature that can reach 50-55°C for the dark and 40-45°C for white chocolate. Usually, besides infrequent occasions in summer, a room temperature will never be higher than 40°C.
For this reason, there is no need to worry if your ganache will melt or not at room temperature. If you leave it for more than 10 minutes at room temperature, you will see how the ganache will start to get thicker, and if you go it more and more outside will also get dry.
