Split any amount of ganache into chocolate and heavy cream at a charted ratio for truffles, frosting or a thin glaze, or start from a two-layer cake, a 9 x 13 or cupcakes.
Ganache Calculator - Chocolate to Cream Ratio by Weight
Split any amount of ganache into chocolate and heavy cream at a charted ratio for truffles, frosting or a thin glaze, or start from a two-layer cake, a 9 x 13 or cupcakes.
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Ganache by weight, from whatever you have on hand
Type the chocolate you have, the cream you have, or the ganache you want, pick a ratio, and the ganache calculator splits it into grams, ounces and cups. It can also start from the cake: a two-layer 9 inch cake glazed and filled, a 9 x 13 inch cake or a tray of cupcakes, using the batches King Arthur Baking tested. Every ratio here is chocolate to cream by weight, with heavy cream.
Six choices on the form
- Chocolate - dark (bittersweet or semisweet), milk, or white chocolate and flavored chips. It does not change the arithmetic, but it decides which ratios make sense and when the result warns you.
- Ratio - one of five charted ratios, each with the job it is meant for, or your own two numbers.
- Starting from - the chocolate you have, the cream you have, the total ganache you want, or a cake.
- Amount and unit - grams, ounces or cups. Cups mean chopped chocolate or chips (170 g) or heavy cream (227 g).
- The cake - only in cake mode: glazed and filled two-layer cake, whipped frosting for a sheet cake, a layer cake or cupcakes.
- How many - cakes from 1 to 20, cupcakes from 1 to 500.
From hot cream to a smooth bowl in four moves
Weigh, then chop. Put the chocolate from the result in a heatproof bowl, chopped small if it is a bar. Chips go in whole.
Heat the cream. King Arthur Baking wants it steaming, just short of a boil.
Pour and wait. Baker Bettie lets 6 oz of chocolate or less sit about 3 minutes, more for up to 5. King Arthur Baking waits 5 minutes.
Stir until smooth. Lumps left over? Warm it in 15-second bursts and stir again. Then let it cool to the thickness the job needs.
Five ratios, one 340 g bag of chips
The table holds the chocolate still at 340 g (two cups of chips) and shows how much cream each ratio asks for. The use column is quoted from the source next to it. Three of the five come from Baker Bettie, written for dark chocolate; two from King Arthur Baking.
| Chocolate : cream | Cream for 340 g | Meant for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 : 1 | 113 g | milk chocolate, white and flavored chips | King Arthur Baking |
| 2 : 1 | 170 g | truffles, stiff piping; nearly fudge-like | Baker Bettie |
| 3 : 2 | 227 g | all-purpose: between layers, on top, dipping | King Arthur Baking |
| 1 : 1 | 340 g | frosting, filling, thick glaze, whipped; pudding-like | Baker Bettie |
| 1 : 1.5 | 510 g | thin glaze, fondue, drinking chocolate; never sets hard | Baker Bettie |
Notice the spread. The same bag makes a truffle center with 170 g of cream and a fondue with 510 g, three times as much. Pick the job first; the number follows from it.
Cake batches King Arthur measured
Cake mode does not guess at surface areas. It starts from these three tested batches and multiplies by your count. With a ratio other than 3 : 2, the total weight stays and the split changes, which is an assumption worth knowing.
| Job | Chocolate | Cream | Makes |
|---|---|---|---|
| two-layer 9 inch cake, glazed and filled | 340 g | 227 g | about 1 3/4 cups |
| 9 x 13 inch cake or 15 to 18 cupcakes, whipped | 340 g | 227 g | a scant 2 1/2 cups |
| 8 or 9 inch layer cake, whipped | 680 g | 454 g | about 5 cups |
Whipping is where the volume comes from: King Arthur Baking measured about 40% more after beating the cooled ganache. Cupcakes are planned at the low end, 15 per batch, so 30 cupcakes come out at 680 g chocolate and 454 g cream, and a little is left at 18 per batch.
Four batches as the calculator prints them
Truffles from 200 g dark chocolate, 2 : 1. 100 g cream, 300 g ganache, nearly fudge-like once cool, as Baker Bettie describes it.
A 12 oz bag of milk chocolate chips, 3 : 1. 340 g chocolate and 113 g cream: 2 cups of chips, 1/2 cup of cream.
300 g of white chocolate ganache wanted, 3 : 1. 225 g white chocolate, 75 g cream, 75% chocolate.
One cup of cream left in the fridge, 1 : 1. 227 g of each, 454 g of soft ganache for filling or whipping.
Where a ganache goes sideways
A dark ratio with milk or white chocolate. King Arthur Baking gives one ratio for milk chocolate and flavored chips, 3 : 1, and none of the softer dark ratios. Use 1 : 1 with white chocolate and it will be much looser than the table promises, so the calculator flags it.
Expecting a thin glaze to set. At 1 : 1.5 there is more cream than chocolate. Baker Bettie is plain about it: it thickens as it cools but will not set up hard.
Mixing up the order of the ratio. Some recipes write cream first. King Arthur's "2 parts cream, 3 parts chocolate" is the 3 : 2 on this page, not 2 : 3.
Cups for chocolate. King Arthur Baking puts a cup of chopped chocolate or chips at 170 g. That is a kitchen average; a scale weighs your own chocolate.
Ganache questions, answered in grams
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