Very important question about chocolate cake

[SeventhRaccoon]

I'm having a debate with DH about the standard way to ice an ordinary chocolate cake. When you make one (talking normal weekend or bake sale type baking here rather than once a year Bake Off style efforts) do you:

Ice it with buttercream icing
Ice it with water icing (think that's what it's called? - icing sugar and cocoa mixed together with hot water)
Ice it with melted chocolate
Ice it with a packet mix (Betty Crocker or similar)
Spread it with whipped cream
Ice it with something completely different (in which case please explain what you use!)
Not ice it at all?

Buttercream inside and melted chocolate on top

I should not have clicked on this thread.

Raspberry coulis and cream in the middle and chocolate ganache on top. The trick is not to make it too sweet.

DH is a heretic who puts malteasers on as decoration.

@SeventhRaccoon now that you’ve clarified what you mean by water icing I’m with you - that’s exactly what I use, and what my mother used before me. Much better than sickly buttercream.

Feel pretty sad for all these chocolate cakes that are being ruined by people putting jam in them.

Chocolate fudge icing - icing sugar, cocoa, butter and a little milk. All warmed in a pan and beaten until smooth and glossy. I make enough to go between the layers and to cover the too and sides - when warm I just pour onto the too and it slowly creeps down and coats the sides as well. Nothing else comes close IMO.

I think ganache is a newer thing, so our parents wouldn’t have done that. Ganache shouldn’t be bitter. If it isn’t sweet enough just add some sugar. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chocolate-ganache

I think the name ‘water icing’ has confused people. Those who say they’ve never heard of it, it’s glacé icing, like biscuits are iced with and an iced fairy cake when it isn’t buttercream.

I’d do buttercream in the middle and ganache or buttercream on top depending on whether I have cream in the house.

Chocolate ganache here too.

Coconut pecan is my choice when I want something different.

We did a Mary Berry chocolate cake a while ago that was iced with a side of ganache, whipped cream and chocolate

Pile it all on there!

Packet mix, Betty Crocker choc fudge icing.

Glacé icing if it's going to Scout camp, so it doesn't melt all over the place. Buttercream if it's being eaten at home, although one of my children doesn't like buttercream, so I occasionally use a ready made Betty Crocker or similar.

Chocolate ganache (melted chocolate and double cream)

Chocolate buttercream in the middle
Icing sugar on top

If it’s a minor celebration, then choc buttercream with chocolate buttons or smarties stuck in.

Definitely a ganache. Sometimes flavoured, but usually just plain chocolate.

I'm with you op.
I like a slab cake or fairy cakes with glacé icing.
Only round split cakes get buttercream or cream. Even then I'd put buttercream roses around the edge of the top and infill with glacé, even if the middle was buttercream.

@NellyTimes

Feel pretty sad for all these chocolate cakes that are being ruined by people putting jam in them.

Yep. It's a nope from me too.

We just made one yesterday. My go-to is the sour cream icing Nigella uses for the Chocolate Sour Cream Cake/Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake. It involves quite a lot of icing sugar beaten into a mixture of melted chocolate, sour cream, butter, golden syrup and vanilla extract. It is the fudgiest chocolate icing ever and stiff enough that the top layer of cake doesn’t slide off the bottom layer.

Jam in a chocolate cake?! With the possible exception of Sachertorte, what heresy is this?!

"Ice it with buttercream icing
Ice it with water icing (think that's what it's called? - icing sugar and cocoa mixed together with hot water)"

Either of those...although I'd never thought of putting cocoa in the water icing .
And then either chocolate buttercream or Nutella in the middle.
I can't remember the last time I make one though and I really want one now

I would just dust with icing sugar.

Chocolate buttercream for at home

Ganache if I'm making a real effort for a bake sale

Chill and thinly slice 2 mars bars. Butter cream in middle and a thin layer on top with the mars bar tiles pressed in

Sorry re water icing confusion - yeah, we just grew up calling it "icing", so I wasn't sure how to differentiate it from other kinds of icing - I found it referred to as water icing somewhere or other so assumed that was what other people called it. I'd never heard the name "glacé icing" before and would have assumed it was something to do with cherries! Glad I'm not the only one who likes it. I would never make it without cocoa for a chocolate cake though!

For the poster who was wondering how to make their cake less dry, if you're using the traditional recipe with butter/sugar/flour/eggs then you could try adding a splash of milk to your cake mixture to loosen it. Or if you're feeling fancy you could experiment with one of the recipes that use yoghurt or vegetable oil.

Use milk chocolate for the ganache, otherwise it’s unbearably bitter IMO.