Today’s chocolate polkadot cake looks pretty enough for any special occasion when decorated with white chocolate ganache drip. This is a simple recipe for making white chocolate ganache, used for dripping over any layer cake.
You might also love this chocolate caramel toffee drip cake, maple walnut white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and black and white chocolate cupcakes.

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White Chocolate Ganache vs Chocolate Ganache
When making ganache, it’s important to know that white chocolate and chocolate are very different ingredients. While chocolate contains cocoa solids, white chocolate doesn’t contain any cocoa solids, and is made mainly of cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids.
And when you melt chocolate or white chocolate together with cream, you get a smooth, drippy chocolate spread called ganache. When making ganache with chocolate, a general rule is to use a 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream (by weight), although this can also vary a bit, with less cream needed for sweeter milk chocolate than you’d use with dark chocolate.
White chocolate requires far less cream to reach this drippy consistency, with around a 4:1 ratio of white chocolate to cream. So while I would make a dark chocolate ganache with 4 ounces each of chocolate and cream, for a white chocolate ganache, I would use 4 ounces of white chocolate with only 1 ounce of cream.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- White Chocolate. You can use either white chocolate chips, or a bar of white chocolate that you chop up.
- Cream. You’ll need the high fat content of heavy whipping cream to make the ganache.
- White Food Coloring. White chocolate is naturally yellow, so if you want your white chocolate drip cake to be white, then you have to add something to offset the yellow. “Bright White” gel food coloring works well for this task.
Instructions
- Frost and chill your cake in the refrigerator. This recipe makes enough white chocolate ganache drip for an 8-inch layer cake.
- In a microwaveable bowl, combine the white chocolate chips with 1 ounce of the cream.
- Microwave the chocolate chips and cream for 1 – 1 1/2 minutes on 50% power, stirring until smooth. If it seems too thick, drizzle in a little more cream, just a teaspoon at a time, but be careful not to make it too thin.
- To offset the yellow color of the white chocolate, stir in a few drops of “bright white” gel food coloring.
- To add the drip to your cake, you can just pour it on top of the cake, then spread it out to the edges with an offset spatula, letting it drip down any way it wants.
- This is sometimes called a “curtain drip”, and you can see how this technique looks in the next photo. You’ll have little to no control over how the drips look when you do it this way, but I love the unpredictability of it.
- For more controlled drips that are evenly spaced, use a spoon to drip small amounts of the ganache around the edges, then fill in the center with more ganache to cover the top of the cake.
- Set the cake in the refrigerator for a few minutes to chill and set before adding anything on top, such as piped buttercream swirls.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
While you can make white chocolate ganache with candy melts, the ratios in today’s recipe are for white chocolate, not candy melts. Also something to remember is that white chocolate tastes much, much better than candy melts, which are made from oil, not cocoa butter.
You can buy bright white food coloring on Amazon, as well as on the baking aisle of many craft stores.
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White Chocolate Ganache Drip Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- 4 oz white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate
- 1 – 1 ½ oz heavy whipping cream
- "bright white" gel food coloring
Instructions
- Frost and chill your cake in the refrigerator. This recipe makes enough white chocolate ganache drip for an 8-inch layer cake.
- In a microwaveable bowl, combine the white chocolate chips with 1 ounce of the cream.
- Microwave the chocolate chips and cream for 1 – 1 1/2 minutes on 50% power, stirring until smooth. If it seems too thick, drizzle in a little more cream, just a teaspoon at a time, but be careful not to make it too thin.
- To offset the yellow color of the white chocolate, stir in a few drops of "bright white" gel food coloring.
- To add the drip to your cake, you can just pour it on top of the cake, then spread it out to the edges with an offset spatula, letting it drip down any way it wants.
- For more controlled drips that are evenly spaced, use a spoon to drip small amounts of the ganache around the edges, then fill in the center with more ganache to cover the top of the cake.
- Set the cake in the refrigerator for a few minutes to chill and set before adding anything on top, such as piped buttercream swirls.
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