Ganache Ratio: Truffles, Glaze, Frosting and Drip

Updated September 2026 · Baking Resources

The ganache ratio is chocolate to cream by weight, and for dark chocolate the three you need are 1:1 for a spreadable frosting or a drip, 2:1 for truffles you can roll, and 1:2 for a pourable sauce. Equal weights means equal weights, not equal cups, and that distinction is where most ganache goes wrong.

Milk and white chocolate need more chocolate for the same firmness, because a big share of their weight is sugar and milk solids that never set. Use 2:1 for milk chocolate and 3:1 for white wherever a dark recipe says 1:1.

Working out how much you need for a cake? Our free frosting calculator gives coverage weights by cake size, and ganache follows the same numbers as a thick buttercream coat.

Updated September 2026

The ganache ratio chart, by chocolate type

Every figure here is chocolate weight to cream weight. Read a 2:1 as two parts chocolate to one part cream.

Two things move these numbers, and both are worth understanding rather than memorizing.

Cocoa solids set. Sugar and milk solids do not. A 70% dark bar is roughly 40% cocoa butter and 30% nonfat cocoa solids, and both of those firm up as they cool. White chocolate has zero cocoa solids, more sugar, and a load of milk powder, so the only thing setting is its cocoa butter. That is the entire reason white chocolate needs about three times the chocolate for the same texture.

Cocoa percentage inside "dark" matters too. A 55% bar and a 72% bar are not interchangeable at the same ratio. If you move up from 55% to 72%, the ganache gets noticeably firmer and can turn grainy, so add about 10% more cream. Moving down from 72% to 55%, cut the cream by roughly 10%.

Why weight, not volume

This is the single most common ganache mistake. Cups measure space, and chocolate and cream do not occupy space the same way.

"One cup of chocolate to one cup of cream" gives you 170 g of chocolate to 238 g of cream. That is a 1:1.4 ratio, not 1:1, and it is why so many people end up with a ganache that never sets and blame the chocolate. Our grams to cups converter has the density for every common baking ingredient if you need to work the other direction.

A kitchen scale removes the problem entirely. Put the bowl on, tare, add chocolate, note the number, then match the cream to it.

Making it: the temperatures that matter

The method is short. The numbers inside it are what separate silky from grainy.

1. Chop the chocolate small, about the size of a pea. Big chunks leave unmelted cores that you then over-stir to fix.
2. Heat the cream to 180 to 190°F, which looks like steam and small bubbles around the edge. There is no reason to boil it. Boiling drives off water and quietly shifts your ratio.
3. Pour it over the chocolate and wait. Three minutes for dark, one to two for milk and white, which melt at lower temperatures and scorch easily.
4. Stir from the center outward in small tight circles. You are building an emulsion, and it starts as a dark glossy core in the middle that grows as you widen the circles.
5. Finish at 90 to 95°F. If it is thick and dull instead of glossy, it is either too cool or broken.

Then let it come to the texture you want, which is entirely a temperature story:

If you are melting the chocolate separately for any reason, our guide on how to melt chocolate covers the burst timing and the seizing risk. Ganache itself does not need tempered chocolate, which is worth knowing before you go down that road: see how to temper chocolate for when tempering genuinely matters.

Worked example: ganache for 40 truffles

What you want: 40 rolled truffles from 60% dark chocolate.

Step 1. Total weight. A comfortable truffle is 10 to 12 g of ganache before coating. Call it 11 g. 40 x 11 = 440 g of ganache.

Step 2. Split it by the ratio. Truffles want 2:1, which means the total splits into three parts: two of chocolate, one of cream.

• Chocolate: 440 x 2/3 = 293 g
• Cream: 440 x 1/3 = 147 g

Step 3. Round to real numbers. Use 300 g chocolate and 150 g cream. That is still exactly 2:1 and it gives you a small buffer for what stays behind in the bowl.

Step 4. Translate if you have no scale. 150 g of cream is 0.63 cup, so a scant 2/3 cup. 300 g of chips is 1 3/4 cups, or most of a 12 oz bag. Use the scale if you have one; those cup figures carry real error.

Step 5. Set and roll. Two to four hours at 68°F, or 45 to 60 minutes in the fridge. Scoop with a teaspoon measure, roll fast with cool hands, then chill 15 minutes before coating so the outsides firm up.

Step 6. Check the yield. 450 g of finished ganache at 11 g each is 41 truffles, so you land right on target with one for the cook.

Worked example: converting a dark recipe to white chocolate

The situation. A recipe you like makes a spreadable dark ganache with 200 g chocolate and 200 g cream. You want the same texture in white chocolate.

White needs 3:1 for a spreadable frosting, so you have two honest choices:

• Keep the cream at 200 g: you now need 600 g of white chocolate, and you end up with 800 g of ganache instead of 400.
• Keep the total at 400 g: 400 x 3/4 = 300 g white chocolate and 400 x 1/4 = 100 g cream.

Take the second one. Same amount of ganache, correct firmness, and no leftover tub in the fridge.

One extra adjustment for white. It scorches easily, so heat the cream to 175°F rather than 190°F and give it only a minute before you stir. Some brands are also very soft at room temperature, so if yours never firms up past a thick sauce, add 25 g more chocolate and re-melt gently.

Milk chocolate follows the same arithmetic at 2:1: that same 400 g total becomes 267 g milk chocolate and 133 g cream.

How much ganache do you actually need

Coverage numbers, for a cake that has already been crumb coated.

Whipped ganache is worth a line of its own. Make it at 1:1 or 1:1.5 for dark, chill it to 70°F or below, then whip it for 60 to 90 seconds. It roughly doubles in volume and turns pale and mousse-like. Do not walk away from the mixer: past about two minutes the fat overwhips and it goes grainy, and unlike buttercream it does not come back.

For piping and coverage technique, our guide on how to frost a cake covers crumb coats and the chill steps, and how to store frosting has the reheat rules that apply to leftover ganache too.

Add-ins that change the ratio

Anything you stir in changes the fat-to-water balance, so it changes the ratio whether you meant it to or not.

• Butter, 5 to 10% of the chocolate weight. Stir it in at the end when the ganache is below 100°F. It adds shine and a softer bite. It also softens the set, so bump the chocolate slightly for truffles.
• Corn syrup or glucose, about 10% of the chocolate weight. This is the drip secret. It keeps the surface glossy for days and stops the drip from cracking when you cut the cake. The pour itself, temperature by temperature, is in how to get a drip effect on a cake.
• Liqueur or extract. Alcohol is mostly water, so count it as cream: for every 15 g of liqueur you add, take out 15 g of cream. Add it below 100°F or the flavor cooks off.
• Fruit puree. Puree is far more water than cream is, so a straight swap gives you a loose, dull ganache. Replace half the cream at most, and add about 15% more chocolate to compensate.
• Salt. A generous pinch per 300 g of chocolate. It does nothing to the structure and a lot to the taste.

If you have no heavy cream at all, our heavy cream substitute guide has the fat math for half-and-half, coconut cream and the milk plus butter route, including the one substitute that always fails in ganache.

Why ganache breaks, and how to bring it back

A broken ganache looks greasy and separated, with oil pooling at the edges and a grainy texture underneath. It has not curdled. The emulsion has simply split, and an emulsion that split can almost always be rebuilt.

The three causes, in order of how often they happen:

1. Too much fat for the water present. Usually a ratio measured in cups, or cream that got boiled hard and lost water.
2. Temperature shock. Cold cream on warm chocolate, or a bowl that came out of the fridge.
3. Stirring too early and too hard. Whisking a half-melted mixture beats air into it and shears the emulsion apart before it forms.

The fix. Add 1 tablespoon of warm cream or whole milk, then stir gently from the center out. Repeat until it pulls back together, glossy and dark. It usually takes two or three tablespoons. This feels backwards, because the mixture already looks wet, but a broken emulsion is short of water phase, not long on it.

The faster fix. An immersion blender, held so the head stays fully submerged and does not pull in air. Ten seconds usually does it. This is the professional route and it works on ganache that hand stirring has given up on.

If it is grainy rather than greasy, the chocolate seized from a drop of water hitting it before the cream did, or from being overheated. Warm the whole thing to 95°F over a water bath and blend. If it is still gritty, the chocolate scorched and the flavor is gone with it.

Runny ganache that never sets is a different problem and it is nearly always the ratio. Our guide on why frosting turns runny covers the temperature side, and for ganache the answer is to melt in more chocolate at 25 g a time until the ratio is where the chart says it should be.

Storing ganache

Covered at room temperature it holds 2 days, because the sugar and fat protect it and the water is bound up in the emulsion. In the fridge it holds 1 week, and in the freezer 3 months.

Bring cold ganache back by letting it sit out until it reaches 78 to 82°F, or by warming it in 10 second microwave bursts and stirring between each one. Do not rush it with high heat. A ganache pushed straight from 40°F to 110°F splits, and then you are back on the previous section.

Frequently asked questions

What is the standard ganache ratio?

One part chocolate to one part cream by weight for dark chocolate, which gives a soft, spreadable ganache that also works as a cake drip. Two parts chocolate to one part cream makes truffles firm enough to roll, and one part chocolate to two parts cream makes a pourable sauce. Milk chocolate needs about one extra part of chocolate, white about two.

Why is my ganache not setting?

Almost always too much cream, and the usual cause is measuring in cups instead of grams. A cup of chocolate chips is 170 g while a cup of cream is 238 g, so a "1:1" cup measure is really 1:1.4. Melt in more chocolate, 25 g at a time, until the ratio matches the chart.

What ganache ratio do I use for a drip cake?

1:1 dark chocolate to cream, cooled to 88 to 92°F before you pour it over a chilled cake. White chocolate drips need about 2.5:1. Adding corn syrup at 10% of the chocolate weight keeps the drips glossy and stops them cracking when the cake is cut.

Can I use chocolate chips for ganache?

Yes, though they are not ideal. Chips carry stabilizers that help them hold their shape in a cookie, which is exactly what you do not want in a smooth ganache, and their cocoa butter content is usually lower than a bar's. Chop a bar if you have one, and if you use chips, give them an extra minute in the hot cream and stir patiently.

How do I fix broken ganache?

Stir in 1 tablespoon of warm cream or whole milk at a time, working gently from the center outward, until it comes back together glossy. Two or three tablespoons usually does it. An immersion blender held fully under the surface fixes it in about ten seconds.

What is the whipped ganache ratio?

1:1 or 1:1.5 chocolate to cream for dark, 1.5:1 for milk and 2:1 for white. Chill it to 70°F or below first, then whip 60 to 90 seconds until it lightens and doubles. Stop early rather than late, since overwhipped ganache turns grainy and does not recover.

Does ganache need to be refrigerated?

Not for the first 2 days if it is covered and your kitchen is under about 75°F. After that, refrigerate it for up to a week. Cakes already coated in set ganache keep well at room temperature for a couple of days, since the layer seals the crumb.

Can I make ganache without heavy cream?

Yes, but the fat percentage is load-bearing. Coconut cream works straight across at 1:1. Half-and-half needs the liquid cut to about three quarters with a tablespoon of butter added back per original cup. Milk alone gives a thin, dull ganache that will not set for truffles.

Related guides: How to melt chocolate | Heavy cream substitute | How to frost a cake | Why is my frosting runny | Frosting calculator