Delicious, this is my favorite chocolate frosting recipe.

This is a recipe for Ganache so why are people reviewing the cake recipe? Anyway, this recipe for ganache is terrible. The proportion of chocolate to cream is just wrong. I whipped the heck out of it and only got a soft runny pudding. It will never make the frosting seen in the picture of the chocolate cake. Guess we'll drink it....

To Foxtrot,
I'll bet you got some water in with your chocolate. I had that experience once and no amount of mixing can ever straighten it out. Try again without the water.

I haven't made this recipe, personally, however -- I use a standard 1:1 ratio of Heavy Cream to Chocolate... and my ganache always turns out perfectly. To the person who said it turned out grainy/oily - you must have used some CHEAP a** chocolate... don't cheap out on the basics, you'll never get good results!

This ganache did not work for me. I followed the instructions perfectly, with good ingredients, but it turned out gloppy---it ended up with an almost grainy texture that would not set, and in the fridge it actually separated like peanut butter oil (stirring didn't help). I tried adding more sugar, whipping it--nothing worked. Anyone else have this trouble?

I absolutely LOVE this. I made it with the dark chocolate cake and it was spectacular. everybody said it was fit to be in a bakery!

i loved it

Used this ganache recipe for my husbands birthday cake on Saturday. Loved the shine and consistency for spreading however unless you love bitter sweet chocolate, I would use semi sweet even milk chocolate which I love. The shine was beautiful! VERY happy with this recipe!

I was a little concerned about the ganache setting properly after reading some of the comments. I wisked the 'frosting' every 10-15 min. for just over an hour. It turned out rich and velvety. It's not very sweet so you can add more sugar if you want it sweeter, but it was perfect for our gang. Thanks Martha.

I made Martha's Yellow Cake with Dark Chocolate Frosting and had a similar problem. There wasn't enough sugar. When I compared other recipes for the same frosting there was much more sugar.

My wife followed all instructions and is an experienced baker, but unlike comments on frosting not setting, hers set up like concrete extremely quickly and was not really usable as frosting. In searching other ganache recipes I didn't see the use of confectioners' sugar--is this a possible culprit of unexpected outcomes?

As for the cake, I found the 40 minute baking time to be too much. I luckily checked my cakes at 30 minutes and they were done. They turned out great- real chocolate flavor.

I nearly had the same issue w/ the icing until I whipped it and then it turned out fine.

When I made the I followed the directions to a T but the frosting never set, it was thinner than pudding and I had to throw it away. Any help from anyone would be appreciated.

I agree with the other comments in that it was too dry. Very dense and great for chocolate lovers but I prefer my cakes moister.

I too found this cake disappointingly dry and crumbly - great flavor but not moist enough (it was not overbaked). I found the ganache "too much" - everyone I served this cake to said the ganache was delicious but left half of it on their plates. It's just too rich and too much of it. Normally a ganache is a thin coating on a dessert, not a huge plop on top of it! Also, it might cut some of the richness if one used a sweeter chocolate than bittersweet.

Lovely cake, but mine came out a bit dry. I was meticulous with the ingredients and instructions. It is very dense, very bitter dark chocolate taste, and the ganache is fantastic. I was surprised it didn't rise higher considering my high altitude. I would try this again, and perhaps replace the buttermilk with sour cream.