This chocolate drip cake recipe uses my favorite moist chocolate cake recipe and is frosted with decadent chocolate buttercream that is pretty much half frosting, half chocolate!

As an added bonus, I torte the cake layers to give this cake (what I consider) an optimal frosting to cake ratio.

This also makes the inside of the cake just as pretty as those gorgeous drips on the outside!

How Do I Make Chocolate Drips for a Cake?

Just because chocolate drip cakes are beautiful, doesn’t mean they have to be complicated. Let’s start by discussing the most basic part of a chocolate drip, the ingredients that it’s made with!

Believe it or not, it’s made with only two ingredients. All you need is a half-cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and some heavy cream.

If you can’t find heavy cream in your grocery store, you can also use heavy whipping cream.

Sadly, you can’t use regular milk in place of the heavy cream in this chocolate drip recipe. Heavy cream has 36-38% milk fat.

You need a high fat percentage to create that wonderful consistency that chocolate ganache is known for. If you use regular milk, your mixture will be too thin.

To make this recipe, you simply heat up the cream until it’s steaming then pour it over the chocolate chips.

After letting them sit for a minute to melt, give them a quick stir. And just like that, you have silky smooth chocolate ganache.

It’s a pretty quick process! The challenging part of making a drip cake is actually adding the drips to the cake.

What Type of Chocolate Chips Should I Use?

I find this recipe turns out best with semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk or dark chocolate chips if that’s what you have on hand.

Different types of chocolate have different amounts of cocoa butter in them, which impact their consistency once they’re melted down.

You may have noticed that dark chocolate seems thinner than milk or white chocolate when melted.

If you want to use dark chocolate, I recommend adding in an extra tablespoon of chocolate chips, to help thicken the mixture slightly to prevent runaway drips.

If you use milk chocolate, I suggest adding in an extra 2 teaspoons of heavy cream to make it fluid enough to easily add drips around your cake.

These are general guidelines that should work with most types of chocolate, but different brands do have different cocoa percentages! So, make additional adjustments as needed as you perform the test drips (more on that below!).

How Do I Add Drips to a Cake?

There are two common ways to add drips to cake. Most people use either a spoon or a plastic squirt bottle.

Some people prefer one method over the other. I recommend using whatever method you feel most comfortable with.

Adding Drips Using a Spoon

One way you can add chocolate drips to cake is with a spoon. The best thing about this method is that you don’t need any special tools. I think everyone has a spoon in their kitchen!!

You simply take 1-2 teaspoons of chocolate ganache in your spoon and carefully pour it over the edge of a chilled buttercream cake.

I recommend scraping the bottom of your spoon against the bowl each time you scoop up a bit ganache.

This will prevent rouge bits of chocolate ganache from dripping off the bottom of your spoon all over your counter and your cake.

Adding Drips Using a Squirt Bottle

The second way you can add drips to a cake is with a plastic bottle. Once the chocolate ganache is made, carefully pour it into a plastic squirt bottle.

Not everyone has these on hand, but they’re pretty cheap to buy! You can find them at Target, Walmart, or on Amazon (that’s where I get mine).

You can also place your ganache in small piping bag if you don’t have a bottle.

I like using a squirt bottle because it helps you add drips to a cake a lot faster than a spoon. In my opinion, it also is a lot easier!

If you have leftover ganache, you can simply pop the cap on your bottle and throw it in the fridge.

Leftover chocolate ganache can last in the fridge for up to a month. I have a little shelf in my fridge door dedicated to bottles of leftover ganache!

To reuse leftover ganache, pop the bottle into the microwave and reheat in 10 second intervals until it’s fluid again and looks like it’s the right consistency.

What Should My Drips Look Like?

I always say no two drip cakes are alike. They’re all unique and beautiful in their own way!

There is no right or wrong here, just drips of all shapes and sizes! Different types of drips can help you achieve different looks for your cakes.

Sometimes I want a chunkier drip that’s super defined. It makes cakes feel almost cartoonish to me, and I think they’re fun. I went for this look with my peppermint mocha cake and used a spoon to add these thick drips. I loved the finished look!

Other times I want thinner drips, like on my dark chocolate strawberry cake. I wanted the drips to look like the chocolate dipped strawberries were running over the edge of the cake.

These drips turned out just how I had hoped and were a bit thinner and longer than my usual drip cakes.

That leads up right into drip length. Do you want your drips to run all the way to the cake board? Should they vary in length, or have a uniform look? You tell me!!

I’ve done them all. I generally like drips that vary in length a bit, but there’s nothing with drips that are all the same length.

Shorter drips can be great if you’re planning to add decoration around the base of the cake. Longer drips can be fun if you’re going for an over the top or dramatic look.

In general, I like my drips to stop about 2/3 of the way down the side of a cake and vary in length.

Tips For Adding Drips to a Cake

Whatever look you chose for your drip cake, I have two very important steps I recommend following to make sure you get the look you’re after.

Tip #1: Chill Your Cake

My first tip is to only add drips to a chilled cake! I mean THOROUGHLY chilled. Crumb coat your cake, then smooth on a second coat of buttercream and chill the cake until the frosting is firm to the touch.

This can take up to 30 minutes in the fridge, or about 10 minutes in the freezer.

Chilling your cake will help your drips stay in place once they’re added and help prevent them from running down too far.

Tip #2: Make A Test Drip

My second tip is to make a test drip. You can do this on your chilled cake, or even the side of a tall cup if you want a little extra practice.

Take your ganache and make a couple drips on your cake. Let them flow and sit for a couple minutes. See what they look like and how far they ran down the side of the cake.

Are you happy with how it looks? This is your time to make changes to get it just right. Is it too thin? Did the drip run too far down the cake? Maybe you need to let your ganache cool more or melt in a bit more chocolate.

Is your drip too thick or short? You might need to pop the ganache in the microwave for a couple seconds (seriously, don’t heat it for more than 5 seconds). Or maybe you want to add in a tiny bit more heavy cream.

This is the point in the process where my eagerness can get the best of me. I think I’ve made the necessary adjustments and dive right into adding all my drips.

But for all you know, you may have overcorrected! You may have actually heated or cooled your ganache too much.

After each adjustment to your ganache, you need to do another test drip. It’s worth taking the extra few minutes to make sure your ganache is the perfect temperature.

Tips for Making the Best Chocolate Drip Cake

• Use this drip recipe on any type of chilled buttercream cake.
• Don’t add this chocolate drip to a cake covered in fondant. It can do weird things to the fondant and create a goopy mess.
• I prefer using mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, but any type of chocolate chip (or finely chopped chocolate bar) will work. See my notes above about using different types of chocolate.
• Be sure to use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream! You need the high fat content to create the right consistency in this recipe. Milk cannot be used in place of the cream.
• To make a vegan version of this chocolate ganache drip, use coconut cream and dark chocolate.
• If you want to make a cake with colorful drips, try my colorful drip cake recipe.
• If you’re more of a visual learner, check out my detailed video tutorial.

Making This Drip Cake in Advance & Storage Tips

• Make the chocolate ganache drip ahead of time or save leftovers! Once it’s made, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap or cover the top of the plastic bottle and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
• To use chilled ganache, heat the bottle or bowl in the microwave for 10 second intervals until it reaches the right consistency
• Use leftover ganache to top cupcakes, cookies, or even ice cream!

Share Your Creations with Me!

If you try this chocolate drip cake recipe, please tag me @chelsweets and use #chelsweets so that I can see your amazing creations!

And don’t forget to leave a rating and comment below.

Other Recipes You Might Like: