Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Fran's 10th Annual Valentines Spectacular
Fran Costigan - Fran's 10th Annual Valentines Spectacular
This event was on
Tuesday, February 03, 2026 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern
Join renowned pastry chef Fran Costigan, Rouxbe’s Director of Vegan Pastry, for her 10th annual Valentine’s Day Spectacular, a live event celebrating indulgent-tasting plant-based de… Read More.
Question:
What brand of chocolate do you prefer to use in your chocolate ganache for the Chocolate Cake to live for?
— Robin Rouse
Answer:
I really do bounce around. I've been using a chocolate for several years, that's called Bell Coad. And it is a Belgian chocolate from a company that I have worked with. The company is called Pures, um, that is available commercially or worldwide chocolate or one of the chocolate companies online, but there are many, many good ones. So for me, the taste matters because if you think about it, what is ganache but a percentage of chocolate, a percentage of a plant milk, maybe some flavor, maybe a little bit of salt and a drop of oil to keep it shiny. So the chocolate is really going to come through. And speaking of ganache, here is some that I made and took out of my freezer and you know, a ganache, depending on the percentage of chocolate, the percentage of liquid can be stiff enough to make center of a truffle or to glaze a cake. So there are many, but what I do prefer to use is a chocolate that is between either 70, 71, 72, 73%.
