Mirror glaze cake is a cake made with glaze that is so shiny that you can almost see your reflection in it! While this type of glaze works best on smooth mousse cakes, it can work on any cake.
If you are a beginning baker, I would suggest sticking with buttercream frosting for your cake decorating before trying mirror glaze. But, if you are more advanced and you’re up for a challenge, mirror glaze is a fun project to try.
What is Mirror Glaze?
Mirror glaze is like fondant. You don’t make it because it tastes amazing; you make it because it creates a cake that has a unique, amazing look.
You can flavor your mirror glaze with extracts and flavored oils, which help to make it taste better. You could also make a dark chocolate mirror glaze or salted caramel mirror glaze; those variations would definitely fix the flavor problem!
In terms of texture, the glaze is a little gummy – like a cross between fruit leather and jello.
Special Supplies Needed
The key ingredients in mirror glaze are powdered gelatin and white chocolate.
You’ll also need sweeteners. This recipe uses sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and light corn syrup.
Food coloring gives the glaze color.
And, of course, you’ll need some cakes to decorate. For best results, freeze your cakes overnight. (The picture below is of my strawberry mousse cake before it was glazed.)
How to Make Mirror Glaze
Bloom the Gelatin
Mirror glaze starts with gelatin that has bloomed. This step happens in any recipe that uses gelatin, such as my friend Virginie’s pomegranate dessert and my healthy frosting made from yogurt.
Blooming lets the gelatin absorb water and swell a little. To properly bloom gelatin, sprinkle gelatin over water a little bit at a time, whisking to thoroughly combine. Tip: If you drop all of the gelatin in one place, you may end up with large gelatin clumps (not pretty!).
After mixing, let gelatin sit for 15 minutes to bloom (absorb the liquid).
Make the Glaze
Mix the bloomed gelatin with white chocolate and condensed milk and set aside.
In a small saucepan, boil water with sugar and corn syrup until it reaches 217 F. (I recommend you use a candy thermometer to get the temperature exactly right.)
Pour the boiled syrup mixture over the white chocolate mixture and let sit for a few minutes until the chocolate starts to melt.
Then, use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Be sure to keep the blender entirely submerged to avoid bubbles.
Pour glaze through a fine sieve to make sure that it is super smooth and any clumps don’t make it into your final glaze.
Color the Glaze
Next, decide how many colors you would like to mix and separate the glaze into a different container for each color. Add food coloring to each vessel to create your desired colors.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly against the surface of each glaze, and cool to 95 F.
Decorating a Cake With a Mirror Glaze
To glaze your cake, place two drinking glasses on top of a cookie sheet and set your frozen cakes on top of the glasses.
Slowly but generously, pour one color glaze over the cake, being careful to avoid getting air bubbles. Tip: You can pop any air bubbles with a toothpick, but you will have to work quickly.
Quickly, before the glaze fully hardens, pour any other colored glazes over the first one and gently mix colors however you’d like using an offset spatula.
It doesn’t require two people, but it is fun to do with a friend!
Carefully pick up the cake up by using both palms and reaching under the cake. To remove any glaze hanging down off the side of the cake, run a knife across the dangling glaze so that it sticks to the knife and gently twirl the knife to remove. Place the cake on a serving plate.
Leftover Mirror Glaze
To use the extra mirror glaze, heat it back up to 95 F in the microwave or set over a bowl of simmering water.
If not using immediately, store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
Best Tips for Mirror Glaze Cakes
- While the cakes aren’t that hard to make, you’re out of luck if you pour your glaze and don’t like how it looks because the glaze hardens so quickly. I call this a high-risk/high-reward dessert. A mirror cake might not be the dessert you choose to make when your mother-in-law is coming over for dinner for the first time.
- While it might look like you can cover a mirror glaze cake in plastic wrap to store it, don’t even think about it! I touched the glaze on a finished cake with a tiny bit of plastic wrap and the whole glaze came off of the cake when I lifted the wrap!
- You can add mirror glaze to any kind of cake as long as you freeze the cake first, but the glaze works much better if the cake is smooth to begin with. If your cake is not smooth enough, you can always crumb coat it and smooth the frosting completely before freezing.
This is a vanilla cake that has been mirror glazed. It’s a little bit lumpy because the cake isn’t smooth. Mirror glaze works better on a mousse cake.
Mirror Glaze Cake
Ingredients
- 20 grams powdered gelatin 3 packets
- 270 grams water divided
- 300 grams white chocolate I suggest Guittard or Ghirardelli. Nestle white chocolate chips are surprisingly hard to melt.
- 200 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 300 grams sugar
- 150 grams corn syrup
- Food coloring your choice of amount and colors
- 2 small mousse cakes frozen overnight
Instructions
- Sprinkle gelatin over 120 grams of water a little bit at a time, whisking to combine. Try not to drop a lot of gelatin in one place to avoid large clumps.
- Let gelatin sit for 15 minutes to bloom (absorb the liquid).
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine white chocolate, condensed milk, and bloomed gelatin.
- In a small sauce pan, boil 150 grams of water with the sugar and corn syrup until it reaches 217 F.
- Pour boiled mixture over the white chocolate mixture.
- Let sit for a few minutes until chocolate starts to melt.
- Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth, keeping the blender entirely submersed to avoid bubbles.
- Pour glaze through a fine sieve and separate into as many vessels as you would like colors.
- Add food coloring to each vessel to create your desired colors.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly against the surface of each glaze, and cool to 95 F.
- Place two drinking glasses on top of a cookie sheet and set your frozen cakes on top of the glasses.
- Slowly but generously, pour one color glaze over the cake, being careful to avoid getting air bubbles.
- Quickly, before the glaze fully hardens, pour any other colored glazes over the first one and gently mix colors however you'd like using an offset spatula.
- Carefully pick up each cake up by using both palms and reaching under the cakes. To remove any glaze hanging down off the sides of the cakes, run a knife across the dangling glaze so that it sticks to the knife, and gently twirl the knife to remove. Place the cakes on serving plates.
- To use the extra mirror glaze, heat it back up to 95 F in the microwave or set over a bowl of simmering water. If not using immediately, store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
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