Today I am showing you how to make the popular mirror cake! The mirror cake is like an entremet dessert that is covered by a boiled sugar and condensed milk glaze.
I’m not going to lie to you- this is one of the most difficult projects I have undertook in a while. If you attempt to make this dessert, please note that it is not as easy as the internet leads you to believe and you can’t just pour it on any cake to create the mirror effect. BUT, that being said, I finally found a glaze and a way to make the cake so you wouldn’t have to go through the suffering like I did.
I first started out trying a glucose based glaze but it was hard to find where I live and it also wasn’t successful each time I poured it on. So with more research, I found a glaze that eliminated the glucose and added in more condensed milk, and gelatin to thicken the glaze that way. This cake is truly a science experiment! Once you’ve master the glaze recipe, you need to make sure you have a perfectly smooth cake- with no imperfections. None. Each little bump will be magnified 100x when the glaze is poured on.
The beauty of this cake is that if you have mastered the recipe and the smooth cake, it is easy from there! And it looks amazing.
Mirror Cake Ingredients:
- 8″ Vanilla cake
- 8″ Jello round (red and blue)
- White chocolate mousse (top layer only)
- Mirror Cake glaze (recipe below)
- Edible gelatin bubbles
- Blue and white candies, dragees, gum balls
Glaze Ingredients:
- 200 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 300 grams granulated sugar
- 150 grams water
- 350 grams white chocolate chips
- 19 grams gelatin (+ 1/2 cup water to bloom)
Glaze Procedure:
- Bloom gelatin with 1/2 cup of water and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Heat milk, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Stir in bloomed gelatin until it’s dissolved.
- Place chocolate chips in a large heat proof bowl.
- Pour hot mixture over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Once chocolate has softened, use an immersion blender to smooth mixture.
- Pour mixture through a sieve to remove any remaining lumps.
- Allow glaze to cool to 33C before pouring.
Cake assembly
- Place cake in the bottom of a spring-form pan. Cover cake with a couple of cups of mousse. Place jello round on top of the cake/mousse, pour remaining mousse on top of the Jello and smooth mousse flat with an offset spatula. Place cake in the freezer to solidify.
- Once the cake is chilled, the glaze can be applied.
- Position cake on a pedestal over a bowl/pan that is larger than the cake. Start the pour of the glaze around the outside of the cake, working towards the center. Make sure that the glaze covers the sides of the cake, right down to the base.
- Let the glaze drip for 5 minutes, cut the drips off from under the cake plate, and place onto a serving plate.
- Serve immediately.
Hi Jenn, I’m not sure which part I did wrongly but my glaze just don’t stick to my mousse.. I failed twice.. please advice, thanks in advance!
If it’s not staying on your mousse, it’s likely too hot and you need to wait longer for it to cool, and therefore be thicker.
I love love LOVE that you try to use the metric system <3 I have found a recipe with glucose that I have mastered really well, but I dont quite like the texture of it. It tastes like marzipane almost, but it´s kind of rubbery and weird. I am going to try your recipe and take on this. It sounds like it might get a better texture 🙂 Thanks for sharing 🙂
I just made this and mostly had success, yay! But you may want to mention that the Jello has to be prepared like Jello Jigglers, which I figured out too late. I haven’t made anything with Jello for years so I ended up with runny blobs that wouldn’t stick together.
Thanks for sharing the heads up!
I tried this yesterday for my son’s birthday cake. (Just family, so it wasn’t a big deal that it totally failed, but in a very tasty way.) I was trying to go off your youtube video, but I should have gone to your website as you recommended. I missed a lot of the important details, like making sure the cake was not baked in the actual springform pan. I didn’t have enough room to get the mousse around the sides. I should have also made the mousse right before using it. It was too stiff to spread without breaking the jello.
In any case, my question is, the jello layer was very prone to breaking. Did you make it using the recipe on the box, or did you use the jigglers recipe which uses less water and is more sturdy?
If your jello was too weak, adding more gelatin always helps! (or doing it the jello jigglers way, but I cant quite remember what that ratio is).
Hello! Can you describe the taste of the mirror glaze?
Hi I’d like to make a 10″ for my daughters birthday party how much should increase the ingredients by ? Also if you apply the mouse & glaze on a frozen cake how long does it take to defrost please ?
Thanks
Thank you for sharing your amazing “mirror cake” 🙂
I would really like to know if I can put the glaze on the top of baked chocolaty cake and not a cream cold cake?
Hi,
I just wanted to check do i need to cover the cake with icing before puting on the glaze? i’ve seen in videos that you need to but you seem to not have used that method?
thanks
Amra
No, I didn’t cover it with icing before the glaze.
Love the look of the cake! Just to clarify, can I make the cake, put jello ring on, then add the mousse and freeze the whole
works for a few days, remove from freezer & apply the glaze an hour or two before serving? Should it be in the fridge for the hour or two before serving?
Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Yes, you have can it frozen ahead of time. Yes, you can have it in the fridge to soften before serving.
I made this cake last weekend for a birthday cake. It turned out great. I do have a question though. What is the easiest and best way to cool down the glaze to the ideal pouring temperature of 33°C?
I just let it sit at room temp until it did.
You could let the bowl of glaze sit in a sink filled part way with cool water until it gets to the right temperature also.
I made this cake for my daughters birthday tomorrow. Just finished in fact. I love the way it turned out amazing. It had a lot of steps but was really simple.
Hi Melissa, did you do the glaze the day before also? If so Howe did you store it until serving? Thanks Brenda
You make it look so easy! My 1st attempt, my jello fell apart when I picked it up so I blended it in with the mousse & it tastes great. I figure both have gelatin so hope this works. Now I’m nervous about getting it out of the springform pan. Are there any tricks to keeping the sides smooth? It looks like my mousse layer wants to crack as I remove the pan.
Make sure it’s frozen solid, and then run a kitchen torch around the outside to soften the mousse right before you open the pan.
Thank you for sharing!
I was wondering if you could tell about transporting the cake.
Is it stable? Will the layers of mousse, jello and cake slide? Or glaze crack?
Thank you
It shouldn’t slide anywhere, but it’s also not a cake I would recommend moving. The longer the glaze sits, the less shiny it becomes.
I’m not very good at smoothing buttercream so this might be better option for me. I’m wondering if I skip the jello step will the moose and glaze still come out even and smooth? How is the glaze taste in comparison to icing and can I still attach fondant decorations to the side of the cake? I’m still new at all this so help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks –
This is a difficult cake to make, just to let you know in case it doesn’t work out…don’t give up! You have to make sure the mousse is completely smooth before pouring the glaze on. You can leave the jello out if you prefer, it’s more of a look for the inside anyway. Yes you can stick fondant to the side, everything and anything will stick to this!
Hello,
Thank you for sharing your beautiful creations and showing us how to make them. I do have quick question. What size is the spring-form pan?
Thank you in advance for your answer,
Melissa
Hi Melissa! My springform pan is 9″ if I remember properly (I’m not at home right now). You can use a 10″ if you prefer. You just want to have enough room around the outside to coat the whole cake in the mousse.
Hi, I don’t get the concept of having jello on a cake what dose it taste like? Is it better than having jam inside.
I’m wondering about the size. It says 8″ cake but in the video the cake seems to be smaller than the outer pan so the mousse can be put around it. Do you close the springform pan to keep the shape ? Is it bigger than the cake size? I’m just confused about the pans really.
Hi! The cake is 8″. My springform pan is 9″ if I remember properly (I’m not at home right now). You can use a 10″ if you prefer. You just want to have enough room around the outside to coat the whole cake in the mousse.
Do you have the recipe for the mousse?
I love the look of this cake! Very beautiful and understated.
I have watched your video a few times and think I am ready to give it a whirl. My daughter’s birthday is next month but I want to do a run through the recipe first.
The recipe is linked in the ingredients, and you may want to double the amount to get enough to cover the cake. You will definitely want to do a run through as it can be a bit tricky of a recipe. Good luck!!
how far ahead can you make this kind of cake? and i don’t seem to be able to find your white chocolate mousse recipe anywhere on this site.
You can make and freeze the cake ahead of time, but the glaze should be applied within a few hours of serving it. The longer it sits, the less shiny the glaze is.
could yo please convert the ingredients from grams to oz