Recipe

Literally Dazzle Your Date With The Shiniest Cake Ever

By Isabella Darby at University of Oxford

Things don't always go quite as planned. Valentine's Day is no exception. No matter how hard you hope and pray, stuff inevitably goes wrong. Maybe you forgot that your date doesn't drink when you brought out these Valentine's Day jello shots. You were probably too busy gazing into your SO's beautiful eyes, Lady and the Tramp style, over a romantic shared plate of spaghetti to notice that your chocolate and raspberry lava cakes were burning in the oven to a crisp. Or perhaps your crush simply didn't find these adorable love bug cupcakes as funny as you did (although in this case, you might want to re-think whether a second date is a good idea...).

Luckily, it is possible to salvage your love life and win yourself a second date with this extra special mirror glazed cake. No one can resist such an aesthetically pleasing dessert, and the colour combinations and decorative possibilities are truly endless.

This type of glaze can be applied to any type of cake, as long as it is coated in a non-absorbent coating such as mousse or buttercream. To save time you could even buy a pre-made cake or cake mix and just add the glaze. While it does require some special equipment and ingredients, it is well worth it to see the amazed facial expressions mirrored in your beautiful shiny cake! 

How to Mirror Glaze a Cake

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Servings: 8
Ingredients
  • 220 grams chocolate broken into pieces use white chocolate if you intend to add colour
  • 16 grams gelatine powder or sheets
  • 140 grams condensed milk
  • 250 grams corn syrup or glucose syrup
  • 150 grams sugar
  • Cold water
  • Edible paint or food colouring to decorate

Isabella Darby

Step 1

Put your cake in the freezer. Any cake will work but the surface must be smooth and non-absorbent e.g. mousse, buttercream, cheesecake. I used a raspberry mousse cake.

Step 2

Soak your gelatine in 100ml of cold water. If using sheets, they should soften in the water. If using powder, it should absorb all the water there.

Isabella Darby

Step 3

Mix the syrup, sugar, and 60ml of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. If the syrup if thick and hard to stir, you can warm it first over the heat to thin it.

Isabella Darby

Step 4

Add the gelatine and condensed milk. Remove from the heat and combine. Make sure that all the gelatine has melted into the mixture. Then pour this over your chocolate, and stir until the chocolate is melted. Do not whisk too vigorously; you don’t want to get air bubbles into the mixture.

Isabella Darby

Step 5

Now, you may colour your glaze! White chocolate is obviously best for this, but I used dark chocolate because I wanted a black glaze. I prefer gel food colouring, but liquid also works.

Isabella Darby

Step 6

Remove any lumps by straining through a sieve into a pourable container.

Isabella Darby

Step 7

The glaze has to cool to about 34-37 °C / 93-99 °F before it can be used. Alternately, if you make this earlier, you can re-heat it in the microwave.

Isabella Darby

Step 8

While cooling or reheating the glaze, place the cake on either a cooling rack or a pedestal like an upturned bowl over a tray to catch any glaze that drips down.

Isabella Darby

Step 9

Make sure that the cake is as smooth as possible, with even surfaces. You may want to smooth the edge down with a spatula or your finger to create an attractive rounded edge to your cake.

Isabella Darby

Step 10

When at the correct temperature, pour the glaze over the cake evenly in a swirl motion. Make sure all the sides are coated as well. It is important that the glaze is at the correct temperature. If too thin, it won’t coat properly, but if too thick, the surface won’t be as smooth as desired.

Isabella Darby

Step 11

Soon after, so that the glaze doesn’t begin to set, you can decorate your glaze should you choose. The easiest way to do this is to drip edible paint or food colouring onto the glaze and then, using an offset baking spatula, swipe the colour across the surface of the cake. I did this with edible gold paint. For a marbled look, you can make glazes of multiple different colours and marble them together before pouring them over the cake.

Isabella Darby

Step 12

Finally, run the blade of the spatula around the bottom edge of the cake to remove any drips. Leave your cake to set and enjoy!

Isabella Darby