This mirror glaze cake recipe makes a beautiful shiny chocolate heart with a gold glaze accent
I admit that I'm a little addicted to making mirror glaze cakes! I usually make a mirror glaze cake recipe that is colored and marbled but I wanted to try my hand at a decadent chocolate mirror glaze cake recipe and I was so excited about the outcome! Chocolate mirror glaze is so shiny! It really is like looking in a mirror and oh so pretty.
This chocolate mirror glaze cake recipe is made from chocolate mousse, stabilized whipped cream combined with strawberry puree and chocolate joconde. Freeze that baby solid and then glaze with your chocolate mirror glaze!
Recipe for chocolate heart mirror glaze cake
This cake has a lot of different elements so before you start, you might want to print out all the recipes that are needed for this cake. If you want to use less elements you totally can! To keep it super simple just use the honey mousse and cover in the chocolate glaze.
Chocolate Mirror Glaze Recipe
Mirror Glaze Recipe (for the gold)
Stabilized Whipped Cream Recipe
Strawberry Puree Recipe
Chocolate Joconde Recipe
How to assemble your mirror glaze cake
To make your mirror glaze cake recipe, you'll need a mirror glaze mold. For this one, I'm using one of my favorites, the heart mold.
Start by coating the inside with some chocolate mousse. I use the back of a spoon to smooth the mousse around evenly. Then freeze for about 15 minutes.
Then coat the inside with a thin layer of stabilized whipped cream. Take about ¼ cup of the stabilized whipped cream and combine it with a few tablespoons of strawberry puree. If you don't want to make your own you can use strawberry jam but do not add any powdered sugar to your stabilized whipped cream or it will be too sweet with the strawberry jam.
Spread a layer of the strawberry cream over the whipped cream. Then cut out a piece of your chocolate joconde into a heart shape and press it into the strawberry layer. Fill in the gaps with more cream and cover the back of the cake as well. Smooth the whole thing out with a spatula and freeze solid (Minimum 2 hours).
How to make a chocolate mirror glaze cake recipe
To prepare your chocolate mirror glaze, place your first quantity of water, sugar and sweetened condensed milk into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer over med/high heat then remove from the heat. Don't let it burn!
Sprinkle your gelatin over the second quantity of water and let it bloom for 5 minutes.
Place your bloomed gelatin into the simmering milk mixture and stir until melted.
Pour the hot mixture over your chocolate/cocoa and let sit for 5 minutes then whisk until smooth. I use an immersion blend after whisking to get out as many lumps as possible.
Then pour the mirror glaze through a fine mesh strainer to remove any remaining lumps.
Let the glaze cool until its 90ºF before you pour the glaze over your frozen cake. If you pour it too soon, it will all run off the cake. If you pour it too cold then it won't be smooth. I highly recommend a digital thermometer to keep track of how cool your glaze is and stir it occasionally to make sure it's cooling evenly.
How to make gold mirror glaze
I did a little experiment on making gold mirror glaze for this cake and loved how it turned out. I noticed that mirror glaze is pretty transparent after you first make it and wondered if I added some metallic food coloring if it would be shiny.
It totally worked! The gold mirror glaze was a success! I went with about 1 teaspoon of TMP super gold dust but you could also use gold shimmer dust.
To make gold mirror glaze cake recipe simply make your standard mirror glaze recipe as usual but don't add any white food coloring. Instead, add in metallic food coloring. I used gold but you could use other colors!
I liked the gold mirror glaze as an nice accent to the chocolate mirror glaze cake.
How to pour glaze for your mirror glaze cake recipe
Cut out a cake board in a heart shape to put the cake on. Place the cake onto a small cup or cake pan and place that inside a larger pan to capture the mirror glaze that goes over the sides of the cake to use on other cakes.
Pour your chocolate mirror glaze on first and then the gold streaks if you desire. Let the glaze until the glaze stops dripping. Use a hot knife to cut off the drips and clean up the bottom edge of the cake.
Transfer the cake to a plate and enjoy immediately or refrigerate until you want to serve it but the cake will lose it's shiny and appear more matte after about 24 hours so if it's for a client, glaze the same day that you are going to deliver.
note: you don't have to use all these ingredients for the cake, you could just use straight mousse or just whipped cream and berries. It's up to you what you fill your mirror glaze cake recipe with! Be creative and use the ingredients that you enjoy.
Recipe
Ingredients
Chocolate Joconde (for one heart)
- 50 grams almond flour
- 42 grams powdered sugar
- 12 grams cake flour
- 1 large eggs
- 1 whole egg whites
- 7 grams sugar
- 17 grams melted butter
- 4 grams cocoa powder
Chocolate Honey Mousse
- 3 oz dark chocolate
- 1.5 oz honey
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon dark rum
- 5.5 oz heavy cream
Strawberry Whipped Cream
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoon powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon gelatin powder
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 oz strawberry puree or jam
Chocolate Mirror Glaze
- 350 grams dark chocolate
- 40 grams cocoa powder
- 120 grams water
- 300 grams sugar
- 200 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 100 grams cold water
- 15 grams powdered gelatin
Gold Mirror Glaze
- 150 grams sugar
- 100 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 2.5 oz water
- 16 grams powdered gelatin
- 2 oz water
- 180 grams white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon gold powder
Instructions
Joconde Instructions
- First you need to preheat your oven to 425ºF/230ºC.Sift together your almond flour, sugar, and flour so you don't have any lumps.
Then you should blend in the whole eggs into the flour until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks and slowly add sugar. Continue whipping to firm moist peaks. If they start crumbling you have over-whipped your egg whites and there isn't any way to save them.
Then fold your meringue into mixture until just combined. Make sure you don't over mix it or get too rough and break down all the air you built up in your batter or you'll have a very flat cake.
Slowly whisk in the melted butter and chocolate mixture.
Finally, spread the mixture onto your prepared silicone mat or cake pan and bake for 8 minutes. Make sure you don't over bake your cake.
Once your cake is cooled, sprinkle a thin layer of granulated sugar over the surface of the cake and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit overnight in the fridge. The sugar will dissolve into the cake as a result, the cake will stay moist even if it's exposed to air. Cool huh!
Mousse Instructions
- Place your chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt. Bring your honey just to a boil and remove from the heatPlace your egg yolks into a large heat proof bowl. Add ⅓ of your hot honey and whisk until smooth. Then add in the rest of your honey and whisk until egg yolks are thickened Add your egg mixture to the melted chocolate and whisk to combineWhip up your heavy cream to soft peaks and gently fold into your chocolate base until no streaks are presentPour into molds and freeze
Strawberry whipped cream
- Sprinkle your gelatin over the cold water and let bloom for 5 minutes. Melt gelatin for 5 seconds in the microwave. If not fully melted do another 3 secondsIn a cold mixing bowl, whip your heavy cream to soft peaksAdd in your powdered sugar and vanillaTurn your mixer down to low and drizzle in your gelatin and mix until whipped cream forms stiff peaksFold in your strawberry puree into half of the whipped cream. Save the other half for the back of the mousse cake.
Chocolate Mirror Glaze
- Make sure you have these tools on hand: Fine mesh strainer, thermometer, immersion blenderCombine chocolate and cocoa powder in a large heat proof bowl and set aside. Sprinkle gelatin powder over the second quantity of water and let bloom for 5 minutes. Place first quantity of water, sugar, sweetened condensed milk in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add in bloomed gelatin and stir until completely melted and remove from the heat. Add in your vanilla. Pour the mixture over chocolate/cocoa and let stand for 5 minutes then whisk to combine. Use the immersion blender to remove any remaining chunks or unmelted chocolate. Pass the mixture through the mesh strainer to remove any bits of chocolate or gelatinLet the mixture cool to 90ºF before pouring over your frozen cake.
Gold Mirror Glaze
- Add the sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and first quantity of water to a medium-sized saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.Pour the second quantity of water into the powdered gelatin and mix with a spoon. Leave to fully absorb for a few minutes.When the sugar, milk and water mixture begins to simmer, remove from the heat and add the bloomed gelatin. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved.Pour the hot liquid on top of the chocolate chips and leave to sit for 5 minutes to melt.Use a whisk to stir the glaze until the chocolate has completely melted.Add the gold dust and mix with immersion blender until well-mixed. Pass the glaze through a fine strainer to remove lumps. Leave the glaze to cool.Once the glaze has cooled to 90º F / 37º C, pour it over the frozen cake which is on top of a cup, sitting on a tray or plate with a edge to catch the drips.Leave the glaze to set for 5 minutes before using a hot knife to remove the drips.Transfer the cake to a plate and enjoy right away or refrigerate until you need it. Keep in mind that mirror glaze loses it's shine after 24 hours so if you're making this for a client, glaze the same day as delivery.
Video
Nutrition
Carolyn Carder says
Can you tell me where you purchased the heart shaped pan in this recipe....please?
The Sugar Geek Show says
There should be a link at the top of the blog post to my amazon store but yea that's where I bought it 🙂
Angela Doyle says
Do people like the taste of the mirror glaze? I have never tried it but would love to try it for Valentines Day but wasn't sure about the taste of it.
The Sugar Geek Show says
It doesn't have much of a taste, its more about the vanilla mousse underneath.
Ann Marie says
Hi there! Excited to make this over the weekend. Clarification on the jacinde instructions please . Above it mentions blend in 5 whole eggs ... typo possibly ? The ingredients only lists 1 egg and 1 egg white. I don’t want to assume lol
Thanks so much
The Sugar Geek Show says
Good catch, I adjusted the recipe in the mirror glaze cake recipe to be only enough joconde for one heart instead of a full batch which normally has 5 eggs. I have updated it 🙂
ann marie says
Thanks so much!! Making this today . Excited
Aliyah says
Hey Liz , could I use milk chocolate. I don’t want the glaze to be too dark.
Thanks
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you can
Rob West says
Tried this recipe and both glazes were far too thick. Should I try less gelatine?
In the gold glaze does it really need 16g gelatine? That is a lot, and the water quantities being in oz is odd, are they correct?
Thanks
Elizabeth Marek says
All the measurements are correct. If you are using a different type of gelatin that is stronger you might need to make adjustments.
Annie Schwarzbart says
This recipe looks amazing! I'm thinking of making these for Christmas, what could I do to make red and green mirror glaze?
Elizabeth Marek says
You would need to make white mirror glaze (use white chocolate instead of dark) and color it red and green