Mirror Glaze Cakes are a big trend in the cake world lately, with their glossy shine and often bright colors and whimsical designs. We are excited to demonstrate our version of this popular look, which came together surprisingly quickly! (Hooray for cakes that look much more difficult than they actually are!)
I love the unique look and am excited to make more mirror glaze cakes in the future. The design options are endless! Make sure to check out our Mirror Glaze Recipe below, as well as a few helpful hints and notes. Enjoy the video!
Update: Although we love the wow factor of this cake, we discovered after filming that it slices much more easily when the cake is well chilled. At room temperature, it becomes difficult to cut, as the glaze is not easily sliced through and tends to drag along with the knife. You may wish to pick a soft cream or mousse filling for this reason. (We’ve tried several recipes to compare, but all had this in common.)
*We have found that is it much easier to neatly slice the glazed cake when it is chilled.
Materials:
In the video, we glazed an 8″ round cake, which was filled, settled, & then frosted with our Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe.
Mirror Glaze: Click Here for our Mirror Glaze Recipe
Miscellaneous: Cake board (cut to size of cake), small bowl or object to elevate the cake within a larger lined bowl or cake pan, knife, spatula, turntable for frosting cake, pedestal or covered cake board/base, candy thermometer is very helpful in checking glaze temperature, toothpicks for creating the swirls.
Coloring Gels: We used Wilton Pink Candy Color and Americolor Bright White. As we discussed in the video, regular gel coloring seems to work just fine…no seizing issues. So, if you’d rather used pink coloring gel rather than candy color, that should work well. (Do a small test first to be sure!)
Notes:
We find that the cake cuts most easily when chilled and will give the cleanest slices.
We froze our smoothly frosted cake for approximately 20-25 minutes before pouring the glaze.
The glaze was heated to approximately 90-95 degrees F.
We divided our glaze into two bowls for tinting. One bowl had 2 cups of glaze (which is enough to cover the 8″ round cake.) The remaining cup of glaze was for the white accent color. As it turns out, we didn’t need this much for the white glaze. I only used a small amount.
After glazing, we chilled the (still elevated) cake in the refrigerator until it had begun to set. Then I cleaned off the drippy edges with a knife. Next, you can return to the refrigerator or leave at room temp to set up more. (We refrigerated.) Once the glaze has set up enough that it can be touched without causing issues, you can lift onto a pedestal or cake base as usual.
We found it much easier to neatly slice through the glazed cake when the cake was chilled. The flavor is sweet but not overpowering. After 2 days in the refrigerator, the cake was still very glossy.
Mirror Glaze
2 packages gelatin (14g) – I used Knox unflavored gelatine
¼ cup (59g) water for softening gelatin
½ cup (118g) water
1 ¼ (225g) white chocolate
⅔ cup (200g) sweetened condensed milk
⅔ cup (215g) light corn syrup
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
Soften gelatin in ¼ cup water, stir with a spoon, it will be very thick. Set aside
In a saucepan, heat water and granulated sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When sugar has dissolved add light corn syrup and condensed milk.
Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it begins to boil, remove from the heat and add the white chocolate chips and gelatin, use a whisk and stir until the chocolate chips and gelatin are fully incorporated into the mixture. At this time you can add color to the mixture.
While the glaze cools to approximately 90-95 degrees, line a cake pan or or large bowl with aluminum foil to catch the drips while pouring the glaze. Elevate the cake (with cake board) over a small bowl so the glaze can freely drip down the sides of the cake.
If the glaze cools down too much and begins to thicken, you can microwave a few seconds at a time until it is pouring consistency.
* Your frosted cake needs to be well chilled before pouring the glaze. * You can make the glaze 4 days in advance and store in the refrigerator in a bowl with plastic wrap pressed onto the top of glaze to prevent a skin from forming and another layer of plastic wrap over the top of the bowl. When you are ready to use just reheat in the microwave to bring back to the correct temperature for pouring. The cake covered in the mirror glaze does not need to be refrigerated unless the cake filling is perishable. The glaze will stay shiny for 2 to 3 days.
Wow, that’s pretty cool.
Looks like you got burned at the beach, ouch!
Looking forward to more videos!!
I am wondering what does mirror glaze taste like and does it dry to a crisp shell or is it gooey?
Hi Ellen- Haha, yes I got sunburned when I went out to lunch that day–sat in the wrong chair, lol – I wish it was from being at the beach ;0)
Let’s see….the glaze is sweet and has a bit of the flavor from the white chocolate…but it’s not overpowering. We let ours set up in the refrigerator, and it can be touched without being sticky. It has a bit of give to it, because of the gelatin. The next day we set it on the counter to warm to room temp and again, it could be touched without an issue. The only time that it became a bit sticky was when it was under a cake dome in front of a sunny window…probably got too warm and also couldn’t breathe. ;0) –
The cake cuts though the glaze most easily when it is chilled. If that’s not an option, a hot knife cuts through the glaze more easily than a room temp knife. Hope this helps!
thank u thank u thank u. how i was wishing for this tutorial and there it was…..a big hug;))
Very pretty! I’ve been seeing a lot of cakes with the mirror glaze as well. Love it! I’ll have to try it when I can find some time :)
Hi Melissa thx for the great tutorial. Most of the recipes out there leave a resting period and then they reheat the glaze. I am guessing the reason behind this if to let the bubbles rise to the surface. Did you encounter any problems with bubbles?
I’ve been seeing this mirror glaze everywhere and most of the recipes were using gelatin sheets, so I’m glad to see yours using the powdered gelatin. I’m definitely going to try this!!! Do you think the leftover glaze that dripped off is reusable or is it not worth it? Your cake turned out great and I agree to not put a border on the bottom. Thank you for the tutorial. Can’t wait to try it!!!
@Linda- Thanks! No, we didn’t do a resting period but we didn’t have bubble issues. We stirred slowly when combining everything over the heat and so that helps to keep the bubbles in check also. There are lots of different methods floating around for this technique but this one worked well for us! ;0)
@Joan- Thanks so much. Yes, we were glad that the powdered gelatin worked well also! The leftover glaze can be reused/reheated if you find that you need it. You can microwave it to get it to the right temperature. You can refrigerate leftover glaze if you’d like for at least a few days. I haven’t tested beyond that. Have fun! ;0)
@Manita & MsGF- Thank you!! xoxo
Hi Melissa! Thank you for the tutorial! I’m wondering if Nestle white chocolate chips would work, too?
Thank you,
Lisa
Hi Melissa! I love the way this cake turned out. I was wondering how the glaze tastes like? It does look really elegant and pretty. Will surely give it a try. Thanks for an easy tutorial as always.
Hi Lisa, Yes, Nestle White Chocolate Chips would be fine. I also want to add that when we first cut the cake it had been in the refrigerator and was well chilled, we sliced the cake and had clean cuts. Later as the cake was warming up but still cool, we could not get a clean slice of cake. The knife would catch and pull the glaze to the side and often off the cake slice. You would not be happy with this presentation when serving. We are sorry we did not find this our sooner. We have tried several other mirror glaze recipes today and the same thing happened. To slice this cake with success it would need to be served cold. Since most people serve their cakes at room temperature, we think the mirror glaze would be best used on a cake that is served cold such as a cake with mousse filling.
Bebe, thank you so much for responding! I’ve heard of people using a mousse with this texture. Will there, maybe, be a new video with a mousse recipe on its way ??? No pressure! Lol! Thank you, again!
Hi Melissa, please, What is light corn syrup? Thanks
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I want to try to do it but I wasn’t sure if it will come out good but with your tutorial I will defiantly do it. Thanks.
Thank you Melissa. You always do such a good job teaching. I enjoy learning from you and watching all the videos. Thanks again.
Can you use milk chocolate or semi sweet to make a chocolate mirror glaze? Thank you for all of the great videos over the years!
Thank you Melissa for a great tutorial as always. I have been dying to see how to do this style of cake. I am so glad to have this video now!
Yes I agree with @lisabakecakes that it would be great to see a mousse tutorial :)
Omg Melissa. U r a star. No let me rephrase this. U r a STAR ? thank you so much for the tutorial. See. You make it look so easy and it makes so much sense now. Dying to try it
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Thank you Melissa for this wonderful tutorial! . . . I have been collecting recipes for mirror glaze I saw on the net but was hesitant to make them since most have rather vague instructions. . . probably not wanting to share some secret ideas? . . . am so glad I opened my computer and saw your video! . . . . your tutorial make me confident that I am doing the right thing! . . .
Thank you all so much for your comments!! xoxo
Hi ..Nice tutorial, thank you.. I want to ask the same as Lisa… if we use regular chocolate chip can we make it chocolate mirror?..
HI Claudia, I think you could use chocolate chips for a chocolate mirror. I have only used white chocolate chips so I am not sure how the ratio of milk chocolate or semi sweet chocolate to milk will change. I hope to give it a try soon.
Hi Melissa, would it be ok to use it on a regular bundt cake, without any buttercream?
Thank so much
I was wondering if a cake covered in mirror glaze can be frozen. Would the glaze still be shinny. I want to make a cake for a 50th wedding anniversary. I was thinking of white glaze with gold marbling. I could not find any gold tinting color. Is there anything else I can use?
Hi Danielle- I usually try to avoid freezing frosted cakes due to the condensation that can form when it thaws– in this case, with the mirror glaze, I’m not sure how moisture will effect the gelatin in the glaze and as you mentioned it may effect the amount of shine also. I haven’t tried it though and so I cannot say for sure. If you do try freezing, I would freeze in a bakery box with the sides taped up. You’ll want to thaw in the box and hopefully the bakery box will absorb some of that moisture. Thawing at least part of the time in the refrigerator will also help to control the condensation.
Usually, gold accents are created by combining food safe/edible gold luster dust with a small amount of alcohol or lemon extract (which contains alcohol) to create a “paint” consistency. You could try drizzling some gold here and there just after pouring your glaze while everything is still running off of the cake. I’m not sure how the alcohol effects the glaze either and so I would use sparingly (or maybe you can find more info online about adding gold from decorators who use this technique.) Some decorating stores sell edible/food safe gold “paint” for cake decorating also.