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mirror cake
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the shiniest cake of all? This one!
hey curious cook—
Have you heard about our Young Chefs’ Club? Members get a themed (and kid-tested) box delivered each month!
Prepare Ingredients
Gather Baking Equipment
Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and place cooling rack inside baking sheet. Place frosted layer cake on 9-inch cardboard round or flat plate and place in freezer while making glaze.
In small bowl, use spoon to stir together gelatin and ¼ cup water. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small saucepan, combine sugar, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and remaining ½ cup water. Cook sugar mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally with rubber spatula, until mixture starts to bubble around edges, 5 to 8 minutes. Turn off heat and slide saucepan to cool burner.
Use rubber spatula to scrape gelatin mixture into saucepan with sugar mixture. Stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add white chocolate chips and stir until melted and mixture is smooth, about 1 minute.
Place fine-mesh strainer in medium bowl. Pour chocolate mixture through strainer (ask an adult for help because saucepan will be heavy); discard solids. Let glaze cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent skin from forming.
Pour ½ cup glaze into liquid measuring cup. Add black food coloring to liquid measuring cup and stir to combine. Clean spatula. Add turquoise food coloring to remaining glaze in bowl and stir to combine.
Remove cake from freezer and place on cooling rack set inside rimmed baking sheet. Pour black glaze into center of turquoise glaze in bowl (do not stir together).
Working quickly, pour glaze over top of chilled cake (in center of cake), letting glaze drip down and coat sides of cake. Some glaze will drip onto rimmed baking sheet—that’s OK!
Food for Thought
How to Cut Parchment Paper or Cardboard Rounds for Cakes
Lining cake pans with parchment paper rounds prevents cakes from sticking and makes them easier to remove. Cardboard rounds help with moving frosted cakes from one place to another. These pictures show parchment paper, but the technique is the same for cardboard rounds.
Place cake pan on sheet of parchment paper or piece of cardboard. Use pencil to trace around bottom of pan.
Cut out parchment or cardboard with scissors, following traced line.
Putting the “Mirror” in Mirror Cake
Before you serve your Mirror Cake, gaze into its smooth, shiny surface—can you see your reflection? That’s where this Mirror Cake gets its name! But what makes the glaze act like a mirror?
Have you ever looked into the surface of a calm, smooth lake, pool, or puddle and seen your reflection in the water? The same phenomenon lets you see your reflection in the Mirror Cake glaze.
One reason puddles and mirrors reflect so well is because they’re very smooth. The frosting on a regular cake, no matter how hard you try to smooth it out, is always a little wavy. But pouring the glaze on our Mirror Cake forms a very smooth, reflective surface—just like water!
Why Do We Use Gelatin to Make Mirror Cake?
The gelatin in the Mirror Cake glaze is liquid when warm and solid when cold. As gelatin cools, it traps water. The water trapped inside the layer of solid, cold gelatin acts like a smooth, reflective pond, puddle, or mirror!
