Mirror Glaze Cake

Oh, y’all. I am 22 challenges into this New Year’s resolution, and this is the only one that I would call a failure. So, if you want to read this to show you how to make a mirror cake, well, walk away. If you’re looking for a laugh, and you want to see what NOT to do, then by all means, stick around. It’s kind of like a car crash. You want to look away, but you can’t. You. Can’t.

Okay, so let’s start at the cake….

 I used this recipe: https://thefirstyearblog.com/lemon-layer-cake/

Why did I decide to use a cake recipe that I’ve never used before when I didn’t even want to make a cake from scratch for this? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I didn’t like this recipe. It tasted floury to me, so, you know, first hurdle.

Also, this fucking recipe tells you the amount of ingredients for ONE layer of the cake. WHY would you do this? Who makes one layer of cake for a layer cake???

For the Cake:

1 ½ sticks of butter, room temperature *or if you’re making 2 layers, 3 sticks (which seems excessive- again, I don’t trust this recipe)

¾ c granulated sugar *1 ½ c for 2 layers

Zest of one lemon * or 2

3 eggs * or 6

1 ¼ c flour * or 2 ½ c

1 ¾ tsp baking powder *or 3 ½ tsp

½ tsp salt * or 1 tsp

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease (or goop) 8 in round cake pans.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest, beating until fluffy.

3. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg until incorporated.

4. In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Gradually add in the dry ingredients into wet. Folding the ingredients together until all incorporated.

6. Bake for 22 – 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Here's a little heart-to-heart at this point of the process: 

Okay, now for the rest of the mirror cake, I used this recipe: https://casuable.com/blog/2017/05/23/food-mirror-glaze-cake/

So, for this you need:

The prepared cakes

18 ounces of strawberry jam

White chocolate mousse (see below)

Mirror glaze (again, see below)

White Chocolate Mousse:

8 egg yolks

¼ c sugar

1 ½ c heavy cream (for the eggs)

1 ½ c white chocolate (over 30% cocoa butter)

2 c heavy cream (chilled for whipping)

1. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer (or in a stand mixer is totally fine) until frothy and airy, then mix in the sugar slowly. Beat until lemon-colored and fluffy.

2. Heat the cream in a pot over medium heat until steaming, but not boiling. Slowly mix half the cream into the eggs *again, you want to do this slowly so that you don’t scramble the eggs!

3. Pour the egg/cream mixture back into the pot with the rest of the cream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon without dripping off too much.

4. Mix in the white chocolate until smooth *take it off the heat before you mix in*. Transfer to a bowl and press plastic wrap to the surface of the mousse so that it doesn’t form a skin while cooling. Chill completely.

5. Once the white chocolate mixture is set, beat the cold cream until stiff peaks. *The recipe says it’s safer to undermix than overmix. That’s bullshit here. Yes, you can make butter if you overmix, but you know what, butter is better than what I got..

6. Carefully fold in the white chocolate mixture a little at a time until completely incorporated. Set aside for later use. 

Assembly of Cake Layers:

1. Spread the jam evenly into the bottom of an 8 in round cake pan, then place one of the cake layers on top. *I put parchment paper in the bottom of the cake pan before I put the jam in. 

2. Freeze completely.

3. In a 9 x 3 in round silicon cake mold, pour 2/3 of the white chocolate mousse, then tap the pan to release air bubbles. *again, I didn't have a silicon cake pan, so I improvised. Not successfully, but I did improvise. 

4. Place the frozen cake and jam disk on top of the mousse, jam side down. Press the cake slightly, and cover with the rest of the mousse.

5. Place the second cake round on top, pressing down until the mousse rises to the level of the cake.

6. Carefully transfer to a freezer and freeze OVERNIGHT; it is vital that the cake is frozen 100% through. 

7. Once you’ve waited 24 hours, carefully unmold the cake onto a cake stand or a wire rack for glazing. 

Mirror Glaze:

300 millimeters water

1 ½ c granulated sugar

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

15 gelatin sheets

26 oz white chocolate

Gel food coloring

1. Boil the water, sugar, and condensed milk in a pot for one minute and remove from heat.

2. Bloom the gelatin in 8 cups of cold water for 5 minutes; then wring the gelatin sheets of excess water, and mix into the sugar mixture. *I didn’t have gelatin sheets- I could only find gelatin powder. I tried to find a conversion, and it was a pain in my ass, and I still think I used too much gelatin. I found something that said 1 packet is equivalent to about 6 sheets, but also keep in mind that you don’t bloom the powdered gelatin in 8 cups of water.. Just find the sheets, or just give up at this point. I mean I kind of wish I had!

3. Pour the liquid over the chocolate, letting it sit for a few minutes to melt the chocolate. Using an immersion blender, carefully blend the chocolate, making sure to keep the blender immersed so you don’t add too many bubbles.

4. Sieve the mixture into a pourable container so that you can get rid of excess air bubbles.

5. Add food coloring.

6. When ready to use the glaze, make sure it’s about 90 – 96F so that it sets up well. Then you can just pour it over the cake quickly. 

Rating (Scale 1 – 5)

Difficulty: 5

Amount of Time: 5

Awesomeness: 1

Okay, so this whole thing sucked. I think the glaze actually did work, but the mousse didn't. The cake was almost inedible because it had to stay in the freezer the whole time because that freaking mousse would melt immediately. I tried one piece and then threw this bitch in the trash. If you have better luck with any of this or any advice, please, tell me in the comments!