Chocolate mirror glaze will be something that elevates any cake
Chocolate mirror glaze
If you want to make a very special cake, chocolate mirror glaze will be something that elevates any cake. This is a relatively complicated process. There are many elements to be mastered. There are several chocolate tempering requirements. At the same time, it is necessary with the right timing of some of the elements. It is completely achievable, if you have baked a lot. Result gives a real «wow factor», but chocolate mirror glazing is not just decoration. It also adds a more distinct chocolate flavour.
Ingredients
10 g gelatine (or 6 sheets of 1.7 g)
125 ml of water
200 sugar
150 g good quality chocolate with at least 50% chocolate
30 g good baked cocoa
65 ml heavy cream
Directions
The chocolate mirror glaze:
- Start by putting the gelatine in cold water in a bowl. Leave it to soak until you use it.
- Chop up the chocolate. In a thick-bottomed saucepan, boil water and sugar until it reaches 104 ° C. Pull the pan aside.
- Add the chocolate and stir until completely dissolved.
- Then add the cocoa, stir again until everything is well mixed.
- Finally, stir in the cream.
- When the temperature of the chocolate mixture has dropped to 60 ° C, you can add gelatine. Squeeze out any excess water and stir the gelatine into the chocolate mixture.
- Then strain the chocolate mixture into a new bowl. Use a hand mixer to run the mixture more evenly. Strain again into a liquid measuring cup or something that is suitable to pour off. Stir regularly but gently with a fork. At the same time, you occasionally knock the measuring cup on the table. This allows you to get out all the air bubbles. The fork prevents you from adding new bubbles, and at the same time the regular stirring ensures that you do not get a coagulated skin on the surface.
- You continue this until the temperature has dropped to 30-32 ° C. Then first you can pour the chocolate mixture over the cake.
How to glaze:
- In beforehand you must have put on some type of frosting, but a cake frosting that hardens a lot when it gets cold. This can be, for example, a chocolate buttercream. (See separate recipe with link to such a recipe further down).
- The more thoroughly you are in getting it smooth and even, the prettier the final impression will be. It will therefore be an advantage to cool down and even out with a spatula, that you have heated a little in warm water. Remember to wipe off water before using it. This process of cooling down, maybe put on more chocolate filling, and smoothing out again, you can do as long as you want. Until you are satisfied with the end result.
- Finally, leave the cake in the fridge to cool down well, so that the cake filling becomes stiff and cold before glazing. Only then can you glaze.
- It will be convenient to place, for example, a cooling rack over a large baking pan or the like. Then place an object that is 1-2 cm smaller in diameter, than the cake, on the rack. You can buy your own cake stand for this, but a regular saucepan that you turn upside down, and that stands flat, is just as suitable. If you have a cake of 22 cm, you use a saucepan with a diameter at the bottom of 20 cm.
- Begin by pouring the properly tempered chocolate mixture over the cake. Start in the middle, and work quickly to the edge of the cake. Let the chocolate mixture run down the cake edge, until the edges also are completely covered by the chocolate glaze.
- Now place the whole cake with the rack in the fridge. Let it be fridging for 3-4 hours, so that the glaze is completely set. Only then can you move the cake onto a suitable cake plate or stand.
- Then you can decorate the cake at your liking. It may also be necessary to trim away chocolate, on the underside of the cake, if something has hardened like small chocolate drops. A tip before moving the cake to the cake stand, would be to divide a baking paper, to put under the cake, on the plate in advance. When you have finished decorating, pull out the baking paper, and the cake stand looks just as nice.
Allergy: Gluten free. Lactose. There is little lactose in chocolate with a high chocolate percentage, so if you use lactose-free cream you will get lactose-free glaze.
What exactly is cocoa powder. Read more: Cocoa solids
See the recipe for chocolate buttercream used in this chocolate mirror glaze: Chocolate buttercream