Chocolate Mirror Glaze

This chocolate mirror glaze is a really beautiful shiny glossy glazes that you can use on chocolate cakes and any cakes that you want to glaze with a chocolate ganache. Get the semi-sweet chocolate and melt it over a water bath making sure the water and the bowl you are melting your chocolate with do not touch because then it will become so hot. After the chocolate is melted, move to the mirror glaze so take your water and pour into a saucepan and add in the sugar.

Bring the sugar mixture to a boil and scrape in glucose into the sugar syrup using an ice cream scoop to avoid getting a little bit messier. If you cannot find glucose use white corn syrup. Once that is coming to a boil start to soak the gelatine (this is what will give the glaze that nice glossy finish and is what kind of stabilizes the two.) What you have to do to gelatine first in bloom it or soak it first in cold water, you have to put the leaves one at a time so put some water in a bowl or jug and put the gelatine one at a time because if you put a whole bunch and stick it in the water basically seals on the outside and it never fully dissolves.

Once the syrup is ready let it boil to about 20 to 30 seconds just briefly and then it is ready to go. Then pour it right into the cocoa but do not add all the syrup all at once to avoid getting lumps so just add gradually making almost a thicker paste at the beginning and then adding more syrup to thin it out that way you do not get big clumps of cocoa powder. So now you just have to add the gelatine so grab a handful of gelatine squeeze out all the water and add it right into the mixture and gelatine melts very easily so just a little whisk and it is all set to go. Now it is essentially finished now just let it cool down you can strain the glaze through a very fine mesh sieve you can do it now or a little bit later after it has cooled slightly.

This is because on the surface if you stop mixing it becomes bubbly and foamy and sieving it helps to get rid of that. So gently strain it to a clean bowl. After that, as you leave it to rest cover it in contact with a plastic wrap because of the gelatine it will create a skin on top which you do not want and let it to cool down. Next is tempering chocolate, the way to temper the chocolate is to use the seeding technique which is the most approachable for doing it at home.

Seeding essentially means getting your melted chocolate and add in the same chocolate which is in the unmelted stage which might seem as counterintuitive the whole idea of tempering is dropping temperature as quick as you can while applying movements. The key is to just add a little bit of chocolate and you can feel it thickening. Before testing it leave it 1 minute undisturbed and stir it up before testing. Ideally, let the chocolate set up in 5 minutes at room temperature.

Before you use your chocolate make sure to give it a quick stir first basically drizzle using a pallet knife or spoon so drizzle a line of chocolate go in the middle of your chocolate and scrape that thing up and away on an angle and do the same from the other side tend to rotate it and the angle you go on is really up to you.

Get an offset spatula to dip it in warm water and smooth the sides briefly then now we can glaze. The glaze should have a nice fluid texture to it almost a slight elastic quality give it a stir and pour the glaze on top of the cake (you do not want to pour too slowly basically just pour the glaze on and let it cascade and flour over and that just gives you the really smooth finish) starting the middle and work your way to the edges and if you want some colour on it you can just drizzle it and let it kind of melt right into the glaze.

Let it drain for a minute or two and with your finger or pallet knife move all those drips. Now leave the cake in the fridge to defrost and serve it.