Double Daring Bakers: Mirror Cake

Finally, the much anticipated mirror cake! This was a Daring Bakers recipe from early 2007. I joined the group in December that year and there were still folks talking about the Strawberry Mirror cake. It is impressive looking, that's for sure.

The top is a shiny mirror like surface of jellied berry juice. In my case, I used strawberries and some other mixed berries- blackberry, raspberry and blueberry. I think one of the challenges that people face when making this is resisting the temptation to pour a bunch of juice on the top. The thin, only 1/16" layer of the mirror is really elegant once it's done, but doesn't feel like enough when you're pouring it on.

To assemble the cake, you make a Bavarian cream with fruit puree and fill the bottom of a spring form pan. You situate a layer of sponge cake in the cream, add more Bavarian cream, another cake layer, and top with more cream. My layering job filled the pan to the very top, so I improvised with a collar made of transparency paper- a tip learned from making the French Yule Log in December, thank you Daring Bakers! I was able to pour the juice layer on top and it set up without too much of it leaking down the sides. Whew!

Here's the cake firming up with the collar made of strips of transparency paper (yes it's taller than is needed). This actually worked out pretty well. I was able to smooth the top of the cream against the edge of the pan and get a nice even layer of the fruit jelly. On some of the images I found of the mirror cake, I noticed that it was pretty when whole, but any unevenness in the mirror layer was noticeable once it was cut. The accident of getting the pan too full is one I will definitely repeat!

See this post for the recipe. We liked this one a lot. Sort of reminiscent of the Strawberry Maria which was also a favorite.

Happy Baking!
-Janet