Flawless Mirror Glaze (Glaçage)

By LeanneW

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2025 Cake Central
Printed From https://www.cakecentral.com/tutorial/61796/flawless-mirror-glaze-glacage 2025-12-21

You've probably seen shiny smooth cakes all over social media recently. It's called Glaçage or Mirror Glaze. With the right ingredients, a few simple tools, and best practices from Chef Joshua John Russell, you can create these striking cakes with infinite potential for creativity.

Mirror glaze has been around for a long time. It is mostly used by pastry chefs. I remember glazing entrements in culinary school. Recently, mirror glaze has become a hot new look in the cake decorating community. Cake Central asked if I would create a tutorial on how the glazing is done. I jumped at the chance because the company I work for (in2food) has an awesome mirror glaze called Mirall.

Tools & Materials

Cake, prepared and chilled
Mirall glaze, white chocolate & neutral
Microwavable measuring cup or bowl
Thermometer
Food coloring of your choice
Immersion blender
Microwave
Baking sheet
Inverted bowl or glazing rack
Offset spatula
Garnish of your choice

Mirall comes in white and dark chocolate as well as a neutral. The neutral Mirall can be used on fruit tarts and pastries as well. This will also give you a translucent look (so you can see what's underneath. If you want something more opaque then you will need to use the chocolate or white chocolate.

I begin by adding a small amount of white chocolate glaze to my neutral glaze. This will cloud it up a bit so I can get the frosted glass look I am going for.

Now I heat the glaze gently (20 seconds at a time). You want the glazing temp to be around 40 to 45°C or 105 to 115°F. So if you happen to heat it a bit hotter, just let it cool down before glazing. Microwaving is the quickest way, but you can use a water bath as well.

Temperature is KEY! If the glaze is too hot, it will be too thin or could melt the underlying medium. If it's too thick, it will be clumpy and not smooth. I use a laser thermometer to keep the glaze in check.

I am going to glaze my cake with a frosted jade color, a sparkly blue, and gold. If you add powder color to the glaze, you may need to hit it with a hand blender (this will also help smooth the glaze). The glaze will take gel color or oil based color as well.

Note: you want to make sure all of your colors are made and all at the same temp before glazing!

I will be glazing a buttercream cake. You can glaze anything though… mousse, fondant, ganache. And you want to make sure your cake is cold. I popped mine in the freezer for a few minutes.

Elevate the cake on an inverted bowl or glazing rack, over a baking sheet. Now working quickly, I pour my jade colored glaze over the entire cake. This should enrobe the whole cake.

Then I quickly add the blue and gold in smaller amounts, and swipe the top with a spatula.

Once the glaze has stopped dripping, use a knife or offset spatula to clean the bottom edge.

To seal the bottom edge, I need to add some sort of topping. I added some gold dust to cocoa nibs and used my hand to adhere them to the bottom edge of the cake.

Troubleshooting:

If you see bubbles in your final product, you can use a small torch (like a brulee torch), on low to pop the bubbles.

A hand blender will help emulsify and smooth the glaze.

All colors should be at the same temperature before glazing. Tip: you can leave them on a warming plate to stay at temp.

Make sure the cake is cold before glazing