Chocolate Mirror Cake

11 December 2020

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This chocolate mirror cake makes a great impression for any occasion and is amazingly chocolaty.

While this cake may seem a little daunting to make at first it is actually just a little time consuming but fairly simple to put together. To make the rich chocolate sponge I use a 150g yoghurt pot to measure out most of the cake ingredients which makes it supper simple.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂

RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

EASY: easy / intermediate.
GREAT FOR: celebrations, birthdays, friends and family over, Mother’s Day, valentine’s day.
TASTE: lots of chocolate 🙂 chocolaty sponge, chocolate buttercream and a shiny chocolate glaze.
TEXTURE: moist sponge with soft buttercream and a chocolate gelatine glaze.
QUANTITY: 8 slices (20cm / 8inch springform pan)
TIME: 2 hours 50 minutes, includes 2 hours cooling.

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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

Natural yoghurt – creates lightness and flavour.

Caster or granulated sugar – gives structure and sweetness.

Neutral-tasting oil (coconut, vegetable or sunflower oil) – any neutral tasting oil is good, I use sunflower.

Medium eggs – build structure.

Plain or all-purpose flour – for adding structure and lightness.

Good quality chocolate – use a good quality, as it is one of the stars in this recipe

Chocolate recommendations: bars – Lindt Excellence dark 70% bar 100g, Montezuma’s darkside 51% bar 90g, Menier dark cooking chocolate 100g, Green and Black’s Organic dark Chocolate 100g, 1kg bags – Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut milk chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate.

Cocoa powder – I prefer to use a high-quality dark cocoa powder. It adds a rich chocolate flavour and builds structure.

Cocoa recommendations: Dr. Oetker fine dark cocoa powder or not as dark – Sevenhills wholefoods organic cacao powder

Butter – for a silky rich butter cream.

Icing sugar – creates a nice smooth butter cream.

Salt – I highly recommend adding a good pinch of salt to your cakes. It might seem a bit weird, but it actually has the incredible ability to enhance sweetness, suppress bitterness, and elevate the flavour of all the ingredients, making your cake taste even better. It’s pretty crazy, the sodium in the salt sends signals to move glucose into your tongue’s sweet taste receptors, making the sweetness really pop. So, don’t be afraid to sprinkle a little salt – it’ll take your cakes to the next level!
I recommend Maldon Sea salt flake s or Cornish sea salt, but any good quality salt is fine.

WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

Buttercream: If you would like to have layers in your cake with extra buttercream, simply double the quantity of buttercream and cut the cake into 2 or 3 layers. Spread the cream over each before sandwiching together. Then follow the recipe spreading the buttercream over the outside of the sandwiched cake to create a nice smooth surface.

If you experiment, Please leave a comment at the bottom of the post – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing how you got on and I regularly update these posts and the feedback I receive helps to make the recipes even more useful.

EQUIPMENT SUGGESTIONS

Milk Saucepan, 1 Litre With Double Sided Pouring Lips

This small pan is a great size for boiling small amounts of liquids and it has pouring lips built into the rim of the saucepan which makes it easy to use.

Springform Round Cake Pan/Tin, Loose Base 20cm (8 inch)

These springform pans make removing cakes from them after baking a doddle. I personally tend to line them as often as possible to ensure that my cakes don’t break for added security.

Wire Cooling Rack, 40 x 25cm, Black

I find this cooling rack really useful and I actually have a couple for when I cool down cakes and biscuits.

Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

NUTRITION

Serving: one chocolate mirror cake slice

Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.

I strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy.

I encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

STORAGE AND FREEZING

This cake keeps well for up to 5 days in the fridge.

Freezing: Because of the mirror glaze, this cake can not be frozen when finished, however, the chocolate sponge cake, can be cling wrapped and frozen in advance.

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Chocolate Mirror Cake

Preparation:10

Baking:40

Resting:2

Total:2 50

Servings: 8

Tools you’ll need:

20cm (8inch) springform pan

This amazing looking delicious cake is not as complicated as it may seem. Follow the three recipes: an easy yoghurt cake, a delicious chocolate buttercream and a shiny glaze to create this pretty cake for any occasion.

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INGREDIENTS LIST

Cake

1 pot natural or greek yoghurt (150 g)
1 pot caster sugar (170 g)
1 pot neutral-tasting oil (150 ml coconut, vegetable or sunflower oil)
5 medium eggs (250g total)
3 pots plain flour (all-purpose) (280g)
100 g dark chocolate (minimum 50% cocoa solids)
30 g unsweetened cocoa powder (4 tablespoons)

Chocolate Butter Cream

200 g butter
200 g icing sugar (US powdered sugar)
50 g unsweetened cocoa powder

Mirror glaze

50 g water
100 g caster sugar
45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
100 g single cream
6 g leaf gelatine

Preparation

Cake: Preheat the oven to 160°C fan / 350°F / Gas 4.
Line a 20cm (8inch) springform pan, lined with baking/parchment paper.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (make sure the bowl isn't touching the water). Stir until melted. Alternatively, melt in the microwave, stirring every 30 secs. Leave the melted chocolate to cool for 5 mins.
Ensure the steam or water is not able to get into the bowl with the chocolate, as this will spoil it.
In a clean mixing bowl add the yoghurt, sugar, oil and eggs.
Gently add the melted chocolate. Whisking to stop the eggs cooking.
Sift the flour and cocoa and add to the bowl. Mix together to form a nice batter.
Pour the batter into your baking pan and place in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Once baked leave to cool.
Buttercream: Beat the butter and icing sugar together with a fork or in the mixer if you have one. Sift in the cocoa and mix again until smooth.
Spread the buttercream over the cooled chocolate cake to get a nice smooth finish evenly across it.
Place in the freezer to set for at least an hour before pouring over the mirror glaze.
Mirror glaze: Soften the gelatin in some cold water.
Place the 50 g water and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat.
Add the sifted cocoa powder and whisk.
In another saucepan bring the cream to the boil.
Add the cream into the cocoa sugar syrup.
Add the softened gelatin and whisk until it has dissolved entirely.
Leave to cool until it reaches body temperature at 37°C / 98°F.
To glaze, place the cake on a wire rack over a pan, to collect the excess glaze and pour the glaze on the cake starting from the centre towards the edges with a circular movement.