Why So Blue? Strawberry (actually blueberry) Mirror Cake

The hostess for this months Daring Bakers challenge is the wonderful Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. A pretty impressive baker, Peabody challenged us with a Strawberry Mirror Cake.

I spent some time yesterday on Google looking for information on Mirror Cakes and came up with nothing, so what I can tell you is the dessert consists of white cake layered with Bavarian cream (eggs and sugar cooked until thick, then mixed with fruit puree,liqueur and gelatin) and topped with a "mirror" of fruit juice and gelatin.

I was torn all month long between not wanting to make the cake and wanting to add another notch to my Daring Baker "bedpost". It looked like a nice fruity dessert. On the other hand, so much egg, cream and sugar! Did my chubby little body need to make and eat such a dessert? Ultimately, unfortunately, the answer was yes.

I am glad I did. The cake, while not the nicest looking dessert (compared to some of the other DB's amazing efforts) , tastes wonderful. I even managed to forget about all the calories and fat long enough to eat a piece.

I did run into some small problems, but none that truly impacted the cake in a large way. My biggest roadblock was not being able to find strawberries for the Strawberry Mirror Cake.(!) I had put off making the cake all month, hoping for a break in the heat wave we've been having so I could spend some time in the hot kitchen without passing out. It never came, so this weekend was do or die. I made the actual cake part on Friday afternoon. Saturday was too full a day to do anything, and I had plans for Sunday afternoon. So there I was at the grocery store at 8:00 Sunday morning to buy milk, cream and strawberries.

But they didn't have any! Apparently they had run a big sale the previous few days and had sold out. The other grocery stores in our area don't open until 10 on Sundays. It was either choose another fruit or scrap the cake. I chose blueberries. (Obviously.)

Let's go back to Friday for a moment. The sponge cake is baked on a sheet pan, and then two circles are cut out for the two cake layers. Take a look at the job I did on the poor cake.

Not pretty. Thank heavens they weren't going to be visible once the cake was together. My other concern- the cake didn't rise very high.

I started off Sunday morning by making the fruit juice for the mirror and the fruit puree for the cream. Straightforward enough, although the blueberry skins and seeds were hell on my mesh strainers. I ended up having to spray down the strainers with the garden hose in the backyard to get them clean.

The Bavarian cream was the most work. It kicked my butt. I stood over that stove for 40 sweaty minutes, frantically stirring and adjusting the burner to try to thicken the damn stuff without letting it curdle. I think I pulled it off a bit too soon, but I just couldn't bear having the stove burner on for another second.

The fruit puree and gelatin were mixed in (I omitted the alcohol as some of my co-workers do not drink) and the filling was cooled and folded into whipped cream. It was heavenly; a light blueberry fruit mousse. If you could fool yourself into forgetting it is full of egg yolks, cream and sugar you'd think it was good for you. The Bavarian cream is layered with the cake and chilled to set.

When the cake is set, the mirror is made with blueberry juice, sugar and gelatin. You cool it in a ice water bath and pour it on the cake. Smooth off any bubbles (I forgot to do that) and back in the fridge until firm.


I was very pleased with how this turned out. It's quite pretty, and tastes wonderfully light. I didn't think much of the sponge cake, but that's ok as the Blue Devil (aka Bavarian cream) is the real star of the dish.


Thanks for coming by! If you want to make your own mirror cake here's the recipe over at Peabody's. If you'd like to read about the other Daring Bakers experiences with the cake please check out the blog roll.