
Last week I made and posted some Butterfly Pea Flower Cupcakes, which were quite good. However, the recipe had way more batter than I had space for cupcakes, so what did I do…Cake! I have a heart shaped silicone mold that I’ve been wanting to bake something in so I figured why not. If it doesn’t turn out well it was extra batter, and if it does…well, I got this beautiful Butterfly Pea Flower Cake with dark chocolate mirror glaze.
The recipe is the same as the cupcakes recipe, being a tea infused cake batter. However the main change is the baking time (because of the larger size) and the glaze. I decided to opt for a glaze this time instead of a frosting because I really wanted to try this dark chocolate mirror glaze from Dominique Ansel’s Masterclass.

Now one thing you might notice is that the glaze isn’t completely smooth. Unfortunately the butterfly pea flower cake underneath wasn’t completely smooth, since it pockmarked a bit in the mold as it baked. No matter, I wasn’t making a fancy entremet this time.

After the butterfly pea flower cake is baked I pop it in the freezer to completely harden. I want it hard so it is easy to remove from the mold. A soft cake will just crumble. The good thing is, frozen cakes are still moist when they defrost so you don’t have to worry about eating a brick or a stale piece of cake.
How To Make Domenique Ansel’s Dark Chocolate Mirror Glaze

This is the easiest chocolate mirror glaze recipe I’ve come across and I think it’s the best. Plus it uses ingredients every baker should have on hand to begin with. The first step is to boil heavy cream with sugar. Most mirror glaze recipes call for condensed milk and this is kinda a cheat way of doing it. Once it is boiled I add in three leafs of softened gelatin (the original recipe calls for gelatin powder, but I prefer leaf).

In another bowl make a paste of water and cocoa powder. This is really quite easy, just whisk around until a thick paste is formed. Next I take the bowl of sugar, cream, and gelatin and pour it into the bowl with the cocoa paste. Ansel says to add the cocoa paste to the pot with the cream, but I didn’t see anything wrong with reversing it.

Once everything is combined I strain it through a fine sieve into a jar. This will stay in the fridge until I am ready to warm it up again and pour.
Assembling The Butterfly Pea Flower Cake With Dark Chocolate Mirror Glaze

Place the just out of the freezer cake onto an elevating rack. Heat the glaze in the microwave until it is runny. You don’t need to really worry about bringing it to a certain temperature, as long as it is thin enough to pour. Then just pour the glaze all over the cake starting from the center. Here’s a tip, pour faster than you think you need to. Most of the glaze will drip down to the tray below (you can reuse it) but you want to pour fast so the glaze doesn’t set right away and block up the rest of the pour.

Butterfly Pea Flower Cake With Dark Chocolate Mirror Glaze
Equipment
- Cake Pan 12 inches (or use a silicone mold of your choice)
Ingredients
Butterfly Pea Flower Cake
- 288 grams Flour AP
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 226 grams Butter room temperature
- 350 grams Sugar granulated
- 3 Eggs large
- 300 ml Milk Butterfly Pea Flower infused
Butterfly Pea Flower Infused Milk
- 400 ml Milk 3.2% aka full fat
- 2 tsp Butterfly Pea Flowers high quality about 10 flowers.
Dark Chocolate Mirror Glaze
- 206 grams Sugar 1 cup, granulated or caster
- 142 grams Heavy Cream 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp
- 3 leafs Leaf Gelatin or 12 grams gelatin powder
- 148 grams Water room temperature
- 71 grams Cocoa Powder 1/2 cup plus 5 tsp
Instructions
Instructions
- In a small pot bring the milk to a simmer. Once the simmer starts, add the butterfly pea flowers, turn off the heat, and let sit for 10 minutes. While it is sitting you can work on the cake.
- In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a stand mixer with paddle attachment (or a hand mixer) cream together the sugar and the butter. Slowly add the eggs one at a time. Then add some flour, then some infused milk, then flour etc… until all the wet and dry ingredients are together in the stand mixer. Once everything is combined, turn off the mixer. Do not over mix.
- Pour the Butterfly pea flower batter into the mold. Put in an oven preheated to 175 C or 350 F for 35 minutes.
- When done, remove and let rest on a counter until completely cool. Place in freezer until ready to assemble.
Dark Chocolate Mirror Glaze
- In a pot bring the cream and sugar to a boil. In another bowl hydrate the leaf gelatin in some cold water.
- In a separate bowl combine the cocoa powder and water and mix until you form a paste.
- Place the leaf gelatin into the cream/sugar mixture and stir to incorporate.
- Pour the gelatin cream into the cocoa paste and stir to combine. Stir well so as much cocoa powder is dissolved into the liquid as possible.
- Run the glaze through a fine sieve into a container. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
Assembly
- Remove the frozen cake and slice off the bottom (if you need to to make it even).
- Place the cake on an elevated rack.
- Microwave the chocolate glaze until it is thin and runny. Quickly pour it over the frozen cake faster than you think you should. Pour from the center and let the fast moving glaze fall off the edges. Let sit for a few minutes, then use a large knife or off set spatula to move the cake to a serving plate.