In my opinion, there simply aren’t enough desserts that really SCREAM New Year’s Eve. That’s why I had to create this over-the-top, extremely festive dessert worthy of throwing a party for. Filled with a chocolate mousse and glazed with a sparkly, glittery mirror glaze, this ball drop cake is a show-off in the best way possible. There’s no denying it’s time-consuming, but most of your time is spent chilling the cake and different components, so you can get ahead of your party planning, then have a wow-worthy dessert ready to present with little effort. Ready to ring in the New Year with the sweetest celebration yet? Keep reading on for all of my top tips on making this cake.

The cake:
The cake is a simple sponge cake that’s easy to make. To form it into a dome shape, you only need a round mixing bowl and some plastic wrap. It’s easier to fit the cake into the bowl than you’d imagine, but you’ll be working with pretty thin layers, so they shape and form to the bowl pretty easily. The trickier part might just be cutting the cake layer in half. I recommend using a sharp, serrated knife with a blade longer than the width of your cake. This will help you cut the layer in half more smoothly. Slicing into the cake will be the biggest celebration of the evening, after all of your hard work pays off.

The mirror glaze:
I’ll be honest—this is undoubtedly the most intimidating part of this recipe, but that’s only because it’s temperature-picky. The actual process of making the glaze is pretty straightforward. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, you’re really going to want one for this. The glaze needs to be poured onto your very cold cake while it’s somewhere between 85° and 90°. I had the best success at 87°, but it took my glaze a different amount of time to cool off each time I made it. It cooled pretty quickly the first time, taking about 45 minutes, but then I had one batch that took right under 2 hours, so pay attention to the temperature.

If you use the glaze while it’s too warm, it will slide right off the cake, and you’ll be able to see the frosting underneath, but if the glaze is too cool, it will harden too quickly when you pour it and won’t be a smooth, shiny coat. It also takes quite a bit of glitter in the glaze to show up once it’s poured. The glitter might seem like quite a bit at first, but once you get it fully mixed in, it will be perfectly glittery—just like the confetti that surely is decorating your floor.

Did you make this recipe? Let’s see it! And let us know how it went in the comments below.

round cake with a mirror glaze with glitterpinterest

PHOTO: LINDA PUGLIESE; FOOD STYLING: MAKINZE GORE