How to Bake Harry's Cake

I thought I would do something a little out there for my first 'official' post and it's how to bake Harry's birthday cake that Hagrid makes him from the first book/film. I know that baking is not everyone's cup of tea, however I found this to be so nostalgic. I love Harry Potter and baking this while listening to the amazing soundtrack on Spotify (this is a must) was really fun.

Before I actually get to the recipe, I do have a huge confession for someone who adores reading.. I'VE ONLY READ THE FIRST BOOK.. okay maybe only half of the first book..

I know what your thinking HOW HOW HOW!! well here's the thing, when I was younger I didn't really know about the Harry Potter series, I think I was too young to really understand it. The first book series I read was actually A series of unfortunate events books by Lemony Snicket which my dad sold in his bookshop. However when I was around age 6 or 7 (my memory isn't that great) I watched the first Harry Potter film The Philosophers Stone and then proceeded to watch and grow up with the rest of the films.

By now at age 17 I must have watched the film well over 20 times and well I think that has affected my ability to actually pick up and read my beautiful editions. I'm not saying I'll never read them, but for now I have sooooo many other books to read. Don't judge me too much okay, one of my BFF's Libby hasn't even watched the movies, crazy right?!

Anyway I think I've kept you waiting long enough, it's time to BAKE.

What you are going to need:

• 220g (7 3/4oz) unsalted butter, softened

• 220g (7 3/4oz) caster sugar

• 200g (7oz) self-raising flour

• 4 large eggs

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 3 tbsp cocoa powder

• 2 tbsp milk

• small pinch of salt

Method

• Okay so you are going to want to Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 or 180°C, (fan oven 160°C).

• Next Grease and line 2 x 20cm (8in) cake tins. Not going to lie, I don't think my cake tins were this dimension so just use whatever you have.

• Now in a large bowl you're going to want to beat together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.

• Add all the remaining sponge ingredients and beat together well until everything is mixed.

• Now half the mixture between the two cake tins and smooth the top. Top tip, I like to bang the tin against a surface to make sure there are no air bubbles.

• Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean from the middle of the cake.

• Once baked, leave the cake to cool down and then remove from the tins and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. This step is important and don't rush it like I did and burn yourself haha.

Icing

Okay here it goes, to make the icing you're going to need:

• Ready made icing

• Green food colouring

• pink or red food colouring

Yeah, yeah, I know I'm cheating but I'm not the best at making butter cream icing, it either tastes too buttery or far too sweet plus the one I brought from the shop tasted just as good, no one will ever know!

Make sure the icing is vanilla flavour, quite stiff and obviously a white or cream colour.

Now you have your icing make sure to save some in a separate bowl for the font on the cake, we'll come back to it.

Now if you look at images from the film the colour of the cake is a muted light pinky/brown colour. I didn't actually have any pink food colouring in my house (typically unprepared) but I found If you only used about 2-3 drops of red food dye/colouring It did actually come out a light pink colour as the pictures show!

Once the icing is pink you want to spread it on top of one of your chocolate cakes and then place the other on top of that one. Once you've done this and you have one big cake, spread the rest of the icing all over the cake, until it's completely coated.

Now it's time for the fun part! Using the rest of the icing you kept aside, you want to add green food colouring so It turns a dark green colour and mix well. Once you have done this put the icing into a piping bag and cut a small hole in the tip.

Now's the time for the lettering, as you know Hagrid is a messy bloke so it's okay if you are too, its the look we're going for. The lettering you want to pipe is; HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY.

Once you've finished this, you hard-core HP fans out there will know that Hagrid actually sat on the cake so it has a crack in it. What I did to achieve this look, was to just drag a wooden skewer through the icing on the cake it certain places so it resembled a crack.

And there you go Alohomora ( my fav spell the unlocking spell ;) your very own Harry Potter cake.

By the way any of you taken the sorting hat quiz on Pottermore to see what house you're in?

I'm a Slytherin.

Lots of Love, A

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