Ok, so i’ll hold my hands up, I’m not the biggest fan of Harry Potter, well, I’ve not seen any of the films or read any of the books. But, I know it’s a thing, a big thing, and Phoebe is currently obsessed with it. As it was her 11th Birthday coming up she specifically asked for a golden snitch themed Harry Potter cake, which is essentially a big golden flying ball. After doing some research into Harry Potter recipes I also identified that ‘butterbeer’ was a popular thing too, so I set out to make that!
The video kind of shows my adventure in attempting to make this wonderful creation for my Daughter, but here is a more concise write-up.
Homemade Golden Snitch Cake
So first up the cake, the body of the cake was made with 4 quantities of this delicious homemade chocolate brownie recipe. So head there to get those things going, alternatively you could use a cake mix or something if you don’t feel confident in baking from scratch. The most important thing here is that the baking time is considerably longer, I greased 2 even sized ovenproof mixing bowls, and baked the brownies for 70 minutes, leaving to cool completely, if you try and move it whilst still warm, it is very likely to break, so be patient. Also bake 3 or 4 smaller portions of brownie batter into a cupcake tray to help build the top of the ball shape (the bottom of a mixing bowl is flat so you will need to create this shape yourself) the video shows this step pretty well.
Make the buttercream whilst the brownies are baking, simply beat together the room temperature butter with the icing sugar, peppermint extract and green food dye. Beat it together until a smooth spreadable consistency is formed that has a nice even colour. The green colour is optional, but it is mint after all and it make it stand out against the brownies.
Get one cake half ready to go onto a cake turntable or it’s final base. Sit a splodge of green buttercream in the centre and place the brownie half onto it, this will help hold it in place. Frost a thin layer on top of the brownie and spread to make it level then carefully turn the other brownie half onto it. Break up the smaller bits of brownie baked in the cupcake case and use these to mould the top half of the ball shape. Of course this is not needed if you have a round purpose made cake mould (like a basketball one) that are available in many baking stores and online.
Next frost the entire cake with a thin layer of buttercream to help create an even round finish. Scrape off any excess, you don’t want too much, it does add a little flavour but also helps the fondant icing stick, too much will make it run off potentially.
Carefull roll out the fondant onto a surface that is well dusted with icing sugar. Once you have a large enough area big enough to cover the entire ball, lift up and drape over the cake. Carefully cut away any excess and save it for the features in a moment. Continue to neaten up the cake, trimming and tucking the icing in where needed until you are left with a nice fondant iced cake.
Next up find a golden snitch image for reference and roll out icing as needed to put features all around it. To make them stick dab only a very small amount of water onto the icing and gently rest the forms parts onto the fondant. You should be left now with a wingless white snitch!
Get some decent edible gold paint and carefully paint the entire cake, most of the gold paints I’ve used before need a couple of layers so let it try in between coats and don’t go too heavy on the coats to make it too wet and potentially damage the icing.
To make the wings it’s pretty straightforward. You’ll just need to get hold of some edible wafer paper or card. This stuff is sometimes used to make flower decorations on cakes etc. Cut the card into two wing shapes for either side of the cake, get some wire or something that you are happy to stick into the cake that is light, but strong and thin. Get another layer of edible card, cut it down to a little piece, wet it, and place it over the wire. Do this with both wings and allow it to dry fully.
Once dry, use some edible metallic silver spray and spray the wings of the snitch fully, this stuff dries very quickly, so turn it over and do the other side. Once both sides are dried use scissors to cut the wings every half inch to open them up and make them look more realistic. With the wings done, they can be inserted into the cake and your harry potter golden snitch cake is done!
How to make Butterbeer
Right, this one is fun and child friendly too. Don’t let the beer name fool you, although it could probably work quite well as a fun cocktail, I’ll maybe try that another day.
For this all you need to do is add the cream soda and the 2 flavoured extracts into the drink and stir gently until combined.
Whip up the cream in a bowl with an electric whisk until soft peaks form and then stir through the icing sugar and butterscotch sauce.
Pour the soda combo beverage into a large glass (although probably better in several smaller glassed for sharing as it’s very naughty!) top with the flavoured cream and serve!
So there we go, I don’t have too much knowledge on Harry Potter, but I do have a temptation to watch the films now to see how I did for comparison.