Harry Potter's Birthday Cake AS SEEN IN THE MOVIE

I made this cake to match the one in the movie: the one Hagrid gave Harry Potter for his birthday, in the first Harry Potter movie: The Sorcerer's Stone. See the original cake from the movie:

http://lovelace-media.imgix.net/uploads/1022/41bca...

Inside is a rich chocolate cake with chocolate frosting filling.

The top frosting is a normal buttercream frosting, died pink, and written on with green decorative icing.

Enjoy!

If you liked this instructable, perhaps you'll like some of my others. Check them out on my profile or at my NEW FOOD WEBSITE: Michael's Test Kitchen

-Michael

Step 1: Ingredients

Ingredients:

For Batter:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup chocolate chips

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup coffee, hot

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda

4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks

½ cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, softened

For Middle Frosting:

½ cup chocolate chips = 4oz baking chocolate

½ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

For Pink Top Frosting:

¼ cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup milk

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Red food coloring

Green Decorative Icing

Step 2: Preparation

Grease two 9 inch cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease and flour. Tap out any excess flour.

Step 3: Chocolate + Coffee

Over a saucepan filled a bit with water, in a medium bowl, pour the hot coffee. Stir in chocolate chips and cocoa powder, and stir until chocolate is melted.

Stir ½ cup of sugar until it is creamy and dissolved, a couple minutes. Mix oil in well. Remove from heat and set aside.

Step 4: Dry Ingredients

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.

Step 5: Buttermilk / Buttermilk Substitute

To substitute buttermilk, if you don’t have it: in a measuring cup, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

Fill the rest of the cup up with milk and let sit for a few minutes.

Combine buttermilk in a medium bowl with vanilla.

Step 6: Eggs + Sugar

In a stand mixer, whip all the eggs, and the remaining 1 ¼ cup of sugar on high for a few minutes, until fluffy and light.

Now preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 7: Stir It All Together

In the same stand mixer, stir the chocolate mixture and softened butter until completely combined.

Add a bit of the flour mixture, and a bit of the buttermilk mixture alternately into the sugar mixture in the stand mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until combined, no more, no less.

Scrape the sides, and mix a little to make sure everything is combined.

Step 8: Fill and Bake

Pour the batter in equal shares into the two prepared cake pans, and bake in preheated oven for at least 25 minutes, checking to see if done after a 25 - 30 minute period.

Doneness is reached when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few crumbs.

When done, flip cakes over, still in their pans onto cooling rack, peel off the parchment paper. Then flip right side up on the racks and let cool completely before frosting, a couple hours.

If cakes are uneven, you can level the tops out with a knife.

Step 9: Chocolate Filling #1

Heat heavy cream and butter in saucepan on medium heat until it just begins to boil. Make sure butter is melted. Return heat to low, and stir in corn syrup, and sugar, until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla.

Pour hot mixture over chocolate chips in a medium metal bowl, and stir until chocolate is melted.

Step 10: Chocolate Filling #2

Place chocolate mixture in bowl in a ice bath, and stir until frosting thickens and cools. Take out of ice bath and whip with a beater until it is light and fluffy.

Step 11: Spread on the Filling

Spread the recently whipped chocolate filling thickly onto the top of the bottom cake layer. Keep the frosting half an inch away from the sides.

Place the other half down on-top, and press firmly down. Place in fridge while you go on to the next step:

Step 12: The Pink Frosting

Place all Frosting Ingredients (softened butter, milk, vanilla, powdered sugar, and 3-4 drops red food coloring) into a tall small bowl, and whip until thick. I used about 3-4 drops of the red food coloring to turn it light/dark pink, but if it has not reached that shade as shown in the main picture, then you can put a few more drops in.

Spread a thin layer all around the cake first. This is called the crumb layer.

Place in the fridge at this point for twenty to thirty minutes.

Take out after duration, and coat with a thicker coating of the pink frosting.

Step 13: Green Decorative Icing

You can get a tube of green decorative icing at a grocery store easily, they just are relatively expensive.

First, with a toothpick, sketch out the letters on the cake. Then carefully tube out the green stuff, drawing "HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY" on the cake like so. (see picture).