Harry Potter Birthday Cake {Part 2}

Emily's Harry Potter Birthday Cake: a gingerbread Hogwarts with royal icing decor and candy glass windows, on a chocolate sheet cake (see recipe below), with marzipan characters. It stands solid and lights up!

When I last left off in the previous post (Harry Potter Birthday Cake {Part 1}), Jenny and I had completed making the gingerbread parts with candy windows and the marzipan characters. The time to assemble had arrived. Jenny mapped out on cardboard cake boards where the building would sit and cut holes in the center with an exacto knife where the lights would sit.

We stuck lights through the holes and taped the rest to the back.

We taped another board over the bottom so that the lights weren't lying in cake and flipped it. Voila!

Then came laying the foundations. A common problem with gingerbread houses is collapse. If you use enough royal icing and make sure the sides are standing, set, and dry before you add the rooftops, all should be well, in theory... luckily in this case, also in practice.

So we waited about 45 minutes for the sides to set, and did a light check while waiting - CHECK!

Then we piped icing along the sides and added the roofs and ice cream cone towers.

Finally, it was time for the castle to come to life! The cakeboard was moved on top of the chocolate sheet cake (recipe below). We watered down some of the royal icing and brushed it on the cake board. While wet, we dusted cocoa and sugar on for the ground. Using an Ateco pastry tip #133, I piped green royal icing into grass and shrubs. The landscape was complete with marzipan trees.

Our heros arrived...

Professor Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat were there to greet Ron, Harry and Hermione...

Hedwig was standing by to deliver birthday cards...

We even made a hut for Hagrid!

Another birthday cake was made with scraps from the Hogwarts cake (just in case the dog got to it)...

Emily, who had been in the dark until this point, was in for a surprise... I think she liked the end result :)

Thanks for sharing in this journey. It took Jenny and I the better part of two days to complete, so this cake was definitely a labor of love, but I was glad I could share it with Jenny and her family. It was a bold project to take on and I don't think we expected it to work. We were surprised that nothing catastrophic happened along the way. We were expecting to burn gingerbread, burn ourselves with sugar, collapse roofs, knock down buildings, or drop the cake, but somehow, every step went smoothly. So, bring on the next challenge. I smell a Lord of the Rings cake in my future... Hey, anything is possible. Just ask Ginny Weasley.

"You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
- Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Texas Brownies or Texas Sheetcake

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup strong coffee
1/4 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa
1/2 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup buttermilk
2  eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter a 17 x 11 inch jelly roll pan (or baking tray with sides).  Combine four, sugar, and soda in large bowl.  In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, shortening, coffee, cocoa, and chocolate.  Stir and heat to boiling.  Pour boiling mixture over dry ingredients in bowl.  Add  buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix well, using a spoon or electric mixer.  Pour into jelly roll pan.  Bake for 20 minutes or until brownies test done in center (toothpick inserted in center comes out dry). Cool completely before serving.

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Harry Potter Birthday Cake {Part 1}

Back in August, my good friend Jenny asked if I would help her make "an awesome cake" for her sister Emily's 16th birthday in December, and six months later, create an awesome cake we did: specifically, a chocolate cake with a gingerbread Hogwarts castle on top, as Emily is an avid Harry Potter fan. Emily was kept distracted by siblings during the process. She knew we were making a cake, but was slightly confused as to why it was taking so long to complete. It took us the better part of two days to finish, so forgive me for breaking this into a two-part post, but I think the end result is worth the wait, as I hope it was for Emily.

For the castle, we doubled a recipe for molasses gingerbread cookies (recipe below). While the cookie dough was chilling in the refrigerator, we drew and cut out templates for the sides and roofs of the castle, and the characters of Harry Potter leaped to life with a can of marzipan and food gels.

Once chilled, the dough was rolled out on a heavily floured surface and the templates were traced with knives to cut out the castle parts. It was easier to cut out the windows on a baking tray lined with parchment paper (that way the windows don't get distorted when transferring the dough to the baking tray).

The pieces were baked and then placed on a wire rack to cool.

After the pieces cooled, we made hard sugar windows (recipe and instructions below),

cocoa-sugar dusted roofs (We brushed a simple syrup on gingerbread pieces and ice cream cones and then sprinkled them with a cocoa and sugar mixture. The cocoa-sugar sparkles in the light and gives a nice weathered texture.),

and royal icing decor (recipe below).

Stay tuned to see the completed Hogwarts cake, that LIGHTS UP...

In the meanwhile, you can test your HP knowledge with this quiz.

Molasses Gingerbread Cookies
from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.

Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a generously floured surface roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Cut out desired shapes. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers for up to 1 week.

Hard Candy Windows

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated cane sugar
1/3 cup hot water
1/3 cup light com syrup

Combine sugar, hot water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. Place on high heat and stir with a wooden spoon until all sugar crystals are dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water. Clip on thermometer. Continue cooking, without stirring, to 290F, then remove from heat. Entire cooking process takes about ten minutes.

Place windowed molasses gingerbread cookies, face down, on a surface lined with aluminum foil. Transfer (carefully - VERY HOT) sugar to a heat proof container with a spout and pour into the windows. The candy cools almost instantly, in about a minute.

Note: We used a pyrex measuring cup to pour in the hot sugar. It then proceeded to harden on the cup and didn't want to come off. Jenny has written this handy how-to for cleaning:

Cleaning Hard Candy out of a Pyrex:
Be VERY VERY VERY careful. Molten sugar can cause serious burns.

As soon as you are done making the candy windows, use a spatula to get as much of the hard candy out of the Pyrex as you possibly can. I recommend pouring it into a stack of three disposable coffee cups. When stacked they can (or did for me) contain the very hot liquid. You can stick a popsicle stick in there to make a very large lollipop; otherwise just let it cool and harden for a few hours and throw it away. Fill the pyrex with hot water and stick it in the microwave until the water boils. Remove from microwave and pour down the drain. Repeat until all the hard candy has dissolved.

Royal Icing

yields 4 cups

Ingredients:
1 pound confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
5 tablespoons water

Using an electric mixer, beat ingredients for 3-5 minutes.
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Glitter Ball Cookies with Creamy Ginger Filling

Welcome to 2011! How did you ring in the New Year? I was blessed to ring in another year with close friends at a lovely celebration, Champagne & Candles, a New Years and Birthday Bash Extravaganza. The Joly sisters hosted a ball complete with a murder mystery and a scrumptious spread of treats.

My contribution was the following recipe. These Glitter Ball Cookies add a fun sparkle to any celebration, so you don't have to wait until 2012 for the next glitter ball to drop - just whip up this recipe.

The beautiful colors of the sanding sugars make them stand out. I used India Tree sparkling sugars, which are great because they are made of natural dies (fruit/vegetable juices) and glimmer wonderfully in the light.

The cookie is a basic butter cookie and the ginger cream adds an unexpected flavor, preventing the cookies from being overly sweet with all that sugar.

The cookies were a big hit, as Erica can attest to (big thumb up!).

Cheers to friends and sparkles!

Glitter Ball Cookies
from Martha Stewart

yields about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoones salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Sanding sugar, in assorted colors

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down side of bowl as necessary. beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour, and mix just until combined. Shape into 3/4-inch balls (chill dough if too sticky). Place sanding sugar in shallow bowls. Roll each ball in sanding sugar, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are lightly golden, 15 to 18 minutes. let cookies cool completely on a wire rack. While cooling, make filling!

Creamy Ginger Filling

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

Beat all ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Filling can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

Spread 2 cookies with just enough filling to allow them to stick together.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!!!
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Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies. You've got to eat them while you can before the wave of New Year's guilt, so here's an easy and plentiful recipe to get your end-of-the-year fix.

These cookies are a personal favorite - they look pretty and are made of chocolate. How can you lose?

This dough keeps well in the fridge for a few days so you don't have to bake them all at once. You can divide the dough into balls, freeze them in a ziploc bag and then sugar and bake them at the ready any day. Fresh cookies in an instant!

If you haven't gotten the picture, these are probably not diabetic-friendly snacks, so I apologize, but I don't feel guilty, because it's only Dec 29...

Chocolate Crackle Cookies
from Martha Stewart

yields 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups light-brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Chop bittersweet chocolate into small bits, and melt over medium heat in a heat-proof bowl or the top of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Divide the dough into quarters, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.

On a clean countertop, roll each portion of dough into a log approximately 16 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, using confectioners’ sugar to prevent sticking. Wrap logs in plastic wrap, and transfer to a baking sheet. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut each log into 1-inch pieces, toss in granulated sugar and then toss in confectioners’ sugar, a few at a time. Using your hands, roll the pieces into a ball shape. If any of the cocoa-colored dough is visible, roll dough in confectioners’ sugar again to coat completely. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake until cookies have flattened and the sugar splits, 12 to15 minutes.

Transfer from oven to a wire rack to let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
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Gingerbread Cupcakes

 Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Ok, I'm just going to skip to the end so I can wish you all a good Christmas and good night!

These gingerbread cupcakes were at hit a my family's Christmas celebration. They are moist, but not dense, and you can smell the wonderful gingerbread spices the moment you come near them.

The gingerbread men toppers with holly and candy canes and gingerbread mice turned out so cute, too!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Gingerbread Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart

yields 16 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup unsulphered molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a boil. In a bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda. Set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground spices, salt, and baking powder. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light. Beat in the brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses, baking-soda mixture, and flour mixture. Beat in the eggs. Fill the cupcake papers three-quarters full, making sure that the batter is divided evenly. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center of them comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cupcakes cool a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
yields 4 cups

Ingredients:
24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

With an electric mixer, beat butter for 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Add vanilla.

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Winter Bark

Tis the season for bark, and thank goodness for that, because bark is one of the simplest holiday treats to concoct!

After making cookies, pies, tarts, meringues, cakes, trifles, and truffles, this will almost feel like cheating but the taste is not cheated, not one bit. It's as easy as this: 1) Melt some chocolates. 2) Add some nuts, berries, or candies. 3) Stick in the fridge for an hour and Voila! 4) Marvel at the magic.

And best of all you can be an artist in your very own kitchen. That's right - it's time to break out your inner Matisse...

or Jackson Pollock...

Just have fun with it! You can't mess up the presentation of this, I promise. And even if you do, you can eat it all and no one will ever know ;-)

For this bark I stuck with the simplicity and used only white chocolate, dark chocolate, and peanuts, but feel free to let your imagination run wild.

Winter Bark
adapted from Martha Stewart

yields 1 1/4 pounds

Ingredients:
8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
7 ounces (1 1/2 cups) salted cocktail peanuts

Place white chocolate in a heatproof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water, stirring frequently, until chocolate melts. Remove from heat and set aside. Place bittersweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt the same way as the white chocolate. Remove from heat and stir in the peanuts.

Spread on a lined, rimmed baking sheet, spreading peanuts in a single layer, and drop spoonfuls of white chocolate on top.

Swirl chocolates with a skewer. Refrigerate until bark is set, about 1 hour. Break bark into large pieces. Bark will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks! Enjoy.

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Ciambelle (Lemon Wreath Cookies)

Christmas time is here! The ground is covered in snow, A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is spinning in the CD player, and the tree is decorated.

In my family, "Christmas" is also synonymous with "Baking" specifically Cookies. The house is covered with flour and frosting the days leading up to this beautiful holiday. So I invite you to join my family to live these cookie-filled moments with us. The first treat of the season is Ciambelle. 

"Ciambelle" in Italian can refer to any ring-shaped cookie, cake, or donut. In this case Ciambelle is a lemon wreath cookie, a buttery cookie base, covered in a lemon glaze, and decorated with nonpareils.

These flakey and flavorful cookies pair excellently with a warm cup of tea and are sure to become a Christmas classic, just like lights on the tree.

Ciambelle (Lemon Wreath Cookies)
adapted from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies 2010 Issue

yields 6 dozen lemon wreath cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 - 4 lemons depending on their size)
1 cup unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar
white nonpareils, for decorating

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk to combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Zest and juice lemons.

In a separate bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, and zest with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture until combined.

Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring.

Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to a parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing at least 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake for 9 minutes. Then rotate the sheet and bake for another 9 minutes or until pale golden on bottoms and around edges. Let cool completely on wire racks.

Whisk confectioners' sugar and remaining lemon juice until smooth. Dip top of each cookie into the glaze, letting the excess drip off.

Return cookies to wire racks, glazed side up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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