Harry Potter Birthday Cake

Greetings on this gorgeous Sunday!   Yesterday marked my 500th pageview...including views from people in 9 different countries!  Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of my blog.  I am thoroughly enjoying sharing my work and ideas with you!

This week’s cake was for a little girl who wanted a Harry Potter themed cake.   Having never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, I had to do quite a bit a research for this one.  After looking online for inspiration, I sent her several designs, and she finally decided on the Hogwarts crest.

This cake was a simple to bake, as it was just a sheet cake, though the decorating was quite involved.  The cake was chocolate, but without the usual chocolate buttercream accompaniment.  The birthday girl did not like icing, so she was very adamant that the cake not have “pudding” in the middle!

For the animals on the crest, I made modeling chocolate with white chocolate, then tinted it with food coloring.  White chocolate modeling chocolate is often much easier to sculpt than fondant, but fondant works better for covering cakes, so great cake decorating is all about knowing what method to use when...which is learned through much trial and error (sometime lots of error!).

Each animal was hand-sculpted with quite a bit of detail…texture on the lion’s mane, fur on the badger, and feathers on the eagle.  I painted the letters too…which requires a VERY steady hand!

Since March has five weeks, I'd like to host a special Q&A post in two weeks.  Instead of featuring a cake, I'll answer any of your cake decorating or cooking questions...just shoot me an email or post a comment here.  Don't be shy...remember there are no silly questions!