Harry Potter Cake!
First post here but not first time visiting this site! It's fantastic. I started work on this cake June 12 and finished June 28. Since I'm a full time Biologist, I make these fancy cakes for work when called for. This one was by far the largest and most elaborate but I had 8 weeks to plan, gather supplies, and start work. I learned tons in this process so thought I would share the end product.
Sorry, I see one picture was posted sideways! Newbie so please forgive some hiccups along the way.
Awesome design! You did a marvelous job, Lynne!
Thank you Sandra!
what a wondeful cake!
Thank you! Well really only the 3 middle tiers are cake. The bottom "Monster Book" and the top "Sorting Hat" I sculpted out of homemade rice crispies treats. I only needed to feed 40-50 people!
If anyone tackles a Harry Potter themed cake in the future, word to the wise and get wafer paper for the Golden Snitch wings! I went through so many versions before my "ah ha" moment. I tried a mix of fondant & gum paste, straight gum paste, and several forms. In the end the ones produced here took me 10 minutes flat! Oh and don't steam the wings! First time using wafer paper so that resulted in wafer paper wings version 2 (which is how I know they only take 10 minutes).
Process: form wire into a wavy shape. I can't recall the gauge but I think it was 20. Make a template for the wings. Cut the wafer paper a bit larger at the top. Brush on edible glue. Fold the top over the wire. Let dry. Brush on gold paint. Stick into Golden Snitch. Let the paint dry a bit before cutting the fringes, but not so dry that it gets brittle! Fine line here. Steam the Golden Snitch body BEFORE putting the wings on. Once the fringes are cut, STOP fussing with it!
It was actually quite sturdy. I transported this cake in one piece over 40 km. Only damage was the part of the Sorting Hat brim with the snitch on it broke off (dah). Hence the little wooden supports in the final picture ;) Also why I say "I learned alot making this cake ;)
Absolutely amazing! All the detail almost makes my head swim. Just wow!
Thank you CarolAnn. I tackled this over 2.5 weeks since I work full time. It took me longer to finally settle on a design since googling "Harry Potter Cakes" is pretty overwhelming! In the end I decided on what elements HAD to be part of any legit Harry Potter cake. Then I tried to find a picture that I really loved for each. After that, I focused entirely on one element at a time, giving it my full focus since I had so much time to play with.
The Monster Book and Sorting Hat layers were sculpted Rice Crispies Treats. I actually found tutorials on YouTube for both, so it was kind of like "paint by numbers" with following along. Same deal with Dobby. Tutorials are great!
For me the hardest part was figuring out how to make the Golden Snitch wings (see above) and how to do the darn dragon coming out of "pages"! I ended up doing a fondant/gum paste panel for the front. The dragon head was on a toothpick and the wings were wired. So I stuck the individual pieces through the hardened panel and used a ton of white chocolate to make sure they were stuck on there good! The the pages were just "rippled" strips of gum paste.
Everyone flipped out over this cake since I gave them ample time to view it and take pictures. I had it on display all day at work since my colleague wasn't in until cake time. Although I'm proud of my work (this was kind of a test to myself to see if I actually could produce a cake like the ones I see on TV!) , there are a few things I would change: the dragon emerging should have been on the left since the layer above with the train is also on the same side, I should have done ripply pages on all sides for that second tier, I needed to put dowels under the train (it made the ripply pages smoosh apart from the weight), the "Deathly Hallows" border on the 4th layer was too big (but I didn't have smaller triangle cutters), and finally transporting this with the Sorting Hat on was a ding bat move. The Golden Snitch was only sitting on the rim without support. So of course in the 40 km trip, that part of the hat broke off! So lucky the Snitch itself did not break, I brought glue with me, and a colleague had those little sticks to support the fix!
All in all, this cake was one massive learning experience! I wouldn't even know how to price something like this, with all the sculpted parts. Work covers cost of cake ingredients, not the cake decorating ingredients. It's more ME that wants to produce these elaborate creations so I chalk it up to a learning opportunity. Not going to lie, I would LOVE to be get paid full value for my cakes and do this full time! Until then, it makes ME happy to see my work and how my colleague's react to them :)