*Grand Harry Potter intro music plays*
Today I am presenting the very magical, the very stunning, the very detailed, the very awesome Harry Potter Cake! Today, I'll be showing off the making, behind the scenes, and the incredible detailing that went into this cake! Hold onto your wands folks. This shall be magical!
Inspired from Harry's start in the Wizarding World and his introduction to it, I made this cake with extra detail and precision and put all my heart and soul into its planning, designing, and making. I consider this to be one of my finest works so far; definitely one of the best cakes I've ever made! Mostly everything on this cake was made by hand! Just a swish of my wand and ta-daaaaaa! It is stunning, is it not? It's like a BIG case of STUPEFY right in the face!
I wanted to share this picture from the making of this cake first because it shows how I actually made the cake ivory colored instead of white. It was much more visible to the eye than what the camera could capture. I made the base color of the cake ivory so that it would stand out against the red bricks of Diagon Alley and also deliver a bit of that old parchment kind of feel to my cake. The ivory was a beautiful shade and looked magical!
Last year, Abbie finally reunited with the Wizarding World by returning to the Harry Potter books. Somewhere down the road of life she'd become immensely busy and had been distracted by Muggle duties such that she hadn't been in touch with the books' magic since years. Ob-viously (Professor Snape tone) when she came back to the Wizarding World I made sure I celebrated her return by baking this magical stunner of a cake on her birthday. This cake took me around three days to complete from start to finish - even after some wand waving was involved it was a LOT of work. The night before Abbie's birthday the cake was still not fully assembled so I had bits of magical pieces which you see in the pictures above. I was super proud of myself that night because I'd achieved so much more in cake decorating with just one cake.
I designed the Harry Potter cake to include magical bits from the Wizarding World which we'd experienced in the Philosopher's Stone - when it all began, when we first met Harry and went to Hogwarts together. The front of the cake was Diagon Alley and The Hogwarts Express as a pop out. It was complete with a train ticket too and on one side stood Professor Dumbledore to welcome all to the magical world. And on top of the cake was our dear Harry being introduced into the world where he found love and acceptance. There were his Hogwarts invitations scattered as though straight out of the fireplace at Privet Drive and also the Sorting Hat and Harry being sorted into Gryffindor. Of course, a wand completed it all! This cake was beyond believable AWESOME! MAGIC.
Let me show off the details now because it was all in the tiny details, without which this cake cannot be brought to justice! Hang on tight, this is going to be a BUMPY RIDE! (Please tell me you got the HP reference there? *laughs*) ...
I wanted to symbolize Diagon Alley and Platform Nine Three Quarters on this cake because that is where Harry first interacted with magic with Hagrid by his side. When I think about Diagon Alley the first thing that comes to my mind are the bricks. The magical brick wall entrance! I made sure my brick wall was a little untidy and had that same rickety feel to it which we see in Diagon Alley. Popping out from the brick front of this cake was my Hogwarts Express engine. Now, I will pause here, and make a special announcement because THIS beautiful engine was completely handmade by the one and only me! I made it all out of fondant and I am so very proud of the detailing! On the side, I added our Hogwarts Express ticket keychain which we'd bought from the Wizarding World in Orlando. This was just perfect. I was crying with happiness when it all came together. The bricks, the engine, EVERYTHING was just so on point and such perfect representation of all the magic!
Look at that detailing on the bricks! I dusted my bricks with cocoa powder to make them look dirty! It was a brilliant effect. I was in awe at how almost-real they looked! Bloody brilliant!
LOVE LOVE LOVED my handmade Hogwarts invitations. They literally looked like an owl had just dropped them there or they'd burst out of a fireplace at Privet Drive. I made these out of fondant and then personalized them to be addressed to 'The Abbie - The study beside the stairs'. My God, this was such a cool personal touch on my cake! I was in LOVE. These letters were absolute cuteness!
On the very top of the cake stood the one and only Harry Potter next to the Elder Wand and in front of a Gryffindor crest banner. Harry was my Funko Pop, the wand was actually a collectible pen that I have, and the Gryffindor crest I had printed and made it into a banner. Classic! They were all the perfect representation of Harry's entrance into the world of magic. A wand chooses the wizard and the wizard gets sorted into a Hogwarts house. Brilliant! But these and the letters weren't the only toppers on my cake ...
THE SORTING HAT! The wizened old hat to sort them all. I am so so so so SO proud of this because I actually made this by hand out of fondant. It wasn't as difficult as it looks, I admit, but it was a challenge and something new for me and nevertheless detailed! I was so happy with my Sorting Hat I wanted to save it forever once the birthday was over. *laughs* I felt my heart break and shatter into a million pieces when we had to let it go. Check out this detailed video of its making ...
Under the Sorting Hat and the wand, and running across the entire cake was a beautiful Gryffindor scarf. I made sure this was as real as it could possibly get. I made this Gryffindor scarf entirely out of fondant too. It had folds and detailing which brought it to life and made it look super stunning.
It also added the grand Gryffindor effect on top of and on the sides of the cake. I loved it. It looked like any second Harry would come, pick it up, and wrap it around his neck to cross the Winter snowed grounds on his way to Hagrid's Hut!
EXPECTO CAKETRONUMMMMMM!
Bam. The most magical and most detailed cake in all my years of cake decorating thus far. The cake turned out to be so beautiful and so perfect. It screamed, "Yer a wizard, Harry!" I could hear Hagrid in the cave telling Harry the biggest truth of his life. Abbie was stunned. She was just staring at the cake for a while once I was done decorating it. I think it was the best birthday cake I've ever made for her so far. Yeah, I think this is definitely her best birthday cake so far! Simply magical!
This cake wasn't just magical on the outside. The flavors were a magical combination too. The kind that blow your mind away!
The gorgeous cake with its delicious pineapple infused cake sponge. Mmm mmm ...
It takes three days for a cake this mighty and magical to be made and only a couple minutes for it to go down to pieces! *laughs*
I put together a beautiful Harry Potter birthday decor and displayed Abbie's birthday cake right there. There were little selected pieces form our vast Potter merchandise collection and my handmade DIY Harry Potter greeting card. I added the candles to a cauldron stuffed with a mini cupcake. Everything was BLOODY BRILLIANT! Abbie was in love with her birthday, and especially the beautiful Harry Potter cake. What a perfect way to welcome her back to the magical Wizarding World!
All the mouth-watering pictures in this post are original Sara's Baked Creations' content. Please have some shame and refrain from copying, recreating, and cheating without giving proper credit and mention!
Sara’s Baked Creations is on Mission Sweetness! Sara and Abbie are hobby bakers who bake for friends and family only. We are not a commercial bakery business; it gives us joy to spread smiles while enjoying sisterhood and living our passion for baking.
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Connect with me and the awesomeness of Sara's Baked Creations everywhere!
Like us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Visit our Instagram!
Visit the website!
This entry belongs to the April A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018.
Sara ... Words fail me. I've always loved your pictures, but when you added those videos, this blog post went through the roof. Watching how you made the fondant details, I couldn't help feeling I was right beside you, revelling in your creative ability. Thanks for this.
ReplyDelete<3 LOVE your comments Suzanne! Thank you!
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