Harry Potter Cake

Hello All-

The last month, I've been caking it up! First with the Lego Cake, and now with a Harry Potter Baby Shower Cake. This was a fun and challenging cake for me! 

I don't know if you've ever encountered this problem, but I was having some difficulty with the cake itself. I live at altitude and the center kept falling. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong as I was following the recipe exactly. The reviews for the cake were excellent, and no one else was having the same problem with the recipe. 

I decided that it must be due to altitude. So I did some research, and found that cakes that sink in the middle don't have enough structure to support the rise or they are too airy. Structure in cakes is created via the proteins in the flours used. The recipe called for cake flour, which has a lower protein count than all purpose flour. I decided to switch out the cake flour for All purpose. 

Usually it is advised that you make just one change to a cake recipe so you can narrow down the problem....but I decided that I'd throw caution to the wind! I went ahead and made an adjustment to the actual cake mixing process. As I had been using a stand mixer to incorporate the dry and wet ingredients together, I decided that might be adding too many bubbles to the batter. Instead of using the stand mixer to add the dry and wet ingredients together, I did it by hand.  Also, after the pans were full of batter, I dropped them on the counter 3 times each, just to make sure that there were no unwanted bubbles left. 

Believe it or not, the cakes came out perfectly! I was amazed that making these changes helped the cakes to such a degree!

Set up for checkerboard cake interior. 

When you stack your checkerboard cake,
you need to alternate the layers. 

Okay, now onto the cake...I made a red velvet and "yellow" velvet cake checkerboard cake. The colors were the Gryffindor colors. You don't need any fancy pans to make a checkerboard cake. just some concentric rings. After you've baked your cake, let it cool completely and wrap tightly. Then freeze so the cake can firm up. Once it has been well chilled- but not completely frozen, use your rings to cut out the circular pieces. Since the cake is firm, you can easily remove and replace them. Alternate colors for each layer you intend to make. Layer 1- RYR. Layer 2- YRY. Layer 3 RYR etc. Rewrap your cakes and freeze until you are ready to use, or you can stack your cakes at this point.

Viola! This is the interior
of the checkerboard cake. 

Once your cake is stacked and dirty iced, stick it in the fridge for a bit to let it all set up. If you are going to use lots of fondant figurines, I would suggest you make them ahead of time. Sometimes fondant is too soft and can't support its own weight. For this cake, I made the following ahead of time: Golden snitch, baby onesie, Hedwig, Nimbus 2000, and the Gryffindor necktie.  If you make your figures ahead of time, you should store them on parchment paper and cover lightly. Don't store in an airtight container.

There is so much more that I could share with you that I learned while making this cake. If you have questions that I didn't answer, please comment. I'll do my best to find an answer for you. 

Cake ON!

J