Harry's Birthday Cake

I been quite busy haven't had time to bake; not even for the 4th of July :O! It's been frustrating since I'm bursting with baking project ideas. Last week, I decided enough was enough. I was craving cake so I decided to find some time in my schedule to bake one.

But because, as you all know, I can't just let things be, I took it one step further and decided that I'd make it a chocolate birthday cake, like the one Hagrid gave to Harry when they first met, but uh, much better tasting (remember Hagrid's rock cakes? haha). I tried to keep the appearance much like the one in the movie though: a bit messy, strangely pink and green, and in need of spell check.

Above: Harry's b-day cake from HP & the Sorcerer's Stone. Photo Credit: twrobot

This cake recipe totally rocks. It's easy to mix together, a one bowl recipe. The cake comes out wonderfully moist, and it isn't too sweet, which is good because then it doesn't compete with the frosting and become overwhelming. The frosting is also easy to put together and it is perfectly creamy and chocolatey. After making this, I've decided that this is now my go-to chocolate cake recipe. If by chance you're one of THOSE people, who doesn't like Harry Potter, do make the cake anyway, just skip the pink and green frosting.

Potter Puppet Pals!

Today's post involves a bit of catch-up. If you have been keeping up with my blog, you'll know that back in January I had my Harry Potter Party. Originally, I had intended to serve these Potter Puppet Pal sugar cookies at the party, along with all the other HP-themed foods, but, I ran out of time to finish them. Instead, I ended up icing them two days later and I'm finally posting about them today.

If you aren't familiar with Potter Puppet Pals, it's a live action comedy series created by Neil Cicierega. The main characters of Harry Potter appear as hand puppets (except for Neville, who shows up as a butternut squash :D). My favorite episode is "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", which according to Wikipedia is the 15th most viewed video on Youtube. I attached it to the bottom of this post for those of you who haven't seen it.

By the way, there's no Fred and George in Potter Puppet Pals. I just thought it was funny that 2 Rons = Fred + George, who happen to be my favorite characters in the HP series :).

Cornish & Pumpkin Pasties

To finish with my Harry Potter party recipes, today I have two more recipes, one savory and one sweet: Cornish pasties and pumpkin pasties. I remember back when I first read the Harry Potter books, I always wondered what pumpkin pasties looked like and how they tasted.

Well after having made them, now I know :). Pumpkin pasties are like mini pumpkin pie bites, pleasant little after dinner desserts. Cornish pasties, on the other hand, are more of a during the main feast kind of dish. And no, they don't contain corn (many of my friends asked about that before eating them, I think they originated in Cornwall); they're flaky hand pies filled with beef and onions.

Kale Chip Quills

I'm constantly on the lookout for healthy snacks, so when I saw recipes for kale chips online, I knew I had to try making them. After making them a few times, I noticed that kale leaves resemble feather quills. I decided then that I would serve these kale chip "quills" at my Harry Potter party.

These kale chips are very simple to make, with only three ingredients and minimal preparation. Kale is quite healthful. This leafy green vegetable is loaded with free radical preventing antioxidants and many vitamins and minerals.

Also, these chips use heart healthy olive oil, and are baked, not fried. How do these chips taste? They have a crispy crunchy texture and they taste like those packs of roasted, salted seaweed snacks. Kale chip quills are a novel and nutritious appetizer, great at any meal.

The Sorting Hat

As I was brainstorming ideas for my Harry Potter party, the idea of the Sorting Hat made out of bread popped up in my mind. I was intrigued by the thought of a hat shaped bread that my friends could tear pieces off of and eat with a dip of some sort. In part, I was inspired by the large cornucopia bread centerpiece I made for Thanksgiving two years ago and served with a soft cheese.

I needed a bread recipe that used whole wheat flour, which would give the dough a darker color. Also, the bread dough needed to be pliable and not expand too much while baking. I decided on a pita bread recipe based on a memory of my attempt to make pita bread. I remembered that pitas contain ww flour and are easily shaped. I also knew from experience that when the pita breads aren't rolled out thin enough or if the oven temperature is too low, pitas don't puff up, which was bad for making pita bread, but perfect for my Sorting Hat idea.

I tried it out on the day of the party, hoping it would work as I planned. I made the dough, shaped it, and baked it. It was a success! I chose to serve it along with a spinach and artichoke dip I made right before the party. The Sorting Hat bread turned out to be quite an interesting but delicious dish at my Harry Potter feast.

Golden Snitches

Last night, I was watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on TV, which reminded me that I had some Harry Potter blogging to do (by the way, Harry Potter marathons seem to be on for the most random reasons... like House marathons, not that I'm complaining).

At last week's party, I served some golden snitch red velvet cake pops in the tiny "sweets" area of my dinner table, along with the candies I mentioned in my previous post. I couldn't figure out how to display the pops. I worried that their wings would chip off if they touched, so I left them stuck in the piece of styrofoam that I used for drying. It turned out that they looked okay like that, almost as if they were buzzing around above the table. It was an eye-catching display to look at while dining :).

Harry Potter Party!

Last Wednesday, I held a Harry Potter themed party for my friends, a sort of pre-New Years celebration. A tad random, but what better way is there to start the New Year than by eating lots of Harry Potter food with friends?

So... I'm crazy about themes. I'm someone who gets excited by holidays, seasonal changes, and anything else associated with a theme. Around Thanksgiving, I came up with the idea of having a Harry Potter party, inspired by 1) the Harry Potter party in the movie "Yes Man" (youtube clip at the bottom of this post, if you're curious) and 2) reading about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park within a theme park that's set to open Spring 2010 in Universal Orlando (which I'm very very excited about).

With ideas of drinking butterbeer and eating pumpkin pasties in real life floating around in my brain, I decided that it was very necessary that I throw this Harry Potter party. So in my next few posts, I'll be sharing with you Harry Potter themed recipes from my party, from a Sorting Hat shaped bread to Golden Snitch cake pops. Today, I'll share with you the simplest but most easily recognized recipe of the bunch: Butterbeer.