Harry’s 11th Birthday Cake from Hagrid

“From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.”

-Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling.

Disclaimer: This cake was created using the following products from Nestle’s recently
improved Bakers’ Choice chocolate line, sent as a gift from Nestle as part of the Bake It Your Challenge.

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Out of all the recipes from the Harry Potter series, this humble chocolate cake, is the most important. It’s the moment Hagrid burst into the room, and Harry’s, and our, lives changed forever.

Fortunately for us, this world is about to spin both forward and backwards. July 31st this year,we’ll see the script for the Cursed Child being published (guaranteed I’ll be up until I’ve read it all!). And later in November we’ll fly back to Newt Scamander’s lifetime to explore the North American wizarding world. (You might want to check out how to throw a 1920’s party here for November–just an idea!)

Now, I could have made this a normal chocolate cake without the pink icing, since it’s not actually mentioned in the book–only the green icing is. But everyone recognises this pink and green chocolate cake from the movie as Harry’s 11th birthday cake, so it’s only fitting to stick with what we recognise.

Because this is a cake Hagrid makes, we chose to make a one-bowl recipe. And the end result is a beautifully tasty, sticky, chocolate cake that will make anyone go back for seconds.

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Harry’s 11th Birthday Cake from Hagrid

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★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Bryton Taylor @ Food in Literature

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Cake

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Icing

• 1/2 cup thickened cream (alternatively, sour cream)
• 250g white chocolate melts
• red food coloring
• green icing gel (or tinted buttercream frosting or royal icing)

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Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 150C
2. Grease and line one tall round pan.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients–sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add in the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, and mix well, before adding in the boiling water.
5. Batter will be thin.
6. Pour into the cake pan
7. Bake 45-55 minutes in the oven. A wooden skewer test will come out sticky but not liquidy.
8. Set aside until completely cool.
9. Remove from the pan, slice off the lumpy top so it’s flat, then turn over.

Icing

1. In a glass measuring cup, add in the cream.
2. Drop in the food gel and mix until you have close to the right colour (a bit darker is best as you’ll be adding extra white from the chocolate).
3. Stir in the white chocolate melts and zap on medium (50%) in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.
4. Remove and stir to remove any lumps.
5. Place in the fridge to cool for 1-2 hours.
6. Spoon onto the top of the cake, then use a palette knife or spatula to smooth and swirl the icing evenly across the top.
7. Finish off by writing out ‘HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY’ in green icing
8. Draw in lines and ‘cracks’ with a knife.

Notes

Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/17981/one-bowl-chocolate-cake-iii/