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Harry Potter Cake

This Harry Potter Cake is inspired by the famous birthday cake Hagrid gave Harry for his 11th birthday! It’s a tasty and fun treat every harry Potter fan will enjoy!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 8 slices
Calories 221kcal
Author Lisa

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 1 box white cake mix I used the Betty Crocker brand*
  • cup vegetable oil
  • 1.25 cup water
  • 3 egg whites

For the Best White Butter Cream Frosting

  • 1 cup butter softened to room temp
  • 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 5 tbs heavy cream
  • Pinch of salt
  • Pink and Green food coloring I used Food Gel

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F. Prep your cake rounds by covering the inside of the pans with a light layer of butter and then dusting with flour, or use a nonstick baking spray like baker's joy.
  • Mix together, either by hand or in a stand mixer, the oil, water and egg whites. Then mix in the boxed cake mix. Pour batter in cake pans you are using.
    1 box white cake mix, ⅓ cup vegetable oil, 1.25 cup water, 3 egg whites
    cake batter in cake pans
  • Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Make sure to bake all the cakes on the same oven rack so they bake evenly.
  • Let the cakes cool for 5 minutes then flip upside down onto a wire cooling rack and remove the pans. They should come out easily.
  • Let the cakes cool completely before frosting. Level the cakes after cooling if need be.
    baked cake rounds

To make the frosting:

  • In a stand mixer, whip your butter on medium high speed until the butter is light and fluffy.
    1 cup butter
  • Alternate between adding in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and the heavy cream 1-2 tbs at a time, letting them mix into the butter completely.
    5 cups powdered sugar, 5 tbs heavy cream
  • Add in the vanilla and a pinch of salt, allowing the ingredients to incorporate fully.
    1 tbs vanilla, Pinch of salt
  • Measure out approximately 1 cup of frosting and mix in the green food coloring to it. Add the pink color to the remaining frosting and mix in completely. If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time, if too thick add a more heavy cream 1 tbs at a time.
    Pink and Green food coloring

To decorate the cake:

  • Add a spoonful of frosting to the center of cake plate and place your cake centered on top.
  • Add a crumb coat layer of frosting over the entire cake using the pink frosting*. A crumb coat layer is a thin layer of frosting that helps keep all the crumbs stuck to the cake. The crumb coat is not supposed to be pretty!
    cake with vanilla crumb coat
  • Stick your crumb coated cake in the refrigerator or freezer for 10 minutes to allow it to harden.
  • After 10 minutes, remove the cake and frost with the final layer of pink frosting, This does not have to be pretty since you want it to look like Hagrid made it! Using a butter knife make several lines so it looks like the cake was pieced together, similar to what it looked like in the movie.
  • Then using a writing piping tip, piping bag and green frosting, pipe on HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY. You can also just cut the tip off a zip loc baggie and use that.
    harry potter birthday cake close up

Notes

Tips and Tricks
  • You can use any boxed cake brand. Just make sure to follow their instructions and ingredient amounts.
  • *This will make three 6 inch cakes or two 8 inch cakes. You can make one cake and use the leftover batter for cupcakes.
  • *In the picture I crumb coated this cake in white buttercream, then died the remaining frosting purple and green. In hindsight I would recommend using purple for a crumb coat in addition to the final frosting. 
  • This recipe will make extra frosting. Use it for the extra cupcakes or cakes made with the leftover batter.
  • Nutritional info is and estimate and based off of ⅛th piece of one 6 inch cake. 

Nutrition

Calories: 221kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 197mg | Potassium: 24mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 249IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 0.4mg