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Sunday 7 July 2013

Harry Potter Cake + 4th July Birthday Celebrations

8 Comments

Even though I am not American, American culture is a part of my life especially with films and tv shows. One of my closest friends loves the American Culture, and she has always been bugging me to celebrate an American Holiday. Therefore, as a group we decided to take advantage of Independence Day, and threw her a surprise 21st, American Independence Day Party.

 
We created a last minute American themed setting by all things red, blue and white. 

Hagrid Harry Potter Cake

The Feast

Independence Day Menu
- Mexican styled corn
- Fried Chicken
- Candied Yams (Sweet potato)
- Garden Salad
- Hagrid Harry Potter Cake with passion fruit ganache layers


Mexican Styled Corn
Corn on a cob
Japaneses Mayonnaise (Kewpie Mayonnaise)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Lime
Chilli Powder
Chopped coriander

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 
2. Peel the skin off the corn and wrap in aluminium foil.
3. Place on a tray in the oven for 15-20. (on the middle to top rack)
4. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, and peel off aluminium foil.
5. Apply a drizzle of mayonnaise, pinches of parmesan cheese, coriander, squeeze of lime and sprinkle of chilli powder. 


Fried Chicken
1kg chicken tenderloins
2 cups Panko crumbs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 eggs
2 cups of flour
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan enough for a shallow fry, to 350 degree Celsius.
2. Combine flour, salt and peppers in a large bowl.
3. Mix eggs in a separate medium bowl.
4. Combine panko crumbs and parmesan cheese.
5. Coat a piece of chicken in the flour mix, then the egg mixture and then the crumb mixture.
6. Once oil is heated, place chicken in the pan (no more than 3 pieces at a time). Allow one side to brown, once browned, flip the chicken and cook. 
7. Place the cooked chicken on a paper towel.



Candied Yams (Sweet potato)
3 medium to large sweet potatoes
50g butter
1 packet of mini marshmallows

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water on the stove with a pinch of salt.
2. Peel sweet potato and cut into even sized chunks.
3. Once water is boiled, at the potatoes and place on the lid. Leave until potatoes are cooked through. They are cooked through when a fork or a chopstick can go through the centre of the potato.
4. Drain the water and begin to mash the potatoes and add the butter.
5. Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius.
6. Place mashed potatoes into an oven proof dish, evenly spread out. 
7. Evenly spread the packet of mini marshmallows.
8. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until marshmallows have browned


Hagrid Harry Potter Cake

The Harry Potter Cake was made because the birthday girl loves Harry Potter. I first came across the Harry Potter Cake on Diamonds for Dessert. When I showed her, she said that one day I would have to make it for her, and that day had finally came.

I used the Thunder Cake Recipe for two 20cm round cake tins for the cake. As for the buttercream frosting, I followed Diamonds for Dessert recipe. 

To take advantage of the lovely passionfruit that are currently in season, in between the cakes was passionfruit ganache. The recipe was guided by Heston Blumenthal's chocolate gateau recipe

Passionfruit Ganache
175g thickened cream
Pinch of salt
Pulp from 6 passion fruits
110g of dark chocolate (broken into pieces)
50g milk chocolate (broken into pieces)

Method:
1. Combine cream, salt and passionfruit in a saucepan over medium heat until it comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
2. Place the chocolate in a bowl and melt until smooth. (I used microwave at 15 second intervals)
3. Strain the infused cream and add to the bowl of melted chocolate a third at a time. Making sure to completely incorporate the cream with the chocolate after each addition.
4. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature and refrigerate until read to use.

Processes
- Split the butter cream to a majority in one bowl (colour pink), and a few spoonfuls in another bowl (colour green).  
- When the two cakes were cooled, I levelled them and then cut them in half. 
- I filled each layer with the passionfruit ganache (the levels weren't as uneven as the picture looks haha)
- Applied a crumb coat of vanilla butter cream
- Top coat of vanilla buttercream. The top coat doesn't have to be that neat since it is supposed to be made by Hagrid =D
- Final touches

The HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY was supposed to be written with green tinted buttercream, however too much red food colouring was added to the split batch, therefore the rest of the white was used for the pink. I then tried to use white chocolate, and tint it with green food colouring which DIDN'T work at all.

Therefore, I ended up using white writing fudge from the tube, which I coloured green. I put that in a ziplock bag, and created a make shift piping bag for the writing. 

This became an issue when presenting the cake, as I did the piping several hours before consumption, the colour began to separate from the writing fudge. However, if you plan to serve the cake straight away, this way of colouring will work.

Just another birthday message for M. Happy 21st Birthday M! I hope that you and the girls enjoyed the dinner and dessert!

Good food, good times! 


8 comments:

Kelly @ MsBrulee 8 July 2013 at 00:48

You're an awesome friend Thanh, M is one lucky gal.

Tina @ bitemeshowme 8 July 2013 at 08:46

Hahaha love the theme! Embrace the USA - afterall we don't realise how much influence they have over us.

Milktea Eats 8 July 2013 at 12:12

aww how cute is the cake! thats the hagrid cake! hope no one grew a tail after!

spoonfulsofgoodness 8 July 2013 at 13:07

@Kelly: Thank You! She has always wanted an American themed dinner, I have checked that off her bucket list.

@Tina: So true! Despite what some people think and say

@Amy: Hehehe thank you! Lucky no one did =D

Helen (Grab Your Fork) 8 July 2013 at 13:43

What a great party. I was always freaked out by the sound of candied yams with the use of marshmallow. We had some in LA and omg they were so sweet it was incredible. lol

Apple 10 July 2013 at 15:42

That is the best cake I've ever seen! (Huge Harry Potter Fan here ) It's perfect!

Horse Paintings 11 July 2013 at 18:24

you are Genius. the cake is so seductive
i am a huge fan of Harry Potter,i will try to make a cake by myself

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