Apron Afternoons: Harry Potter Birthday

Elizabeth and I took our Harry Potter fetish to a whole notha level for Josiah's birthday.

Quidditch field on a cake. Wahbam.

I'm pretty sure Harry himself never had a birthday cake like this.

The birthday boy.. obviously pumped out of his mind about his cake.

It started with these snitch cake balls, you see, and quickly escalated into something much greater. We decided that we should use the gumpaste with which we made the snitch wings to make the goals on a quidditch field. Elizabeth then somehow built a broomstick...Macgyver...and then we topped it off with quidditch balls.

Snitch balls. You might be asking yourself "Where in the heck do I get a hold of some gum paste and edible glitter." Don't worry, Michael's has got you covered. It took Caleb and I about twenty minutes to find a bag of gumpaste because they had one bag left that was conviently placed on the bottom shelf and pushed all the way back. But nonetheless, we got it.
I don't make cake balls that often because it is much easier to make a cake than make cake balls, but I couldn't pass up these Harry Potter inspired cake balls.

Snitch cake pops:

From: Amybites

Ingredients:

( this recipe yields a lot of cake balls, so we cut it in half and used half of the cake to make the birthday cake.)

- One yellow cake

- Buttercream frosting

- 2 bags of yellow candy melts

- 1 container of edible gold pearl dust

- Gumpaste

- Lollipop sticks (optional)

Directions:

For Wings:
1. Roll out gum paste in batches on wax or parchment paper until approximately 1/8” thick, using vegetable oil as needed to keep moist and pliable.

2. Cut out wings in desired shape using a sharp knife.

Making finishing touches.

3. Place wing shapes on a curved surface (such as a rolling pin) to dry for several hours or until sturdy.

Repeat until all gum paste is used or until desired number of wings have been created. Brush with gold dust if desired.

For Cake Balls:
1. Bake yellow cake. Let cool. Make frosting according to original recipe.Crumble cake in a large mixing bowl(again, we only used half the cake and half the frosting)and combine with frosting until firm, moldable consistency is reached.

2. Mold cake mixture into balls of desired size using your hands and place balls in freezer.

4. Melt candy melts in microwave according to package instructions. DO NOT add milk or water to the candy melts because unlike chocolate, candy melts are made with hydrogenated oil and will solidfy if milk or water is added.

5. Remove balls from freezer.Dip lollipop sticks in a little of the candy melt and press them into each ball to make a hole. Place pops (ball side on a plate or sheet tray, sticks up) back in freezer until candy sets, 5 to 10 minutes.

6. When candy is set, remove pops from freezer and dip in candy mixture until all cake balls are coated in candy. Use a spoon, lollipop stick, or toothpick to help distribute candy if needed. Stick cake pop sticks into a Styrofoam block to keep upright as candy sets.

7. When the candy is set, use a small craft brush to apply gold dust liberally to the surface.
8. To attach wings, use a knife or toothpick to create wing slots in the side of each cake ball. Stick wings in slots, using melted candy as needed to help secure. Repeat until all cake pops are created. Enjoy!

Please ignore our straight ghetto cake pop holder. It's all we could find.

Look at that cutie patootie. She caught the golden snitch!

Bonus: These are the quidditch goals and balls we made. We cut rings out of the gum paste using a cup and attached it to a lollipop stick for the goals. Make sure they have time to sit and harden before moving them. Then we took the extra gumpaste and rolled it into balls.

The finished product: Since we cut the recipe in half, we used half of the yellow cake and half a chocolate cake recipe to make the birthday cake. It was kinda last minute decision to mix it up like that, but we just went with it. It looked cool....okay, AWESOME.