Spiders and cobwebs and the Weasley’s ford anglia, oh my!
What better recipe for a showstopper Harry Potter cake than a homemade black forest gateau? I’ve taken some liberties with the traditional recipe — adding a whipped ganache frosting, marshmallow web, and lots of fun decorations to transport us to the Forbidden Forest outside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.
I’m usually more of a quickie dessert and cookie person. And I’m not gonna lie to you. This Harry Potter cake was a lot of work. But it was also 100% WORTH IT. Adding those little spider eyes and legs? Piping chocolate trees and going crazy with the black sanding sugar? Lots of fun. I recommend enlisting help and making a party of it!
Homemade Spider Treats
Spider treats are so fun and so easy to make! I have seen them done with all kinds of ingredients, so feel free to swap them out for what sounds good to you. I used the dried cherries, because it fit the black forest cake theme. But here are some other substitutions:
- For the chocolate, try adding caramel or peanut butter.
- For the pecans and dried cherries, try subbing other dried fruit, peanuts, crushed candy bar or M&Ms, or pretzels.
I chose to pipe dipping chocolate into little L-shaped legs, and then attach them with a little dollop of melted chocolate. If you’re in a hurry, but still want the spiders, you could also use straight pretzels as legs or simply pipe the legs straight, coming out from underneath the spider body.
How to Pipe Chocolate Trees
This is a spooky forbidden forest! Don’t overthink it or try to imagine what a realistic tree would look like. I did zig-zags and loop-d-loops and all sorts of strange, unrealistic tree shapes. The crazier, the better. Because you want the trees to be strong enough to be pushed into the cake, make sure you are generous in allowing the chocolate to build up nice and thick as you pipe it. That way, it has some structure that you can push into the cake.
My forbidden forest became much more spooky once I added the black sanding sugar. It is definitely a step I recommend not skipping! As I gently pushed each tree into the cake, I followed it up with a blob of melted chocolate piped around the trunk on top of the cake. Don’t worry about this showing up later – you are going to drop more sugar and shaved chocolate to create the forest floor.
Why is there a car in your Harry Potter cake?
After Harry and Ron crash the Weasley’s Ford Anglia into the whomping willow, it lives out the rest of its life in the forbidden forest, appearing at a few opportune moments throughout the remainder of the series.
In other words . . . I couldn’t help myself. And no – I’m not that talented of a sculptor. But David is. He sat in front of criminal minds one night with some fondant I plopped down into his hands after telling him to make a Ford Anglia. (He’s the best.)
mikaela | wyldflour
3-layer 8-inch cake
This Harry Potter cake is inspired by the Forbidden Forest! A black forest cake recipe with lots of spooky fun decorations!
2 hrPrep Time
40 minCook Time
2 hr, 40 Total Time
Ingredients
- 3 cups + 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons shortening
- 2 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons instant espresso powder (optional)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 4 eggs + 1 egg white
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 10 oz cherries (fresh or frozen), pitted and sliced in half
- 2 Tablespoons cherry juice or kirsch
- 1/4 cup black cherry jelly
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4 oz marshmallows
- black gel food dye
- 1/4 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 Tablespoons dried sweetened cherries
- 2 Tablespoons rough chopped pecans
- 2 Tablespoons finely chopped pecans
- eyeball sprinkles
- dipping chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips for piping the legs
- dipping chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips for piping trees
- black sanding sugar
- half of a chocolate bar, shaved
Instructions
- Make the chocolate cake layers! Preheat oven to 330 degrees Fahrenheit. (Low altitude: 315 degrees.) Butter three 8-inch round (3-inch deep) cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper, and set aside. (See notes for 9-inch cake pans.) Pulse flour, shortening, and sugar in a food processor until sand-like texture forms. Dump into a large mixing bowl. Stir in cocoa, espresso powder (optional), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add oil, eggs, and water to mixing bowl. Beat mixture on lowest speed for 30 seconds until all ingredients are moistened. Scrape down sides. Beat mixture on medium speed for 2 minutes. Divide batter between the cake pans and bake for 38 minutes (Low Altitude: 41-43 mins) or until inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached to it. Remove from the oven and place on cooling racks. Cool for ten minutes, then turn cakes out onto a cooling rack and allow cakes to cool completely.
- Prep the Black Forest Filling! Beat the heavy cream on highest speed until whipped and thickened. Add to a piping bag. If using frozen cherries, be sure to drain extra juice from the cherries and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Prep the Whipped Ganache Frosting! (Note: This frosting needs to be used immediately, so I recommend making it right before you're about to assemble the cake. If you let this frosting sit too long, it will thicken so much that it's hard to spread.) Add cream to a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave for 45-60 seconds until the cream is just about to start bubbling. Add chocolate and let sit for three minutes. Stir until the chocolate is entirely melted. (If your cream wasn't warm enough and you still have chocolate chunks, microwave on 15 second intervals, stirring thoroughly after each.) Chill in the refrigerator until more of a pudding-like consistency. Beat the chocolate cream in a large bowl until whipped and thickened. Add to a piping bag.
- Assemble Your Cake! Stack your first layer on the serving dish. Pipe a ring of ganache frosting around the outside edge to create a barrier that will stop whipped cream from escaping. Inside the ring, brush the cake with 1 tablespoon cherry juice and spread with two tablespoons cherry jelly. Pipe a 1/2-inch or so layer of whipped cream inside the chocolate ring to completely cover the jelly. Scatter half of the cherries over the whipped cream. Gently place a second cake layer on top of the cream, pressing slightly to make sure it's settled. Repeat the same frosting technique and top with third cake layer. Pipe or spread the whipped chocolate ganache around the exterior of the cake, scraping it in order to keep the frosting fairly thin. Smear a very small amount across the top, allowing patches of dark chocolate cake to show through. (This helps create the illusion of the forest floor.) Place in refrigerator to help frosting set.
- Make the Marshmallow Web! Place marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 seconds. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted, microwaving for an additional 15 seconds, if necessary. Add black gel food dye and stir vigorously. Let the marshmallows cool for at least two minutes. (Hot marshmallows might burn you!) Once cooled, remove the cake from the refrigerator, and use your fingers to pick up a blob of marshmallow, stretching it from your fingers between your hands, and wrap around the cake. Don't overthink it! Stretch the marshmallow around the cake and over the top creating random webbed patterns all over the cake. Good luck washing your hands. 😉 Chill the cake while you prepare the decorations.
- Make the spiders! Stir together melted chocolate, dried cherries, and pecans. Drop rough tablespoon-sized amounts in little plops on parchment paper to harden to create the bodies of the spiders. Add eyeball sprinkles to the bodies, using tiny bits of melted chocolate to adhere the sprinkles to the spiders, if needed.
- Decorate! Pipe melted chocolate, leafless trees on parchment paper and sprinkle with black sanding sugar. Also pipe L-shapes to be used as spider legs. Let chocolate set. Once the legs are hardened, use melted chocolate to attach the legs to the spider bodies. GENTLY grasp the bottom of the tree trunks and push down into the cake about an inch. You can pipe melted chocolate around the base of the tree to help secure it. Try to avoid holding the chocolate for very long, since the heat from your hands will quickly melt it and make it unstable. Once you've made your forest, sprinkle black sanding sugar and shaved chocolate amongst the trees to create a forest floor. Arrange spiders around the cake. Chill the cake until you are ready to serve it!
Notes
You can also use three 9-inch cake pans! But change the baking time to 23-25 minutes (low altitude: 28-30 minutes), because the shallower cake layers will bake more quickly!
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