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We’ve reached the dessert course in our Harry Potter edition of Dinner and a Movie, and while we usually like to serve our dishes in the order they appear in the film, so you can eat along with the characters, there’s one food moment so iconic, that we simply had to break the rules. What moment you say?! Well, of course when Harry meets Hagrid for the first time, and receives his very first birthday cake. Or birthdae cake rather.
After years of cupboard dwelling and neglect, Harry finally feels seen. Hagrid arrives, larger than life (literally) remarkable umbrella in tow, with a pink-frosted birthday cake, a little sat on perhaps, but beautiful none the less. Harry's world is turned upside down as Hagrid reveals the truth that the Dursleys have hidden for years, and life, at last, begins to make sense...
You're a wizard Harry 🧙♀️🪄
We’ve recreated Hagrid’s birthday cake as the final course of our Harry Potter themed dinner. Ours is a rich chocolate cake with a pink raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream, hand-piped with Hagrid’s famously misspelled “Happee Birthdae Harry” in green lettering. Inside, there's a sweet-yet-tangy raspberry filling to cut through the richness and balance things out.
This cake is generously frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream, and whilst this iteration takes a bit more effort than the usual kind, the flavour and texture is incomparable. Be sure to watch the video for tips on mastering this style of buttercream and getting that perfectly imperfect Hagrid look.
And with that, our magical menu comes to a close. We hope you’ve loved eating your way through the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with us. If you haven’t already, pretty please like, subscribe, and share to help us keep the magic going.
See you next month, and in the meantime, remember:
You're a baker Harry 🎂⚡️
Love food in film?
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SPONGE
INGREDIENTS (serves 12)
DRY INGREDIENTS
300g plain flour
75g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp kosher salt
200g light brown sugar
150g caster sugar
WET INGREDIENTS
250 ml veg oil
3 large eggs
450 ml soured cream
2 shots of espresso
2 tsp vanilla extract
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan. Grease and line 3 x 8 inch tin cake tins.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into a large bowl.
Add both of the sugars to the bowl and mix until combined.
In a measuring jug, mix together all the wet ingredients.
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix together with an electric hand mixer. Avoid over mixing, stopping as soon as the mixture is fully combined and there are no lumps.
Pour the batter into the cake tins and bake for 25- 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 mins before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
INGREDIENTS
180g egg whites (from 5-6 large eggs, at room temp)
300g granulated sugar
500g unsalted butter (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
⅛ tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp freeze dried raspberry powder
Pink gel based food colouring
Green gel based food colouring
METHOD
TOP TIP: Before you begin, clean all your tools in warm soapy water, dry throughly, and wipe down with a small amount of white vinegar. This will ensure there are no traces of grease which will prevent the egg whites from whipping properly.
Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and heat over a pot of gently simmering water, ensuring the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
Stir continuously for approx 10 mins on a low heat until no sugar grains remain, and the mixture reaches 160ºF / 71ºC.
Quickly transfer to a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, and begin whisking whilst the egg whites are still warm. Whisk on a medium speed for approx 10 mins, until the bowl is no longer hot to the touch, and you have achieved glossy, stiff peaks.
Switch to a paddle attachment, and on a low speed, add the butter, a tablespoon at time, fully incorporating between each addition.
Once all the butter is fully incorporated, add in the vanilla and salt, beat to combine.
Remove about 40g of frosting and place in a small bowl. Add green food colouring a few drops at a time, mixing to combine, until you reach the desired colour. Transfer to a piping bag, and set aside.
Add the freeze dried raspberry powder to the remaining frosting, beat to combine. Add in pink food colouring a few drops at a time, until you achieve a bubblegum pink colour.
Place about a third of the pink frosting into a piping bag, and set aside.
FILLING + FROSTING
INGREDIENTS
150g Raspberry jam
150g frozen Raspberries- defrosted
METHOD
Use a small blob of the pink frosting to secure one layer of sponge to a cake stand or board.
Snip about 2 cm off the end of the piping bag with the pink frosting. Pipe a circle of pink frosting around 1cm tall, around the perimeter of the sponge, to create a wall. Ensure that the wall is of an even height all around, with no gaps, to prevent the filling from leaking out.
Then using a palette knife, spread a thin layer of additional pink frosting, about 5 mm thick, over the centre of the sponge, leaving the wall of frosting intact around the perimeter.
Mix the jam and defrosted raspberries together, and spread half of the mix in the centre of the sponge, again, leaving the wall of frosting intact around the perimeter.
Place the next layer of sponge on top, and repeat: creating a frosting wall, covering the centre in a thinner layer of frosting, and spooning the remaining raspberry filling into the centre.
Top with the third and final layer of sponge.
Take about half of the remaining pink icing, and spread all over the top and sides of the cake, to completely cover it in a thin crumb coat. Refrigerate for approx 30 mins until firm.
Cover the tops and sides of the cake with the remaining pink icing, and smooth with a palette knife or cake scraper.
Pipe the green frosting onto the top of the cake, to spell out Hagrids famously poorly spelt message: “Happee Birthdae Harry”.
As a finishing touch, use the tip of a butter knife to carve markings in the frosting to mimic the imprints left from Hagrid accidentally sitting on the cake!
