Monster Book of Monsters Cake – Harry Potter Recipe
Hagrid's monster book of monsters cake, a delicious buttercream cake decorated to look like Harry Potter's famous school book.
Servings: 16 -20
Calories: 540kcal
Ingredients
- Cake:
Cake:
- 6 eggs
- 300 g/ 10.5 oz/ 1 ½ cups sugar
- 300 ml/ 10.1 fl.oz/1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- 300 ml/ 10.1 fl.oz/ 1 ¼ cups rapeseed oil neutral taste
- 450 g/ 1 lbs/ 3 ⅔ cups cake flour
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Filling:
- 500 ml/ 17 fl.oz/ 2 cups milk
- 1 packet vanilla pudding powder Note
- 40 g/ 1.4 oz/ scarce ¼ cup sugar
- vanilla aroma or vanilla extract to taste
- 300 g/ 10.5 oz/ 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- about 6 tablespoons plum blackberry or black currant jam (more or less as needed)
Chocolate frosting:
- 120 g/ 4.2 oz/ ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 220 g/ 7.7 oz/ 1 ¾ cups icing sugar
- 25 g/ 0.9 oz/ ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- vanilla aroma or vanilla extract to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Decoration:
- 1 small piece of pink fondant
- 1 very small piece of blue fondant
- some shortening
- 4 round chocolate bonbons Maltesers or similar sweets
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Tools:
- small rolling pin
- black food decorator pen
- small fork
- clean small paint brush
- grass piping tip Wilton no. 233
Instructions
Pudding:
- Prepare the pudding well in advance as it will need several hours to reach room temperature. You can make it the day before, place some cling film directly over the surface and let it on the counter overnight.
- When making the pudding (either with bought powder or your own cornstarch mixture, measure the 500 ml/ 2 cups milk needed directly in a pot. Remove about 6 tablespoons of the milk from this amount and place those into a small bowl. Place the pot with the milk on the heat and slowly bring to a boil. In the meantime, whisk the remaining milk with the sugar and the pudding powder.
- When the milk on the hob has come to a boil, slowly pour the pudding mixture into the hot milk while whisking continuously. Let bubble once or twice and remove from the heat. Place a piece of cling film directly over the surface of the pudding and let the pudding come to room temperature, preferably overnight.
- If using cornstarch instead of pudding powder, mix together 37 g/ 1.3 oz cornstarch with a small pinch of salt. Proceed exactly as described above, adding 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or a few drops vanilla aroma to the hot pudding.
Cake:
- Preheat the fan/convection oven to 160 degrees Celsius/ 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking trays (30x40 cm/ 12x15 inches) with baking paper.
- Beat the eggs and the sugar well until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the buttermilk and the oil to the mixture by turns while mixing all the time.
- Mix the flour and baking powder together and sift them over the egg mixture. Incorporate.
- Divide the mixture between the prepared baking trays and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Let cool completely.
Buttercream:
- To make the buttercream both butter and vanilla pudding should have room temperature.
- Mix the butter until very light and fluffy, at least 2 minutes. Start adding the vanilla pudding to the butter one tablespoon at a time, only adding the next tablespoon when the one before is completely incorporated. Add vanilla extract or vanilla aroma to taste.
- Read the blog post for more information on making the buttercream, tips for avoiding the buttercream from curdling, and what to do if the buttercream curdles anyway.
Fill the cake:
- Cut each cake into two equal parts. Trim the edges of the cake and make sure they have exactly the same size. Place one cake slice on a board or a rectangular serving platter.
- Keep ⅓ of the vanilla buttercream for covering the edges of the cake.
- Cover the first cake sheet with half of the jam and some buttercream. Cover with a second sheet of cake and cover it only with buttercream. Place the third cake sheet on top and cover it with the remaining jam and with buttercream. Place the last sheet of cake on top and press lightly to stabilize the cake.
- Use about half of the remaining vanilla buttercream to thinly cover the edges of the cake. There is no need to cover the top of the monster cake with buttercream, as you will pipe the chocolate frosting on top.
- Place the cake in the refrigerator for about half an hour or until set. In the meantime prepare the chocolate frosting, the tongue, and the eyes of the cake.
Chocolate frosting:
- Cream the butter for a few minutes in a mixer with a paddle attachment. Stop the mixer and sift the icing sugar, the unsweetened cocoa powder, and the salt on top of the butter. Continue mixing on the lowest speed at first until the icing sugar is incorporated. Add vanilla extract or vanilla aroma to taste.
- Add 1 tablespoon of the milk and mix the frosting on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes. If the mixture seems too stiff for piping, you can add the second tablespoon milk.
- Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with the grass piping tip.
Tongue and eyes:
- Knead the pink fondant with a little shortening until pliable. Roll it thinly on a smooth surface and cut a long stripe about 13 cm/ 5 inches long and 3,5 cm/ 1.4 inches wide. Cut the tip of the tongue to resemble a snake's tongue (see picture).
- Knead and thinly roll the blue fondant as well. Cut out four very small rounds, paint the black pupil with the food decorator pen and stick the pupil onto the Maltesers with a bit of frosting.
Assemble:
- Take the cake out of the fridge. Use the remaining vanilla buttercream to cover the edges of the cake with a second layer of buttercream. Trace the pages of the cake on three of the cake's sides and on the fresh buttercream using a small fork.
- Place the cocoa powder into a small bowl and lightly brush the pages of the book with the clean and dry paint brush to give the book an old, battered look.
- Place the tongue on the cake.
- Pipe the chocolate frosting on the cake, going around the edges first and filling the top of the cake. Pipe some chocolate frosting at the base of the cake, on the board, as well. Only pipe the back of the cake with frosting when the cake is completely finished, if you have enough frosting left.
- Place the eyes on the cake as seen in the picture. Pipe some more frosting around the eyes to give them a bushy look.
- Pipe the leftover frosting on the back of the cake, if you wish.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. This is a large cake and it will serve at least 16 people, probably more if you will cut smaller slices. It is very rich, so a small slice goes a long way.
Notes
Use Dr. Oetker or a similar brand. If unavailable, mix together 37 g/ 1.3 oz cornstarch with a small pinch of salt. Proceed exactly as described above, adding 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or a few drops vanilla aroma to the hot pudding.
Nutrition
Serving: 1square | Calories: 540kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 207mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 32g