Harry Potter Birthday Cake (Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Frosting!)
A decadent and extra chocolate-y cake with a creamy and sweet strawberry frosting...aka the best way to celebrate Harry Potter's Birthday whether you're a witch, wizard, or even a muggle! It's a delicious cake that everyone is sure to LOVE.
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 1250kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup natural process cocoa sifted
- 1¼ cups boiling water
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 2¼ cups granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1¼ teaspoons salt
- 1¼ cups whole milk
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Frosting
- 2¼ cups salted butter room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 6 Tablespoons whole milk divided
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups freeze-dried strawberries ground and sifted
- 5-8 drops leaf green food coloring
Instructions
Cake
- Heat oven to 350°F/177℃.
- Spray 2 8-inch x 3-inch round cake pans with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and boiling water. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Pour over dry ingredients.
- Whisk together.
- Whisk in bloomed cocoa powder.
- Divide between prepared pans.
- Bake 35 minutes, or until done.
Frosting
- With an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth.
- Beat in powdered sugar.
- Add 4 Tablespoons of milk.
- Stir in vanilla.
- Beat until smooth.
- Remove ½ cup frosting and place in a small bowl.
- Add green food coloring. Set aside.
- Stir in strawberry powder and remaining milk.
- Beat until smooth.
Assembly
- Level one cake layer.
- Place on serving plate.
- Spread about 1-2 cups frosting on top.
- Top with unleveled cake layer.
- Frost entire cake.
- Using a dull knife, drag knife tip vertically on top of the cake and towards the right side to create signature "crack" across top.
- Pipe birthday message on top.
Notes
- You can boil the water in a microwave, on the stove top, or in a kettle!
- Mixing the boiling water and cocoa powder is a technique called, “blooming”. This allows the cocoa powder to dissolve and release all of it’s amazing flavors. That means you wind up with a much more flavorful and delicious cake!
- Be sure to check the expiration dates on your baking powder and baking soda.
- Use a cake tester or a toothpick to test when this cake is done! This is a very large cake and bake times may vary depending on your oven and how it bakes.
- Don't forget to spoon out about 1/2 cup of frosting to color green! We used leaf green, as it gave us the closest color to the film's that we could find.
- We used freeze dried strawberries and ground them ourselves. You can use strawberry powder or, if you don't have any, red food coloring can be used, but it won't taste like strawberries.
- When it comes to assembling this cake, don't stress! This cake is, quite literally, meant to be a mess.
- To create the "crack" look from Hagrid sitting on the cake, use a dull knife and draw the crack on top of the cake by dragging the tip through the frosting.
- To pipe the letters, I used a #4 piping tip.
- Feel free to make this a celebration cake! Know a Harry Potter fan with a birthday coming up? Make this cake and, instead of writing "Harry", write their name instead!
- To get clean slices, wipe your knife after each cut!
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 1250kcal | Carbohydrates: 194g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 50g | Saturated Fat: 25g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 726mg | Potassium: 1269mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 151g | Vitamin A: 1184IU | Vitamin C: 964mg | Calcium: 149mg | Iron: 20mg