Do I have time to list all the reasons I love Harry Potter? *checks with the guy off stage*
No? Okay they are saying no….
So let me be as brief as I can. I love Harry Potter for one zillion reasons, but as a cook, one of the things I appreciate most, is the importance and visual representations of food.
The Start of Term Feasts, the Train Trolley Snacks, Kreacher’s Onion Soup, Molly’s Snitch Cake, Pumpkin Pasties, Sugar Mice, Chocolate Frogs, SHERBET LEMON! Hermione’s rubbery mushrooms cooked in a can!
If you’ve read the books and watched the movies as frequently as I have (not likely) you’ll realize food is everywhere in these perfect stories. JK knew what she was doing.
Of all the dishes referenced in the books and imagined on screen the one I was most eager to recreate was Petunia’s Pudding from Chamber of Secrets.
In the movies, it’s this GORGEOUS but very “Petuniaesque” cake with big red cherries and delicate, sugared violets. She adorns it so carefully, so lovingly, just to have it smashed to oblivion. Well done Dobby.
So here’s my interpretation of Petunia’s Pudding and an ode to my longest, most important, and most satisfying, albeit fictional, relationship.
Long live Harry Potter. Long live cake!
EAT UP!
Butter & sugar – together. Whisk all drys. Separate eggs. Wet and vanilla. – Got it?
Cream together butter and sugar until it is fluffy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla – mix.
Add 1/3 of the dry.
Add 1/2 the wet. Follow with the second 1/3 of dry, last 1/2 of wet and final 1/3 of dry.
Mix until just combined. Cake batter is the world’s most beautiful unfinished product.
In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the batter.
This batter is enough for two, 9-inch pans or three, 6-inch pans. I do three, 6-inch with 9oz of batter in each. See, look! Up there!
Bake in a 325° F oven for 25-30 minutes. When the cake is ready it will pull away from the sides and be buttery, golden yellow. Kinda like “Sunshine, daisies, butter, mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!” – Ron.
To decorate, make two recipes of my Basic Vanilla Buttercream. Leave one recipe totally white. Split the other in half. Dye one half green and the other pale purple.
Crumb-coat it in white! Let chill for 15 minutes.
Apply second coat of white frosting – then google a picture of Aunt Petunia’s Cake – cancel all your social engagements and spend your day decorating a cake to look just like it! (Just kidding – it’s super easy – almost like magic – WOOOOAH!)
While I didn’t have a house elf to help me smash this on someone’s head – I did share it with a devastatingly handsome man. We split a piece in the warm glow of candlelight. His birthday, a little surprise, sugared lip kisses – now that’s magic.
Aunt Petunia's Pudding
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of cake flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of buttermilk
2 recipes of vanilla buttercream
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 325° F.
Butter and flour three, 6-inch cake pans.
In the bowl of an electric mixer or using a hand-mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks and vanilla. Mix to combine.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Mix until just combined.
In yet another bowl, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
Portion the cake batter into the cake pans. If you are using 6-inch pans, place 9oz of batter in each.
Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven.
Let cakes cool in their pans and then turn onto a wire wrack to cool completely.
Make vanilla buttercream and decorate!