Harry Potter's Birthday Cake (vegan + gf)
Equipment
- 2 cake pans
- 1 piping bag
- 1 size 10 round piping tip
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups oat flour
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ⅓ cup black coffee or 1 tbsp espresso powder dissolved in 3 tbsp hot water
- 1 ½ cup applesauce
- 1 cup plant milk
Frosting
- 12 oz cream cheese
- 16 tbsp butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Natural Coloring
- 5 tbsp cherry juice see notes
- 2.5 tbsp matcha powder
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and lightly grease two round cake pans.
- Combine oat flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour in the applesauce, plant milk, and brewed coffee.
- Fold gently to fully combine.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
Frosting
- Add vegan butter and cream cheese to a large bowl and beat on high with a hand mixer until fully combined.
- Add powdered sugar in three batches to avoid making a huge mess!
- Separate about ⅛ of the batch - this will be used for the green frosting.
- Add 5 tbsp cooked cherry juice or sub another pink dye (see ideas above) to the larger batch of frosting and incorporate with hand beater on low.
- Add matcha powder to the smaller sized batch of frosting and stir thoroughly to combine.
Assembly
- Wait for the cakes to cool completely before frosting!
- Add the first cake the your final serving platter. Place the platter on a lazy susan, if available.
- Add about ¼ the batch of pink frosting on top of th efirst cake and spread into one even layer.
- Carefully place the second cake on top.
- Use the rest of the pink forsting to cover the top and sides of the layered cake. Be sure to create a smooth surface on top for piping letters.
- Add the green frosting to a piping bag fit with a size 10 round tip.
- Pipe "Happee Birthdae Harry" in three separate lines on top of the cake.
- Cut a curved line into the cake to fully replicate the visual we get in the film scene! The line should curve between the P and E in "Happee," the H and D in "Birthdae," and the H and A in "Harry." :)
Notes
For the pink frosting
There are a couple of options for this one, but I used roasted cherry juice. Frozen cherries release their juices as they thaw, and the juices thicken as the cherries continue to cook at higher temperatures. 2 cups of cherries release about 5 tablespoons of juice, which is enough for this recipe!
You could also use freeze dried strawberries or freeze dried raspberries as a natural dye, I’ve had great results with both in the past! If you go this route, you’ll need to blend up the strawberries or raspberries - I LOVE using my coffee grinder (linked here) for small-batch blending like this.