I loved, loved, LOVED making this cake for the daughter of a friend.  It was kind of a last-minute order and I wasn’t sure how much detail I’d be able to add as I had a few other orders already that week, but I ended up getting really into it as the Harry Potter books are definitely favorites around our house and I had lots of brains to pick about details.

The cake is a 9″ 3-layer sour cream vanilla cake with cookies and cream filling, smooth iced with vanilla-bean Swiss meringue buttercream. The details are all made from homemade marshmallow fondant.

The most challenging part by far was the Golden Snitch (if you’re not into Harry Potter, that’s the golden ball with wings they use to play a popular game called , a competitive sport in the wizarding world of Harry Potter…but of course you all knew that).

I did it by rolling a ball of yellow fondant about 1.5″ in diameter and letting it dry overnight.  I made the wings by covering wooden skewers with more yellow fondant cut to look like feathers. After carefully sticking the wings into the semi-dried ball and getting them positioned, I propped them up and let it all dry for a few days to harden (it took some creative thinking to keep them from drooping down!). When it was finally all dry, I painted the entire thing with edible gold luster paint.

For the wand, I molded chocolate fondant around a chopstick and added details to make it look like Dumbledore’s elder wand (my kids just happened to have a replica that we picked up at Univeral Orlando last year…not exactly the same, but you get the idea).

The glasses were hand-cut and molded from black fondant which I let dry for a few days. This part was a little tricky, too, as the fondant pieces were so thin.

The Gryffindor scarf I made by laying alternating pieces of red and yellow fondant side-by-side and very gently rolling them together and then cutting to size.  I “fringed” the ends by cutting narrow strips up about 1/2-inch. Somehow I managed not to get a picture of the fridge…duh.

All in all, it was a blast to make.  The only detail I would add if I made it again given more time, is an “HP” written in classic Harry Potter script on the side. Happy birthday, Braiden, it really was a pleasure creating your birthday cake!