Today my blog friends and I are hosting a Harry Potter Themed Dinner Party, and I’m bringing these Sorting Hat Cupcakes! Take a bite and see which house you’ve been sorted into!
One of my favourite parts of the Harry Potter series was the Sorting Hat, that curmudgeonly old wizard’s hat that sorted the students into their House at the beginning of their schooling at Hogwarts.
Should it be red and gold Gryffindor, the house of the brave and the daring? Or green and silver Syltherin, house of the ambitious and clever? Blue and bronze Ravenclaw, house of intelligence and wit? Or yellow and black Hufflepuff, house of hard work and dedication?
Sure, there are online sorting tests… I mean, how many times do I really need to be told I’m in Ravenclaw before I realize I’ll just never be in Gryffindor? There must be another way to be sorted into Gryffindor!
And now there is.
We might not have a sorting hat in the muggle world, but we do have cupcakes and jelly beans!
These cupcakes are so easy and so much fun!
You can use your favourite cupcake and buttercream recipes, or the ones I’ve written down below (my old standbys!). To give them that magical, Harry Potter feeling, I baked them in gold and silver foil cups.
Once you have the cupcakes baked and cooled all the way (IMPORTANT. Don’t be too eager!), scoop out the middle with a spoon, or if you have a cookie scoop, that works very well too.
Pop your jellybeans in there, five or six each should do the trick. And if you REALLY want to go crazy, I suggest tossing some pop-rocks in there for a fizzing-whizbee surprise! I added them into my buttercream and the dampness of them made the rocks pop too early 🙁 Ah well, best laid plans!
For your chocolate buttercream, I suggest adding some black gel food colouring to get that weathered wizard’s hat look. It does take a little while to develop, so you don’t need as much as you would think! You can actually see the progression in my photos.
Fill a piping bag with your black chocolate buttercream, and attach a frosting tip that you use for making petals. It will look like a very flat teardrop. I used a Wilton 104 tip.
Pipe a circle around the edge of your cupcake, making sure to have it overlap the foil cup. I found that if I used the larger opened end of the tip on the outside, it made the ‘brim’ of the hat a little more natural. Have fun with it, THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT! In fact, the more wrinkly and wobbly it is, the more it will look like the old Sorting Hat.
Now remove your petal tip and add a medium-sized circle tip, like the Wilton Round Tip 12. I liked to fill in the jelly bean hole a little bit to create a good base before I started going around and around and around, from large continuous circles at the bottom to pulling away at the top to give it that crooked point.
The wobblier and weirder the better!
And there you have it, Harry Potter Sorting Hat Cupcakes! Simpler than you would think, and so delicious. These magical cupcakes will be the hit at your next Yule Ball!
Slytherin! Dang it! Guess I’ll have to eat another!
Aw, shucks.
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour or 2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 2/3 cups cocoa
- 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (OR 2 Tbsp vinegar in 1 1/2 cups milk)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup unsalted butter , room temperature
- 3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- OPTIONAL: black gel food colouring
- 3/4 cup each red , green, blue, and yellow jelly beans
- OPTIONAL: pop rocks for fun!
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Preheat oven to 350°, and put your cupcake liners in their tins.
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Mix all of the cupcake ingredients together in the order they're listed on medium speed first, scraping the sides occasionally. Then turn it up to high and let it go for 3 minutes, scraping occasionally (I make sure to have my guards on, or put a towel over the mixer or else it goes EVERYWHERE)
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Spoon the batter into the cupcake tins, about 3/4 of the way full, and pop in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack.
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Let cool completely.
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Mix the butter, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla and cocoa powder together, scraping the sides occasionally. Slowly add in the cream, continuing to mix and scrape and it should come to a very smooth, easy to spread frosting. We want it to be quite soft for this, but still able to hold its shape.
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The amounts to bring it to the correct consistency will be different for everyone depending on many factors, so if it's too stiff, add a tablespoon of cream, if it's too runny, add a little more icing sugar.
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Beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on high or until everything is incorporated and the buttercream becomes lighter in colour.
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OPTIONAL: Add the black gel food colouring a little bit at a time until it becomes grey. Black food colouring develops over time, so you will need less than you think!
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Make sure that your cupcakes are completely cool. Scoop out the centre with a spoon or cookie scooper.
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Put 5-6 jelly beans in the hole in each cupcake, red for Gryffindor, green for Slytherin, blue for Ravenclaw and yellow for Hufflepuff. For an added surprise, add some pop-rocks in with them!
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Scoop your buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized petal tip (like Wilton 104). With the larger end facing out, pipe in a circle around the cupcake, making sure to overlap the liner for that 'hat' effect. The more bumpy and weird it looks, the better!
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Switch your piping tips and use a medium round tip (like Wilton 12). Pipe in circles around and around, creating a lumpy, bulbous old wizard's hat. Again, doesn't have to be perfect! Pull away at the top so it has a crooked point.
Some of my blogging friends and I were inspired by the amazing Bryton Taylor and her beautiful blog, Food In Literature. All of us are bookworms, and thought it would be so fun to host a Literature Themed Dinner Party! Of course, with it being October, and Halloween just around the corner, what would be a better fit than Harry Potter? Check out some more wonderful Harry Potter food below!
- Sorting Hat Cupcakes from I Say Nomato
- Canary Creams from the Bluenose Baker
- Hagrid’s Pumpkin Patch Rock Cakes from Peppers & Pennies
- Arachnid Balls from 365 Days of Easy Recipes
- visit Food in Literature’s Harry Potter’s themed dinner party for more ideas!
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