The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz [25]
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup raisins
Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and flour a large cookie sheet. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl. With your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture reaches the consistency of wet sand.
Beat the egg together with the milk and pour it into the flour-butter mixture. Fold it together using a spatula to form a stiff dough. Fold in the raisins. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the bottoms are golden, rotating the pan midway through baking.
Makes 12
For rock-hard rock cakes like Hagrid's, just bake them for too long and eat them a week later at your own risk!
Harry's First Birthday Cake: Chocolate Layer Cake
It's hard to imagine a woman so heartless that she wouldn't ever, ever bake — or at least buy — a birthday cake for her motherless nephew. But such is indeed the case for Harry Potter, who meets his first birthday cake when he turns eleven, courtesy of Hagrid (see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 4).
Cocoa beans were so precious to the ancient Aztecs that they used them as money. The Spanish explorers brought the beans back to Spain in the 1500s, and from there it was only a matter of time for chocolate to catch on in the rest of Europe and for the final product to be perfected. We have the Dutch to thank for figuring out how to make chocolate and cocoa powder as we know it and the Swiss for thinking of adding milk.
Chocolate Cake
¾ cup boiling water
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze
8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
¾ cup heavy cream
¼ stick (2 tablespoons) butter
¼ cup corn syrup
Chocolate Frosting
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ of the above Chocolate Glaze recipe
Green Icing
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Water to form a paste
Green food coloring
To make the cake layers, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Whisk together the boiling water, cocoa powder, and instant coffee in a measuring cup or small bowl until smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until incorporated and scraping down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the hot cocoa mixture and beat until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the flour mixture and stir on the slowest speed until combined. Finish by scraping the bottom of the bowl with a spatula and folding it in. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes, until the cakes feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Be careful, as this cake overbakes easily. Cool the layers in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To prepare the glaze, place the chocolate, heavy cream, butter, and corn syrup in a bowl and microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Cool the glaze until it is thick but still pourable.
To prepare the frosting, place the butter, confectioners' sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides as needed, about 7 minutes. Add half of the cooled glaze and beat until combined. If