Indulging myself in Harry Potter

So if you know me at all you'll know I'm a big Harry Potter fan.  (And I'm ever so envious of Rachael at Island Girl Insights who has actually been to the HP theme park!!!)

Since the last film came out I've pretty much constantly been obsessing about HP.  It's probably not healthy but I don't have a job so it's doing a good job of filling up my days.  I've been doing everything from reading the books and watching the films to re-playing Lego Harry Potter Year 1-4. (Must. Get. 100%!!!)

Then last week was the release of the Magical Quill Clues which granted you early access to Pottermore.  I managed to be one of the lucky few who registered on the very first day so hopefully won't be waiting for my welcome email for too long!  *fingers crossed*

Anyway to celebrate my 21st birthday last week (YAAAY!) I decided to experiment with some Harry Potter related recipes I found here a few weeks ago.

I made Acid Pops, Liquorice Wands, Butterbeer and Cauldron Cakes.

That's a picture of my cauldron cakes without their handles.  Aren't they adorable?!?!  I'm making a video where I talk about everything birthday related so I'll be posting that soon, where you get to see completed Cauldron Cakes!  With handles and EDIBLE GLITTER!

I have to say they were surprisingly simple to make and were delicious!  You can find the recipe for these here.  (Looks at how cute they look with the handles!!!!)  I substituted buttercream for the filling as it's hard to find marshmallow fluff over here and I really couldn't be bothered making my own.

I will post more birthday happenings once all the birthday happenings have happened...  In other words I've not been to my parents yet so will put the video up once I've seen them and all by birthday things have finished!

DFTBA!

P.S. DFTBA = don't forget to be awesome.  I think you should all check out Vlogbrothers.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I will post something that's not sweet soon but I just have to share this one with you all. It's currently in the oven and smelling oh so gorgeous so I will add pictures later. (EDIT: errr it all got eaten so quickly there were no pictures taken....Ooopsie!)

Chocolate Fudge Cake

(original recipe can be found here)

Ingredients

For the sponge...

85g self raising flour

30g cocoa powder

pinch of salt

115g light muscovado sugar (I used soft light brown sugar and it worked fine!)

115g unsalted butter

1tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

2-3tbsp milk

For the sauce...

85g light muscovado/soft brown sugar

30g cocoa powder

225ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until they're light and fluffy.

3. In a separate bowl, lightly beat together the eggs and vanilla essence.

4. Slowly add the egg mixture to the butter and mix together thoroughly.

5. Sift in the flour, cocoa and salt. Fold this in gently.

6. Line and grease a deep, round cake tin (this cake rose a heck of a lot more than I expected it to.)

7. Spoon in the cake mixture and roughly smooth the top.

8. Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce. (I found that whisking it quickly got rid of any lumps)

9. Pour this evenly over the top of the uncooked cake mixture and then bake in the oven for 40-60mins.

10. Eat hot, warm or cold with whatever you want!