Hogwarts Castle Cake! A Lego Harry Potter Chocolate Cake!

So, October 2011... the little Birthday Boy (my darling stepson) was turning 9… top of his current list are Lego and Harry Potter / Star Wars. I had bought a Castle shaped Silicone cake mould in a Hypermarket in France, so this seemed the perfect opportunity to try it out!

So… double quantities of my “Go To Chocolate Cake” base mix, into the mould (which I brushed all over with Wilton Cake Release”…

Into the oven… 30 mins have passed… not at all ready….. 15 mins later………. Still not done……..

After nearly an hour it is ready… it was on a low setting, so I don’t think it will be dry.

After leaving it to cool I start tackling how to get it out of the mould, which has four turrets and lots of nooks and crannies… Thanks to the Cake Release most of it comes out easily, and has well defined features. The turrets, however, have decided to stay put. Oh dear. After much stressing and squeezing I manage to get the bits of turrets out, and use icing to glue them back together… they don’t look their best, but they are OK enough to worry about them later when I’m decorating…

I do a crumb layer with chocolate cream cheese icing, using it to build up the bits which don’t look like they should, and to secure the stuck-on turrets, then leave that to dry off, so that the top layer won’t bring up and crumbs. I have done my favourite Cream Cheese icing, and tinted it grey, so it looks castle-like! I cover the cake in that, trying to keep it as thin as possible, to keep the shape.

Now for the fun part… I managed to get Lego mini figures on eBay of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Fluffy (the 3-headed dog), so arranged them on the cake, and arranged chocolate mice, a lego spiders’ web, and chocolate chips to go on the turrets (to cover the fact they have partially collapsed!)

Finally, with some writing icing I drew on a couple of windows and doors. Art is not my strong point. It certainly did the trick though, his fact when he saw the cake was worth all the effort and stress!!