Harry Potter Sorting Hat Cupcakes with Butterbeer Buttercream

Sorting Hat Cupcakes are immense fun for Harry Potter fans. Each brown sugar cupcake is filled with a stash of red, green, blue or yellow candy drops, (representing each of the 4 Hogwarts houses) which remain hidden under a swirl of butterbeer flavoured buttercream until bitten into. It’s a fun way for fans to find out their house.

One thing I never thought I’d find myself writing about on my blog is a themed cake. Believe me, I have had to rise to the challenge of baking plenty of whacky party cakes over the years, but I never expected one to make it onto LittleSugarSnaps. It’s just not what I normally like to write about. But here I am, laden with a large stash of photographs for some cupcakes that remain eternally popular with my children and their friends: Harry Potter Sorting Hat Cupcakes.

Let me get straight to the point. These cupcakes are the epitome of edible fun. They are guaranteed to get excitement levels up for any Harry Potter fan (even adults). What could be more fun than biting into your cake, discovering you have been placed in your favourite house (or not) and then comparing how your friends have fared. These Sorting Hat Cupcakes are a brilliant choice for serving up at a Harry Potter themed party.

The recipe for these Sorting Hat Cupcakes is certainly one that has evolved since the first time I made a batch. My original bake was inspired by those created by Sugar Bean Bakers. I used my standard chocolate sponge recipe and a regular vanilla buttercream. But since my children have a penchant for piñata cakes (sometimes with disastrous consequences) I did switch out the sweet cream filling and used M&Ms in its place. The trouble was that after the cakes had sat for a few hours, the colouring from the sugar shell on the sweets began to bleed. The kids didn’t mind, but this kind of messiness really niggles away at me.

Two more large batches of Sorting Hat Cupcakes followed a few months later for birthday parties. This time I opted for candy melts in place of M&Ms. I melted the candy down and piped tiny drops ready to fill the cakes. Bingo. No leaking colours this time around – the colour remained consistently punchy & vibrant.

More recently, I decided to rethink the cake and the buttercream to give them both a flavour Harry Potter would approve of – butterbeer. Since butterbeer is described as tasting of butterscotch and cream soda, I decided to make some butterscotch up and add it to my vanilla buttercream. The butterscotch sauce is smooth and lusciously buttery. In fact, it’s perfect drizzled over ice cream, but you’ll need to make a double batch to have enough for that. When added to vanilla buttercream the result is sweet yet deliciously creamy and buttery too.

I stuck with the butterscotch theme in the cake and used its main ingredient – brown sugar – in place of regular caster sugar. There’s also some vanilla in the mix and I definitely recommend sticking with butter rather than using baking margarine as a substitute.

Up until a few days ago, I had intended to pipe some sorting hats from chocolate and stand them up in the buttercream. However, in the final hour I came across a tutorial for making chocolate coins from wax seal stamps. And oh, sweet joy, Milly had a pair of Harry Potter wax seals bought her for Christmas – one for Hogwarts and one for Gryffindor.  These cakes were just meant to be.

Similar stamps are available to purchase on Amazon, but of course, these Sorting Hat Cupcakes can be decorated in various other ways:

• with a homemade sorting hat or Hogwarts coat of arms flag
• topped with a molded caramel sorting hat
• simply with glitter or sprinkles
• a drizzle of butterscotch sauce

And that’s the evolution of these Harry Potter Sorting Hat Cupcakes in a nutshell. Even though my children have been served these cakes numerous times now, the thrill of biting into one and finding their Hogwarts House does not seem to have diminished. Naturally, they both always want to get red for Gryffindor. And, predictably, each child guffaws at their sibling should they end up with a Slytherin cake.

They can just about cope with being labelled Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

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Harry Potter Sorting Hat Cupcakes with Butterbeer Buttercream

Prep Time

1 hr 15 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

 

Sorting Hat Cupcakes are immense fun for Harry Potter fans. Each brown sugar cupcake is filled with a stash of red, green, blue or yellow candy drops, (representing each of the 4 Hogwarts houses) which remain hidden under a swirl of butterbeer flavoured buttercream until bitten into.

Do make the butterscotch sauce well ahead of time since it does need to cool and chill prior to being added to the buttercream. 

Course: Baking, Dessert

Cuisine: Worldwide

Keyword: butterbeer, butterscotch, cupcake, harry potter, pinata, secret, sorting hat, themed

Servings: 12 Cakes

Author: Jane Saunders | LittleSugarSnaps

Ingredients

For the Brown Sugar Cupcakes

• 125 g/ 4 1/2 oz Butter (unsalted) - softened
• 125 g/ 4 1/2 oz Light brown sugar
• 2 Eggs (large, free range)
• 2 tbsp Whole (full fat) milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 125 g/ 4 1/2 oz Plain (all purpose) flour
• 3/4 tsp Baking powder

For the Butterscotch Sauce

• 60 ml/ 1/4 cup Double (heavy) cream
• 50 g/ 1/4 cup/ 1 3/4 oz Light brown sugar
• 30 g/ 1/8 cup/ 1 oz Unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp Golden syrup (light corn syrup)
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• Salt - a large pinch

For the Butterbeer Buttercream

• 300 g/ 1 1/3 cup/ 10 1/2 oz Unsalted butter - softened
• 200 g/ 1 2/3 cup/ 7 oz Icing (confectionary) sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 Batch Butterscotch sauce (listed above)

For the Coloured Drops

• 25 g/ 1 oz Red candy melts
• 25 g/ 1 oz Green candy melts
• 25 g/ 1 oz Blue candy melts
• 25 g/ 1 oz Yellow candy melts

Decoration - your choice of sprinkles, chocolate coins, molded caramel hats or paper flags

Instructions

Make the Butterscotch Sauce

1. Put all ingredients except the vanilla extract into a small, heavy based pan, and cook over a low-medium heat until the sugar has dissolved (stirring frequently

2. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 2 minutes

3. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool completely, then refrigerate for several hours

Make the House Drops

1. Melt the red candy melts, put into a piping bag fitted with a small circular nozzle and pipe small drops (3-5mm) onto baking parchment. Leave to set  

2. Repeat for the remaining colours (ensure you wash and dry your piping bag and nozzle very well to avoid colour contamination).

Make the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven 170C/ 325F/ GM3 and line a cupcake tray with paper cake cases

2. Using electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

3. Briefly mix the eggs in a jug and gradually add a tsp at a time into the creamed butter & sugar, beating well in between each addition (adding the egg really slowly reduces the risk of the mix splitting)

4. Add the vanilla extract and milk, then beat again

5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and gently & briefly fold in half using a large metal spoon (about 8 turns of the spoon). Add the rest of the flour and continue to fold in until all ingredients are throughly combined. Take care not to overwork the batter though

6. Divide between the cupcake cases - filling each case around 2/3 full - and bake for approximately 20 minutes

7. Test that the cupcakes are baked through: poke a cocktail stick into one of the cakes - if it comes out clean then the cakes are ready. If not, return to the oven for a couple more minutes, then test again

8. Once out of the oven remove from the baking tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack

For the Butterbeer Buttercream

1. Put the butter into a medium bowl and beat until smooth and soft

2. Sieve in the icing sugar 1 tbsp at a time and beat well between each addition

3. Once all of the icing sugar has been mixed in, beat in the vanilla extract
   

4. Spoon the butterscotch sauce into the buttercream and beat in (use less butterscotch for a subtler flavour and leave a little sauce aside if you intend to drizzle some over the cakes as decoration) 

Assemble the cakes

1. When ready to assemble cut a small cone from the middle of each cake (see my image)

   

2. Fill 3 cakes with red candy drops, 3 with green and so on 

3. Put the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a suitable nozzle (I used Wilton C4) and pipe the buttercream onto the cakes, ensuring that the coloured drops are completely covered up

4. Add your choice of decoration

These cakes keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container

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