A Very Harry Potter Day

Despite the url and name of this blog having something to do with Lord of the Rings, I love Harry Potter; I’ve been reading the books since I was in elementary school. Even though the books are 100 times better than the movies, I always enjoy when the movies come out. And today the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out. In addition to watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (I watched the other ones throughout the past week) and listening to A Very Potter Musical (if you haven’t seen that, you should watch it, here), and reading some of one of the books,  I wanted to bake something to commemorate the occasion.  I was really excited when I found a recipe for Butterbeer Cupcakes. They’d be perfect for tonight! At least two hours of waiting in line, we’d need something to eat! (I would get to the theater sooner, but alas, I have to work.)

I have not had Butterbeer from Harry Potter World at Universal, so I wasn’t exactly sure what it should taste like, so the recipe from amybites really helped.

The Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 and line cupcake pans with 18 cupcake liners

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 ½-ish teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cream soda

In one bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then add both of the sugars. Mix until well blended. Then add the eggs individually, beating thoroughly after each one. Mix in the vanilla and the butter flavoring. Then slowly alternately mix in the buttermilk, cream soda, and the flour mixture. Pour into the lined pans, filling each one about ½ to ¾ of the way full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Mmm.

While that’s baking…

The Ganache:

1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips
1 cup heavy cream

1 squeeze bottle

In a saucepan, melt together the butterscotch chips and the cream. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn! (A double broiler can and probably should be used, but I didn’t). Once it’s all melted together and smooth, let it cool to room temperature and pour into the squeeze bottle. 

That bottle did make things easier!

 Once both that and the cupcakes are done, fill the cupcakes with the ganache by sticking the squeeze bottle into a cupcake and filling it until the ganache comes out of the top. The butterscotch sank down after a while, so I added a little more every now and again to some of them. Make sure you have some left over for the frosting!

You can see the (not so) tiny holes. They'll get covered up by the frosting anyway

 

Once that is done, it’s time to make the frosting… 

The Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup butterscotch ganache
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
pinch of salt
2 ¼ c powdered sugar
Splash of milk or cream (as needed)

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the ganache, vanilla, butter flavoring, and salt. Beat in the powder sugar, slowly, until the desired consistency. I must say, this has got to be the first time in a while that I didn’t get powdered sugar all over the place. Then decorate! Some of mine are drizzled in remaining butterscotch ganache, some of them aren't. Just testing it both ways. Also, I thought about making fondant snitches to go on top, but I didn't think of making them 2 dimensional instead of 3 dimensional, and the 3D way wouldn't have looked very good.

Pretty

 I normally stink at decorating, but this is the first time I used a 1M tip, and they don't look half bad if I do say so myself!