Ah October, or as I call it, the Month of Halloween. The month for witches, vampires, demons, and ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, I can’t be the only Potterhead who would LOVE to attend a deathday party like the one held for Nearly Headless Nick in The Chamber of Secrets. Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower, was beheaded for accidentally giving a Muggle tusks instead of straight teeth on October 31, 1492. Well, nearly beheaded. Hence his name “Nearly Headless Nick.”
This year would be Nick’s 524th deathday, and I wanted to make a cake to celebrate! In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Nick invites Harry, Ron, and Hermione to his 500th deathday party on Halloween.
It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black-draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer.
Also present was a large table full of rotten, burned, and moldy food. Ghosts can’t eat, but Hermione suggests that maybe they let the food rot to give it a stronger flavor. Harry asks a ghost if he can taste the food as he passed through it, and the ghost replied sadly, “Almost.”
I obviously didn’t want to really make a moldy or burned cake, but I had some tricks up my sleeve (like a wizard!). I chose a dark chocolate cake with a smoked salted caramel buttercream, covered in crushed Oreos to give it that burned look. The smoked flavor to the frosting is very subtle, so you don’t have to worry about being overwhelmed by smoke!
I used this dark chocolate cake recipe and this buttercream recipe. To make the smoked salted caramel, I relied on my trusty Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe and just substituted the salt with smoked salt. To make it appear “burned,” I crushed up about half a pack of Oreos and sprinkled them on the buttercream. I spread a layer of the frosting in between the layers and added just a little more smoked salt, and then decorated with some bunting home-made from some clear twine and black paper.
Happy Deathday Sir Nicholas!
