Friday, March 3, 2017

Final Harry Potter Recipes: Cauldron Cakes & Savory Pumpkin Pasties!

One of you lovelies reminded me this week I never finished posting our Potter recipes from Christmas. Ack!


LET'S FIX THAT.
 
 Here's a quick look again at our main creations: Treacle Tarts (with a twist!), Meat Pasties, Savory Pumpkin Pasties, and Cauldron Cakes.

I've already shared how to make our Treacle Tarts, so let's move on to the other three.
 

The Cauldron Cakes are actually Welsh Cakes, which taste like a mix between a shortbread cookie and pound cake. Very dense, mildly sweet, with chunks of dates mixed in - or Sultanas, if you can get them. The cakes taste amazing on their own or with jam and cream. I even like them cold straight out of the fridge, and had them that way for breakfast a few times with hot tea. NOMZ.


Some recipes call for Welsh Cakes to be thinner, almost like a cookie, but after experimenting I prefer them about biscuit thickness. (An American biscuit, that is.)

John's high-tech Cake cutter. :D

Because I like them that thick, our Cauldron Cakes require an extra few minutes in the oven to fully bake the insides. Thinner cakes can be cooked completely in the pan, though - or on the outside of a cauldron, if you want to go the extra mile for authenticity. ;)

 As it is, we start them in the pan to brown both sides, then finish in the oven to bake the insides.


Then topped with powdered sugar:

Don't worry, I'll have printable recipes for all of these at the end of the post. I'm just doing a photo overview right now.

 I recommend serving your Cauldron Cakes in a little cauldron, of course:


Mine's a bit warped, but I just spotted some cute $10 plastic cauldrons at Walmart for St. Patrick's day. Fingers crossed they go on clearance afterward so I can grab a couple!



Our meat pasties are filled with sausage, mashed potato, carrots, onion, celery, and a little minced garlic.


 Of the two pasties, these were the crowd favorite - but then, it's always hard for the veggie option to compete with old-fashioned meat and potatoes. ;)

 Here's a look at the pumpkin pasties:


These are our own recipe entirely, and went through the most revisions of anything we made. After trying half a dozen different flavor combinations, and pressing many friends and family into service as taste-testers, we arrived at a filling made with pumpkin (natch), sweet potato, onion, cheese, and Worcestershire sauce. 

All that melds together to form a mild pumpkiny paste that's still slightly sweet, but has more of a zing from the cheese and sauce. The chunks of sweet potato give it a much better texture, too, since canned pumpkin is more of a puree. (If you can use fresh pumpkin, that'd be even better.)

[Note: Someone just pointed out our pumpkin pasties aren't technically vegetarian because of the Worcestershire sauce - but if you swap that out, they can be!]

Both pasties are made with store-bought pie crust, which John cut into circles, filled, folded, and crimped. 
 
 John's oh-so-neat pasty filling station.

It helps to put different slashes in the dough for each batch, so you know which filling is which.

Oof, I'm getting hungry again just looking at all these.

And finally, here are the printable recipes for each. Just right-click, save, and print!






I hope this helps some Potter-themed parties out there! If you give any of these a try please let me know how it goes - especially the pumpkin pasties, since I'd love to see what changes you guys would make, if any.

Oh, and if you're planning a Potter party, be sure to check out our Pensieve Punch as well!

32 comments:

  1. UK sultanas are just American raisins. It's real raisins (bigger and sweeter) that are hard to find.

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    1. Trader Joe's has lovely sweet HUGE raisins. Good option if you happen to have that store in your area.

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    2. Incorrect! 'Sultanas' are 'golden raisins' here in the US. The bigger,sweeter raisins you speak of are 'Muscat raisins', and are often found next to the candied (not maraschino!) cherries.

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  2. Just one quick note - If you are using worcestershire sauce in a veggie option - it's not veggie. It has anchovies in it. Otherwise, it sounds delish!

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    1. Oh snap, really? Had no idea! Thanks for the heads up - I'll add that in.

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    2. Found an option for vegan Worcestershire sauce (and just noticed it was posted by indie darling Jenny Lewis AWESOME!) http://cookingwithrockstars.com/recipes/vegan-worcestershire-sauce

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    3. Alternatively, there's a brand called Wizard's (I think, and doesn't that make it appropriate?) that makes a vegan worcestershire sauce. I want to say my local food co-op has at least three brands that do, but that's the best for a Harry Potter party! Also, I'd use vegan cheese for these (and, in fact, am planning on making vegan versions of all of these because they look amazing!)

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    4. I ran out of Worcestershire sauce one day while mixing up my favorite marinade. I looked at the back label and substituted: 1t soy sauce, 1t cider vinegar, & 1t dark brown sugar for 1T of Worcestershire. No one (even me) noticed a difference, so I stopped buying the original, which I had only used in that marinade.

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    5. Yep, just buy vegan Worcestershire!

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    6. Jenny Lewis' recipe looks like a slightly pared down version of Bryanna Clark Grogan's.

      I've not tried either, but I LOVE Bryanna's veg "beef" stew recipe [which I'll be making again soon for Paddy's Day].

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    7. Fun fact: Worcestershire sauce is believed to be descended from the Ancient Roman garam sauce, which was made from fremented fish guts and put on everything. A very distant relative, but look at that history!

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    8. There is also the glory that is Henderson's Relish - like Worcester sauce but no anchovies - and the joy of having a uniquely Yorkshire product ;)

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  3. Yeah, I was going to say, aren't sultanas just raisins? The treats sounds amazing, Jen and John!

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  4. If you search for 'vegetarian option for Worcestershire sauce' there are recipes that come up, which actually don't look hard at all. (From a non cook, totally willing to try making those pasties. MMMMM!)

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  5. I love Welsh cakes! There is a cute little vendor around here who sells them at craft fairs and things. I will definitely have to try your recipe

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  6. Thanks! My husband asks for Welsh cakes to take for snacks on his cancer treatment trips, but my recipe is for the cookie kind. I've got to try him out on your cakier kind.

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  7. Oh happy day - more yummy, fabulous recipes to try!

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  8. D'oh (dough) - I never realized that cauldron cakes were an actual thing, you know, baked on a cauldron. In my head they were always dark chocolate fudgey cakes shaped like cauldrons. Maybe we'll just refer to the thing in my mind as Desert Cauldrons.

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    1. I always imagined them as pancakes for some reason, which seems silly considering they buy them off the food trolley.

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  9. We had a Potter Costume Party ages ago (I took pictures of EVERYTHING, but now cannot find the digital files. I will look and see if I can find them and share over on the FB page...if anyone would be interested) and now you have me wanting to have another!

    Worcestershire sauce in the pumpkin pasties sounds, erm, interesting. It's funny how things go together that don't sound like they would. I happen to have a can of pumpkin in my cupboard just now... :)

    -Just Andrea

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  10. Well I didnt realise Cauldron Cakes were Welsh cakes either,Id imagined a sort of cupcake thing too. Were did you get the info? I live in Wales and have been making them this last week for St Davids Day March 1st.I make ones similar to yours, but I use mixed fruit and peel as well as just sultanas, currents or raisins.My family includes people who don't like dried fruit and I make them some without and I have made cherry ones too. you can cook thicker ones just in the pan, its just practise and trial and error.

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    1. Most Potter parties do go the cupcake route, and even Universal's Cauldron Cakes are shaped like cauldrons, but in the books they're described as stackable. So after a little online digging I found someone suggesting Welsh Cakes, and we went from there! It just seems more authentic - if there is such a thing, ha!

      And thanks for the tips - now I want to try cherries! Plus we may give it another go in the pan, see if we can cook them all the way through that way.

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    2. I am thrilled you have replied!! Im a vegan so I make mine with soya milk and no eggs, but for my family (apart from vegan daughter) I use the eggs from our hens.I had three different types all on the go for St Davids day.The chocolate cauldron cakes also look very nice, (I googled)

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  11. Thank you! These all look so tasty! I'm going to try making the cauldron cakes right now. In my mind cauldron cakes were funnel cakes.

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  12. Wow! Yum! I just made them with your recipe, but with currents and a little nutmeg as suggested in my King Arthur cookbook. (Your recipe is very similar to their's but their recipe makes more cakes and has more butter and sugar to the flour. After tasting the cakes using your recipe, I'll stick with it.) I've passed by that recipe hundreds of time and I'm so glad you demystified it for me. Thank you!

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  13. My very British grandma used to make what she called Cornish pasties which are roast beef, mashed potatoes, mashed carrots and rutabaga and gravy. My mom has carried on the tradition. THEY Are soooooo good

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    1. Yes, a Cornish pasty is a glorious thing; I'd be inclined to use chunks of stewing steak rather than roast beef but yours sounds pretty tasty too!

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  14. These recipes look and sound fantastic
    MaryO1230

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  15. Oh good lord... Welsh Cakes...

    I will eat any given quantity of Welsh Cakes. No really. It is not 'one or two', or even 'eat until full', it is 'eat untill physically unable to swallow more, take the rest home for later'. I am not joking, no hyperbole or exaggeration, and I can cite examples.

    I was introduced to them as a wee lad of four, and at the time was going through a 'fussy eater' phase. When my mother found me stuffing my face with them, she nonchalantly asked how many I had eaten. She nearly fell over when I told her 'Eight'. She of course nabbed the recipie, which is made with currants in our house.

    Whenever they mention lembas bread in LOTR, I imagined them to be Welsh Cakes.

    Also: sultanas are the 'golden' raisins, as opposed to the dark variety. They are a good substitute for dates. If you want some fun, go for 'muscat' raisins, which border on prune size!

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  16. I just tried the cauldron cakes, and OH MY GOD, they're so good! Perfect for tea-time. Thanks for my new favorite dessert!

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  17. Those pasties sound awesome! I make a ravioli with a similar filling but butternut squash instead of pumpkin and sweet potato and with sage added. It all looks great. Can't wait to try.

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