I Open at the Close

The end of the era, the end of my childhood. When I finished reading the seventh Harry Potter book, I really did feel like I had left a part of my childhood behind. I went to all of the midnight book release parties, read and re-read the books, listened to the audiobooks on cassette tape and then CD, when the movies started coming out I was always around the same age as the actors; essentially, I grew-up with Harry Potter. I was definitely part of the Harry Potter generation, and Harry Potter certainly left an indelible impact on my childhood. For the last Harry Potter movie midnight premiere, I had my friends over beforehand and we ate Sheppard's Pie and I made Butter Beer, and for dessert I made Golden Snitch Cake Pops!

The cake pops were not that hard to make, but did take a little bit of practice and trial and error. To make the wings, I made marshmallow fondant and tinted it yellow, and cut it out in the shape of the wings. Make sure to allow plenty of time for the wings to dry out and harden (at least 24 hrs!) before trying to attach them to the cake pops. To give them a more wing like texture, use a fluted fondant wheel and make ridges on the wings. We also dusted our wings with Wilton golden dusting powder to make them appear more gold. To make the cake pops,I used my Babycakes CakePop maker, which sort of functions like a waffle iron, but makes round balls instead of waffles. Then I stuck the cake on the sticks and dipped them into the melted yellow candy melts. After the cake pops were completely hardened (we let them harden overnight) we cut small slits into the sides of the pops and carefully inserted the wings into the slits. (Make extra wings because some WILL break!) Once you insert the wings, just be very careful in handling them, because they become very fragile.