Name: Hogwarts Sorting Hat Cupcakes
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 prebaked cupcakes; 6 chocolate sandwich cookies; 8 scoops of pre made icing, divided; 2 cup vanilla buttercream; 1 cup brown candy melts or chocolate chips; Harry Potter Sprinkles; Red, blue, green and yellow food coloring

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These Hogwarts sorting hat cupcakes are the perfect interactive party treat for your next Harry Potter themed birthday bash! Guests will love finding out which Hogwarts house they belong to by the color of the cupcake filling. Are you Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?

No matter how old we get, I think we all still dream about attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Or is that just me? I sometimes daydream about entering the Great Hall and sitting on a stool in front of Professor McGonagall and letting her slip that overgrown and tattered hat upon my head to find out once and for all which house I belong to (cough Ravenclaw cough).

But since I’m a 40 year old mom who lives in the suburbs, I daresay my fantasy will remain just that. However, I can still bring a bit of that whimsy to my boring life by giving those I love the chance to find their Hogwarts house with these fun Sorting Hat Cupcakes.

Look… I’m kind of tired of Butterbeer at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, it’s utterly delicious. But after the butterbeer fudge and the butterbeer cookies and the butterbeer cake…. I was kind of done.

In fact, you’ll find this is more of a tutorial than a recipe, as I used premade cupcakes and premade buttercream. You’re more than welcome to make both from scratch if that’s your jam, but this is more about the decoration than the taste, so that’s what I’m focusing on today.

Ingredients

12 prebaked cupcakes
6 chocolate sandwich cookies
8 scoops of pre made icing, divided
2 cup vanilla buttercream
1 cup brown candy melts or chocolate chips
Harry Potter Sprinkles
Red, blue, green and yellow food coloring

Instructions

Make or buy your cupcakes and buttercream before you start.

Making the Sorting Hats

Split the chocolate cookies in half, and remove the cream filling. Arrange them cream side up on a parchment-lined plate or tray.

Add two scoops each of buttercream to four different bowls, then dye each bowl the color of a corresponding house.

Fit four piping bags with a 4A or 12 tip, then fill with the colored buttercream. You can also choose to not use a tip or not even use a piping bag, but it can make things a bit harder.

Pipe frosting onto the chocolate cookies to create the look of a wizard hat. This should be conical in shape with a large base to match the cookie and a nice pointed tip at the top. If you are very ambitious, you can try and shape the frosting to look as much like the sorting hat as you can, but I think just a normal pointed hat does the job just fine.

There should be three hats of each color.

Once all the hats are made, throw them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Filling the Cupcakes

Moving on to the cupcakes, you will need to grab a paring knife to core the center. Simply run the knife in a circle to pull out a chunk from the middle of the cake.

You can also use a spoon to do this, though it doesn’t give as clean a look. Still, the whole thing will eventually be covered, so it’s not a big deal.

Remember to save the chunk of cake you removed, as you will need it later. You can do one cake at a time or do them all at once. If you do them all at once, try to keep the removed core next to the cake it came from so you can fit it back in more easily.

Now, take your piping bags and fill the center of the cupcakes with colored buttercream. There should be three cupcakes of each color. Then, replace the tops of the cupcakes.

Frosting the Cupcakes

The tops of the cupcakes are now a little messy, and even the sorting hats won’t totally cover them. Plus, the hats will need some way to stick to the top of the cupcakes. So it’s time to add some frosting!

Fit a piping bag with a 1M tip and fill it with your plain vanilla buttercream. Make a nice swirl around the top of the cupcakes.

Immediately add your sprinkles, then set aside.

Remember – once these are frosted, you won’t be able to see what color is inside, and you’ll need to know in order to match the hats. So make sure you find a way to label them.

I suggest having your colors labeled on parchment paper and setting the cakes down in order in their designated spots. That way you won’t get them confused before the hats are added.

Finishing The Hats

Take your brown candy melts and melt in increments of 30 seconds, stirring after each until smooth. If you use chocolate chips, add a bit of coconut oil or shortening to help thin it out.

Remove the hats from the freezer and carefully dip them into the chocolate, making sure to cover them fully.

Let them set.

If you can still see the colors through the chocolate, place them in the fridge for a few minutes, then try dipping them again, focusing especially on the parts you missed.

Once set, add the corresponding hat to its same colored cupcake.

Once again, it’s important that you have labeled them in some way, as you won’t be able to see the colors once they are covered in chocolate.

It’s as simple as that! Now it’s time to party! Simply set out the cupcakes on a table and let your guests choose. Once they bit into it, they’ll find out which house they are in.

For reference, Blue is for Ravenclaw, Green is Slytherin, Red is Gryffindor and Yellow is Hufflepuff. Let them choose their house at the beginning of the party to form teams for games, or save them for the end of the party as a fun end to the evening.

Let the magic begin!

Don’t forget to like, share and pin it for later! I truly hope you give it a try!

Hogwarts Sorting Hat Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

12 prebaked cupcakes
6 chocolate sandwich cookies
8 scoops of pre made icing, divided
2 cup vanilla buttercream
1 cup brown candy melts or chocolate chips
Harry Potter Sprinkles
Red, blue, green and yellow food coloring