Harry Potter Cake

One of my friend's daughters wanted a chocolate Harry Potter cake for her birthday, so I made a sheet cake, carved it like a book, and covered it with homemade vanilla fondant.  I swirled in a little brown food dye to make the fondant look like parchment paper, and used a ridged pastry tip to create the look of book pages around the edges.  I made a golden snitch out of a Lindt white chocolate truffle, which I painted with yellow food dye and rolled in gold sprinkles, and then attached sugar paste wings, also sprinkled with gold sprinkles.  I dyed some sugar paste black and made Harry's famous glasses, and then dyed some sugar paste brown for his wand.  I was especially pleased with the wood grain look I was able to achieve on the wand!  I dipped a toothpick in the brown dye and made horizontal stripes across the wand, and then pulled the stripes down with a paint brush to get the desired effect.  I put all the decorations on the cake, and then used a paintbrush to write the spells and birthday message in black food dye, so it would look like ink on parchment.  I was pleased with the result, and Bekah really loved her cake.