This recipe was me creating my take on Cauldron Cakes from the Harry Potter series. I did get the Cauldron Cakes from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, and while it was not terrible by any means, my one gripe was that the cauldron part of the cake was just a silicone container. It just seems straightforward enough to make a fully edible cauldron, so I felt like it was a copout to have that silicone container. Truthfully, I would have done a tempered chocolate container if I could, but I lacked the molds to do that. So instead, I thought about maybe a rounded, fillable, baked good, and from that, I landed on pate choux. Pate choux is a twice cooked dough that is typically used to make cream puffs or eclairs. In this case, we are making gigantic cream puffs and stuffing those with layers of chocolate cake and cream to form essentially a Devil’s food cake, but instead of the large cream puff “cauldron”. With the Universal Studios Cauldron Cakes, the cakes were topped with these dollops of orange buttercream, piped to resembling flames. Now, it was cute and I loved the contrast of the bright orange against the black. So to recreate that in a more natural way, I used persimmon. More specifically, I macerated slices of chocolate persimmon. I chose chocolate persimmon to be cheeky and on the nose with the fact that this is a primarily chocolate dessert, and because I stumbled upon them at the grocery store. Contrary to their name, chocolate persimmons do not actually taste like chocolate. They can get dark orange-brown when ripe, with a molasses-like flavor, but that’s about it. Use fuyu persimmon if you cannot get ahold of these. I just shaved them on a mandolin, macerated them to draw away the astringent flavor of unripe persimmon, and used them in place of flames on top of the cauldron to complete the look!

From a technical standpoint, the pate choux are the main body of these cauldrons. If you do not bake the choux properly, your cauldrons will not be large and round enough to fit the rest of your components. To help with creating a domed exterior to the choux, I used a craquelin(thin cookie) dough. Since these choux buns are a lot bigger than your usual cream puffs, make sure you give them ample time to bake and dry out. If you underbake the choux, they will deflate. Slightly overbaking them is actually fine, since you are going to be trimming the bottom portions of the choux anyways and filling them upside down. The cake itself is a dense, rich chocolate cake. I recommend freezing the rounds of cake solid prior to assembly, just to make it easier to press them into the interior of the choux. There is a spiced ganache filling, which is fairly easy to make, and just requires some chilling time prior to using. The persimmon “flames” are also used as a filling, layered between the ganache and cake, and can be made fairly quickly so long as you use a mandolin(be very careful and use a guard if you have one!). The chocolate handles require you to properly temper chocolate. This is important since you need the chocolate to temper so it not only has a satisfying snap and beautiful shine, but it needs to hold its shape so that the handles stay as little curls on top of the choux buns. Overall, while there are some very technical aspects of this recipe, so long as you follow the recipe, this would be roughly a 7/10 in difficulty. Not the hardest dessert to make, but trust me when I say this, this can still be somewhat challenging and a fun way to try something completely new!

Makes 4 cauldrons:
For the black cacao craquelin:
3 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp black cacao powder
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

Mix ingredients together into a dough. Wrap with cling film and freeze for 20 to 30 minutes. You want the dough to be cold but not rock solid at this step. Dust a floured surface and roll out your dough. Cut out 3-inch circles. Keep in the freezer until it is time to bake your puffs.

For the black cacao pate choux:
1/2 cup water
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp black cacao powder
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

Melt water, butter, salt, and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Add in your flour first and mix into a shiny ball. Place into a bowl and allow your dough to cool down to room temperature. Whisk in the egg. Transfer to a piping bag. Pipe onto a parchment or silicone-lined baking tray in four 2 1/2-inch rounds, keeping them at least two to three inches apart. Place your craquelin onto the pate choux. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, then 350 degrees F for another 20. Allow the buns to cool completely before removing. If the craquelin manages to burn on the bottom, simply crack it off. It should crack cleanly and easily. Cool down completely.

For the devil’s food cake:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp black cacao powder
1/4 tsp instant coffee
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1oz hot water
1 tsp black vinegar
,5oz canola oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, combine all of your ingredients and whisk them together until a smooth batter is formed. Pour the batter into a parchment-lined quarter sheet tray and spread it into an even layer. Bake the batter at 350 degrees F for 18 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before cutting out 2-inch disks out of the cake – you will need 8 rounds in total, 2 for each choux.

For the spiced chocolate ganache:
4oz heavy cream
1oz unsalted butter
1 cup dark chocolate
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, heat up the heavy cream and butter until the butter fully melted into the cream. Pour the liquid over the chocolate, cayenne, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla. Allow the ganache to refrigerate until chilled down, then rewhip it until just spreadable.

For the tempered chocolate garnish:
1oz dark chocolate
a pinch of salt

Over a double boiler, melt 3/4 of the chocolate with the salt completely – the chocolate cannot go any higher than 120 degrees F. Take the chocolate off the heat and stir in the remaining chocolate, melting them all together and bringing the chocolate down to 90 degrees F. Pour the melted chocolate over acetate and using either a fork or a raked scraper, spread the chocolate in a thin layer on the acetate in thin lines. Curl the acetate and refrigerate. Carefully peel the chocolate off the acetate prior to using as a garnish on top.

For the macerated chocolate persimmons:
1 chocolate persimmon, relatively unripe
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

Shave the persimmon on the thinnest setting of a mandolin and toss with the other ingredients.

To assemble:
Start by cutting out the soft bottom portions of the cream puffs, allowing the craquelin side to become the new bottoms of your “cauldrons”. Pipe roughly .5oz of the ganache into the new bottom of the choux. Then place down one round of the cake, .1oz of the shaved persimmon, then another round of the cake, another .5oz of the ganache, and arrange more persimmon on top. Finish with the tempered chocolate handles.