Ann Reardon

Hunger Games Cake Catching Fire

hunger games cake 2 2013

 When Harry met Katniss … in a heavyweight publishing bout, the brave girl with the bow and arrow did what many had thought was impossible, outselling Harry Potter in just a few short years. This Hunger Games cake is a fiery tribute to the latest movie in the series, Catching Fire. Author Suzanne Collins hit the jackpot when she penned the Hunger Games trilogy, selling more than 50 million copies and passing the Potter books in both digital and print sales. Almost makes you want to become a writer doesn’t it. But writing a best-seller is no easy task, with Collins toiling for many years on children’s books, studying theatre arts, telecommunications and dramatic writing before she dreamed up a heroine named Katniss. Although many people find the central theme of a children battling to the death understandably disturbing, the Hunger Games series also has strong redemptive themes such as loyalty, sacrifice and fighting injustice. This is one of the reasons that I included a link in the video to Compassion, a child-focused charity that we’ve been involved with for almost 2 decades. Fighting injustice isn’t just for fantasy heroes.

Personally, I would love to be able to write something profound or poetic in this post but unfortunately English wasn’t a favorite subject at school. I think this was because creative writing isn’t about a formula or set of rules, which is the way that my brain works (maths and science made far more sense to me). Anyway, enough writing … let’s make a Hunger Games Cake instead, trust me it will take a lot less time than writing a book.


 
[Congratulations to the winner of this fondant mockingjay pin Natalie Hoffman]

To make the hunger games cake you will need:

1 and a half quantities of the sponge cake recipe. I made one quantity which fills two 20cm (7.87 inches) cake tins and then made a half to make a third cake (because only two cake tins fit in my oven at once)
red food colour
yellow food colour

Peach ganache
60g (2.12 ounces) or 4 Tablespoons peach juice (drained from a tin of peaches)
200g (7.05 ounces) white chocolate

Chocolate ganache for the outside of cake
200g (7.05 ounces) milk chocolate
200g (7.05 ounces) dark chocolate
180g (6.35 ounces) or 3/4 cup cream

Mockingjay Pin
75g (2.65 ounces) black fondant (this is the exact amount used, so allow extra for rolling out and cutting 200g (7.05 ounces) would be plenty)
Edible gold luster dust
Clean paint brush, knife, non-stick baking paper, cake tins, palette knife to spread ganache.
Free pdf template of the mocking jay pin in cake size

Sugar Flames:
1 cup or 218g (7.69 ounces) Sugar
1 Tablespoon or 21g (0.74 ounces) glucose syrup
1/4 cup or 63millilitres (2.13 fluid ounces) water
red food colour
yellow food colour

Real Flames:
3 Tablespoons or 66g (2.33 ounces) salt
150millilitres (5.07 fluid ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 1Tbsp and 1tsp vodka

Hunger Games Cake Directions

Make your mockingjay bird pin ahead of time out of black fondant. Follow the detailed directions in the video to make this. It can be made up to a month ahead, but at least a few days ahead will give it time to dry out. You can make it the same day as you need it but it will be harder to transfer to the cake.

Make both of the ganaches and leave at room temperature over night, or in the fridge for a few hours.

Make the cake batter, remove 1/2 a cup and mix with red food coloring, remove another half a cup and mix with red and yellow to make orange. Pour plain cake batter into tins and swirl with red and orange batter. Bake the cake and cool in tin.

Level and layer the first two cakes using the peach ganache between the layers. Cut the third layer diagonally and add to the top.

Cover the whole cake in a thin coat of chocolate ganache and refrigerate for an hour

Cover in a thicker coat of chocolate ganache and smooth as shown in the video.

Bring the sugar and water and glucose to the boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Wash down the sides of the pan using a pastry brush and leave unstirred until the mixture just starts to go golden in one area (usually the centre on an electric stovetop or towards the outside edge on gas. Remove from the heat and stir in some red and yellow food colourings and pour onto non-stick paper. Follow the video directions for shaping and decorating the cake.

Prim “You saved my life, you gave me a chance”
Katniss “Yes, to live”
Prim “No, to do something”

Do something great… give a gift of compassion to someone who needs it.
Click here to see the Gifts of Compassion, you can choose to send a goat, a chicken, some vegetable seeds, clean water or more to help a family in need and give them hope.

hunger games cake 2013 ann reardon

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

35 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    I tried this cake this weekend my son loved it. I used fondant for the flames 🔥

    • Rating: 5

      I forgot to add my son made the weapons for this cake. Also I would add that bakers should definitely try to follow the sloped cake top rather than the flat top as it makes that cake look great from all angles. I regretted not doing this.

  2. Thank you so much for the tutorial, my daughter loves it!
    I used fondant for the fire as well, and just painted them with gel food coloring.

    • This cake looks great Mrs Jack.

  3. Great tutorial but I would love to know what sort of paper/material your template is cut from as it looks more ‘rigid’ than tracing or greaseproof paper which is what I’ve tried to use int the past without much success.

    • Hi hep275, Ann used nonstick baking paper in this case to trace the template.

  4. Hi. Can I do the sugar flames without glucose syrup?

    • Hi Paulina, You can replace the glucose syrup with light corn syrup. But one of the two will be needed to make the sugar flames.

  5. Hi, I was wondering if there was a substitute for the glucose syrup. If not, that’s fine, I can just go out and buy it, but I was just wondering if that needed to be glucose syrup. This is my first time making one of your cakes. Your recipes are always look wonderful and I am amazed at how you juggle being a mom and running a cooking channel on YouTube.

    • It’s probably too late for your cake, but I used red and yellow jolly ranchers. I heated them in the microwave (each color in a separate cup) and poured them out together on aluminum foil. (I got the idea from “Hello Cupcake”…..great book, highly recommend). Worked beautifully, hardens reliably, and lasts for months, if not years. Hope this helps for future projects!

      • Hi Samara, That is great tip. Unfortunately we can’t get Jolly Ranchers here.

  6. Hi, firstly loved the cake and the clear way you gave the tutorial – thank you. I made the cake and all went well, but my flames sort of melted when I came downstairs the day after it was done. I’d simply covered the cake in cling film and stored in a cool room. Any ideas or suggestions and how long should the flames last and how should they be stored. Many thanks for any help you can give me.
    Kind regards
    Jillian

  7. Hi Jo, yes metal ones are fine, some glass ones will crack with high heat and others are fine and say they are heat proof.

  8. Thank you for the walk through. My daughter is a huge fan of The Hunger Games and just loved this cake! We did everything exactly as you did except I used raspberry juice in the ganache. Love your site. I’m making other things from here this weekend for a friends baby shower. Blessings to you!

    • Awesome Teresa, it looks great

  9. Here’s my birthday cake! Like evangeline, I also had problems with the sugar flames, so I removed them. The flames hardened a couple of days later, so I added them to what was left of the cake (it’s more than half gone now). 😉

    • awesome job!!! well done moviedeeva

  10. Hi Ann,
    so I attempted to make this cake for my friend’s birthday. She loved the movie, so I thought of giving this a try. Besides the sugar flames which would not stay glued on the cake, and which had the tops of the sugar flames bending all the time ( I eventually just removed them), the cake turned out great! even the flames worked well…luckily we tested lighting up the vodka and salt the night before (huge flames!!) so we put less vodka on the actual day 🙂 I wanted to ask , just incase I do this again for someone else..with the sugar crystals, would I have to do this days in advance for it to be hard enough not to bend or fall off the cake sides? and would adding too much glucose syrup possibly be why it would not harden enouch not to keep bending? Thanks

    • sorry forgot to attach a pic of the cake (without sugar flames) as it didn’t work , but still looked great and was yummy! thanks again for sharing all these great cake ideas with us!

      • awesome job well done!

    • no they will absorb moisture from the air so you’re better off making the flames on the day of the party

      • How long should it take for the sugar flames to harden? Mine haven’t after about an hour, so I’m wondering if I didn’t boil it long enough? Should I start over?

        • Hi Laurie, yes the should harden as soon as they are cooled so it was not hot enough, when you’er boiling it and you think it’s ready remove from the heat and test a little bit on a cold plate if it doesn’t set keep heating.

    • Hi evangeline yes adding too much glucose syrup would effect it you just need about a teaspoon

  11. Hi Ann, can I use brown fondant instead of black? Thanks

    • yes you can do that Evangeline

  12. could you maybe make a Harry Potter cake? Love your channel and blog!!!!!!!!!

  13. Hi Ann, if water makes chocolate seize, why doesn’t the peach juice make the chocolate seize?

  14. Hi Ann, I’m from Argentina and I would love it if you could make a video on how to make a strawberry (or any other berry) charlotte. PS: I love your videos and think you are an amazing cook/baker!!

  15. Hey Ann, I LOVE THIS CAKE!!!!! I am in the process of making it and I have made the pin and flames so far. With the pin I didn’t have luster dust so I used pearl dust which didn’t work so I had to do the pin all over again and I had to use gold colored fondant that I made and the gold pearl dust and it turned out great(not as good as yours) but I am still happy the way they came out!!

  16. Can you plz make a cake that looks like a hamser because I love hamsers and I had 3 hamsters. And thank you forthat you are make so beatuful cakes and cupcakes. 🙂

  17. Wow !! Your very good!! Can you please make a Starbucks cake?? Like a cake filled with Starbucks?? Or a cake filled with Starbucks and decorated to look like Starbucks?? Yay!! Thanks sooo much!!
    ~Brae A. O{~<

  18. Amazing!!
    Please, make a cake of assassins Creed in 3D, as the cake instagram!!
    Thanks. XOXO

  19. This is one amazing cake. Well done!!!

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