From Kiki's Delivery Service · 1989 · Reconstructed
Kiki's Chocolate Cake
Serve when
Serve it as Madame does — a surprise thank-you with the recipient's name piped on top.
In the movie
Theatrical
- ~01:30:29 Madame surprises Kiki with a chocolate cake baked just for her — Kiki's name and a little broom piped across the top — the kindness that helps carry her through losing her magic.
The cake with her name on it is the counterweight to the herring pie — proof that the work was seen. Madame's ovens deliver the film's two lessons in pastry: kindness ignored, and kindness returned.
Ingredients
- For the glaze:
Method
- Whisk dry; beat in eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, then hot water.
- Bake in a parchment-lined 9-inch round at 350°F, 35 minutes, until a toothpick from the center comes out clean. Cool fully. The batter is thin — that's right; the hot water is what keeps the crumb moist.
- Heat the cream, pour over the chocolate and butter, stir to a glaze, and coat the cake.
- Once set, pipe the recipient's name in white icing. The little broom is optional but correct.
- Give it to someone who worked hard and thinks nobody noticed.