From The Godfather · 1972 · Reconstructed
Nazorine's Wedding Cake
Serve when
Cut it the moment the band winds down and the bride prepares to leave — 'soon, after they cut the cake.'
In the movie
Theatrical
- ~00:12:26 Nazorine the baker corners Vito at the wedding to boast about the cake he made for Connie gratis — 'Wait till you see the wedding cake I made for your daughter! The bride, the groom and the angel...' — and the guests are told the bride will leave 'after they cut the cake'
Nazorine the baker made this cake for Connie gratis, as a favor Vito will collect on before the day is out — the whole transactional warmth of the wedding compressed into one towering dessert. He corners Vito specifically to describe it, bride and groom and an angel on top, and the household clock is set by it: the guests are told the bride leaves "after they cut the cake." This is a reconstruction of a standard tiered Italian-American wedding cake, built from Nazorine's own description — the film never publishes the recipe he used.
Ingredients
- For the frosting:
Method
- Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, and fold it into the batter alternately with the milk.
- Divide between two or three graduated cake pans and bake at 350°F, 25–35 minutes depending on size, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely.
- Beat the butter for the frosting until smooth, then add the powdered sugar gradually with the cream and vanilla until light and spreadable.
- Crumb-coat each tier, chill, then frost fully and stack — largest tier on the bottom — with dowels for support if it's more than two tiers. If the layers bake up domed, level the tops with a long serrated knife before frosting — a flat stack is what keeps a tiered cake standing through the party.
- Set the bride, groom, and angel on top, and wheel it out to be cut once the band starts to wind down.
Beyond the recipe
Watch & shop
As an Amazon Associate, FlixNFood earns from qualifying purchases.