A film as cute as Kiki’s Delivery Service calls for something as cute as a tea party, wouldn’t you agree? This lovely movie centred around a witch in training inspires all the delicious numnums featured in my anime tea party. It’s time for tea, friends!

Contents

• Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
• Anime Tea Party Menu
• Cat Shaped Sandwiches
• Mini Kiki Chocolate Cakes
• Mini Kiki Chocolate Cakes Recipe
• Floral Sandwich Biscuits
• Floral Sandwich Biscuits Recipe
• Buns Filled with Jam & Fresh Cream
• Filled Buns Recipe
• Grandma’s Fish Pies
• Mini Fish Fruit Pies Recipe
• Tea for Two
• Soft Spring Soft Drinks
• Anime Tea Party Cuteness
• Kiki’s Delivery Service Anime Tea Party Printable Menu

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Studio Ghibli has produced some absolute crackers; Kiki’s Delivery Service, based on the novel by Eiko Kadano, being up there with the one of the best.

It’s a heart-warming, fun story about a young witch who sets off to find a town where she can begin her year of training. After a rocky start, Kiki, along with her precious feline friend Jiji, find themselves under the care of a bakery owner who enlists Kiki’s help and encourages her to start her very own flying delivery service.

Taking us along for the ride, Kiki makes deliveries all over the town and meets plenty of interesting people.

The (mostly) lovely weather, the flowers everywhere you look, and the delicious-looking baked goods are partly what make this gorgeous film a lovely watch.

Alongside the overall soft, gentle feel that the story has.

Picture it: Kiki’s Delivery Service on the screen, fairy lights on, fresh flowers dotted around, and this entire anime tea party spread laid out.

That sounds like my kind of afternoon.

Here is the text on the menu graphic in case you prefer to see it in a format outside of an image:

Anime Tea Party Menu

Cat Shaped Sandwiches

Floral Sandwich Biscuits

Kiki’s Mini Chocolate Cakes

Buns Filled with Jam & Fresh Cream

Mini Grandma’s Fish (Fruit) Pies

Pot of Tea

The printable version of this menu graphic can be found at the end of this post!

Anime Tea Party Menu

My Kiki’s Delivery Service tea party is structured in a similar way to a traditional afternoon tea, like my Bridgerton inspired menu.

I’m talkin’ sandwiches, sweet treats and tea. 

The main difference is the inclusion of my mini fish (fruit) pies instead of scones.

I wanted to make sure that I recreated multiple dishes that feature in the film in my Kiki’s Delivery Service inspired anime tea party, including Grandma’s fish pie and Kiki’s chocolate cake.

Rest assured, Grandma’s pie does not have a herring and pumpkin filling.

This Kiki’s Delivery Service anime tea party is so much fun to put together, especially as an anime fan. It’s also great to put together both with and for young ones!

Cute teapot, teacups and afternoon tea stands are optional, but absolutely encouraged.

Let’s get into it.

Note: I recommend making the sweet breads first, as the dough needs time to prove!

Cat Shaped Sandwiches

Classic tea party sandwiches or entirely your own favourite filling combinations will work for the first element of my Kiki’s Delivery Service tea party menu.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese, ham and mustard, egg and cress, tuna and cucumber, coronation chicken and brie with cranberry all make regular appearances in an afternoon tea sandwich selection.

However, this is your tea party so you can absolutely go rogue and make up sandwiches that you like and that suit your dietary needs/preferences.

I even snuck in a marmite and cheese combination as it’s a childhood classic for me.

The bread you use is entirely your choice. Keep it simple and choose just one, or mix it up by putting together sandwiches using multiple types of bread.

To create the cat shape, simply use a cat shaped cookie cutter (you can buy these online) to cut out shapes in the bread. It’s easier and less messy to cut the bread shapes out first and then build the sandwiches, rather than trying to cut the pre-made sandwiches out.

Mini Kiki Chocolate Cakes

Onto the sweet stuff. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to recreate a number of the baked goods that feature in Kiki’s Delivery Service within the tea party brief. 

Simply put, I wanted to make the numnums from the film in miniature form.

These sweet treats are little rounds of chocolate cake, covered in melted chocolate.

Due to their size and to make decorating easier, I recommend piping “Kiki” on the cakes and adding little trees if you can, but no more.

If you have the time and want to give the silhouette element of the cake decoration a go, by all means do so! It would take a more steady hand than mine, that’s for sure. I used a white icing pen from a set I bought at the supermarket, so the icing pens are accessible for sure.

The cake sponge is adapted from the recipe for my recreation of Bob’s chocolate cake in The Incredibles. It’s easy to make and utterly delicious, but if you prefer to make the sponge from a box, go for it. 

You could also use my The Addams Family cake bites recipe instead.

Mini Kiki Chocolate Cakes Recipe

Makes: 28+ mini cakes

Ingredients

• 2 tsp instant coffee with 240ml [1 cup] boiled hot water
• 250g [1½ cups + 1 tbsp] plain [all-purpose flour]
• 55g [½ cup] cocoa powder
• 150g [¾ cup] caster sugar
• 160g [¾ cup + 1 tbsp] light brown sugar
• 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 120ml [½ cup] vegetable oil
• 180ml [¾ cup] Greek yoghurt or full fat sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract  optional
• 400g [14 oz] dark chocolate  melted
• White icing pen

Method

Kiki’s cakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan. Grease and line a 9 inch square tin with parchment paper or greaseproof paper. Set aside.
2. Boil the kettle. Once the water has stopped boiling, pour it into a mug and mix in the coffee until dissolved. Leave to cool a little.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Spoon in the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add both sugars and mix together with a whisk, making sure to press out any lumps of light brown sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, use an electric hand whisk to bring together the eggs, Greek yoghurt and oil until fully combined. Add the vanilla as well if using.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg mix and mix everything together with an electric hand mixer on a low-medium speed until the ingredients are fully incorporated. The mix will be relatively thick at this point.
6. The coffee should be a little cooler, but still hot. Pour half of the coffee into the cake mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Add the other half of the coffee and beat in until the mix is fully combined and smooth.

Baking:

1. Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin.
2. Bake on the middle shelf for 35 – 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out of the centre clean, the surface of the sponge springs back when gently pressed on, and you hear little crackling/bubbling sound when you listen to it.
3. Leave the sponge to cool in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack upside down to cool completely.

Decorating:

1. Once cool, cut 14 2-3 inch circles out of the square sponge. They will be very thick, so cut them in half to make them more shallow. Keep the leftover cake for cake pops or layer desserts! Store the leftovers in an airtight container until ready to use – they can be frozen for up to 3 months.
2. Melt ⅔ the chocolate in 30 second bursts in the microwave, stirring in between bursts until completely melted. Stir in the remaining ⅓ of the chocolate until melted, then place back in the microwave for 10 seconds.
3. Pour the chocolate over the cake rounds. Alternatively, dip the cake rounds in the melted chocolate.
4. Leave to set on a lined baking tray. I recommend refrigerating for 15 – 20 minutes before finishing the decoration. 
5. Once set, use the icing pen to write “KIKI” on each mini cake. Add a tree shaped sprinkle if desired (these can be found in Christmas themed sprinkle selections).
6. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Floral Sandwich Biscuits

I had to get some sort of floral inspired sweet treat in this anime tea party menu somewhere! Kiki’s Delivery Service is full of beautiful flowers, so it’s only right that this themed tea party celebrates that.

Sandwich biscuits always look great and are delightful little bites of yumminess. They also don’t take much effort to make (or eat!).

This is a simple recipe for sugar cookies that I borrowed from my The Grinch Christmas cookies post, only these are sandwiched together with buttercream.

You can make this buttercream any flavour you like, too. I used the same peach natural flavouring that I used in my Spirited Away peach buns. It’s fantastic as you don’t need much at all to get a nice flavour.

I recommend using an extract for flavour potency, but fruit juice could also work if you’re going for that kind of vibe.

To create the flower shape of these cookies – that’s right, you guessed it – use a cookie cutter. Easy.

Floral Sandwich Biscuits Recipe

Makes: 25 sandwich biscuits

Ingredients

Floral sandwich biscuits:

• 115g [4 oz] unsalted butter
• 100g [½ cup] golden caster sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g [1 cup + 2 tbsp] plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt

Filling:

• 100g [3.5 oz] unsalted butter
• 200g [1¼ cup + 2 tbsp] icing [confectioners] sugar
• 1 – 2 tsp extract or natural flavouring of your choice
• Pink food colouring  optional

Method

Dough:

1. Prepare two baking trays by lining them with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat in well.
4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder. Add the salt and beat in until a dough has formed.
5. If the mix seems more soft than dough-like, add more flour gradually, 1 tbsp at a time. Do this until a firmer dough has formed.
6. Tip out onto a clean and floured surface and bring together into a disc. Flour a rolling pin and use this to roll the dough out until around ½ cm in thickness. 
7. Using a 3 inch flower shaped cookie cutter, cut out 50 biscuits and lay in rows on each tray. You will need to bring the dough together and roll back out again a couple of times to do this. Place the trays in the fridge for now.

Baking:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan.
2. Once up to temperature, place your trays on the middle shelves and bake for 5 – 8 minutes, until golden. They will continue to bake on the tray so don’t be tempted to bake for longer!
3. Once baked, leave to cool on the trays completely.
4. While your cookies are cooling, begin preparing your decorations.

Filling:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add your chosen flavouring and pink food colouring if using and beat in until an even colour is achieved.
3. Once your biscuits are cool, pipe or spread a swirl of buttercream on half of the biscuits, then use the other half to top the buttercream and create sandwich biscuits.
4. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Buns Filled with Jam & Fresh Cream

There are numerous loaves of bread in the bakery that features in Kiki’s Delivery Service, so I figured that a special bread based treat was a must in my anime tea party menu.

My mini sweet breads are the next sweet treat to feature in my tea party and they are a great choice for those who aren’t super keen on cake.

These sweet breads are a combination of a basic white bread, filled with jam and fresh whipped cream. They are like Devonshire splits in that sense! Perfect with a cup of tea.

If you aren’t keen on making the dough yourself, you can get creative with bread rolls from your local bakery or supermarket. No stress.

The type of jam is completely up to you! I used a mixed berry jam that I made myself, but go with whatever floats your boat.

Filled Buns Recipe

Makes: 10

Ingredients

• 250g [1½ cups + 1 tbsp] strong white bread flour
• 3.5g [½ 7g sachet] fast action dried yeast
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150ml [½ cup + 2 tbsp] warm water
• Jam of your choice
• 150ml [½ cup + 2 tbsp] double [whipping] cream
• Icing [confectioners] sugar to dust  optional

Method

Dough:

1. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and yeast to the other. Do not let them touch yet.
2. Add the sugar to the centre, then mix the dry ingredients together until evenly distributed. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
3. Pour in the olive oil and water. Bring the ingredients together with a cutlery fork until you have a shaggy ball of dough.
4. Tip the dough out onto a clean and lightly floured surface and knead by hand for around 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and springy. Alternatively, knead in a standing mixer with a dough hook for around 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy.
5. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel or cling film/plastic wrap/beeswax paper. Leave to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
6. Now’s the time to make the other treats in this anime tea party menu!
7. After 1 hour, tip the dough out and knock back again by punching it a few times. Shape into 10 small baguettes of around 3 ½ to 4 inches long.
8. Place on two trays lined with baking parchment/greaseproof paper and cover again. Leave to rise for around 30 minutes.

Baking:

1. After 20 minutes, preheat your oven to 200°C [350°F] or 180°C fan.
2. Once the second rise is done, bake your mini loaves for 10 – 12 minutes, until golden and you hear a hollow sound when you tap on their undersides.
3. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack. While the loaves are cooling, whip the cream to soft peaks using an electric whisk.
4. Once the loaves are cool, cut an incision into each one to open them up a little. Do not cut all the way through!
5. Pipe your chosen jam into the incision first, making sure to leave room for the cream. Then, pipe the cream on the top.
6. Dust with icing sugar if desired.
7. Store in an airtight container in the fridge before serving (preferably on the day of baking).

Grandma’s Fish Pies

These are the last food element of my anime tea party menu! I reassured you earlier, but I’ll do it again. Whilst these mini pies are paying homage to Grandma’s fish pie in Kiki’s Delivery Service, they are absolutely not filled with herring and pumpkin.

Although, if that’s your craic, go for it. Otherwise, make them into adorable little fruit pies like I did!

A fruit filling of your choice topped with a layer of shop bought shortcrust pastry, all in a neat little ramekin each. These are quick to make and can be kept warm at a low temperature in the oven until you’re ready to serve.

I opted for   – but if you’re wanting to use something like apples, simply de-core and chop up two apples. They’ll cook in the oven until soft.

Otherwise, they’re still delicious at room temperature. I’d recommend making these last out of everything on the menu!

Mini Fish Fruit Pies Recipe

Makes: 5

Ingredients

• 1 sheet shortcrust pastry
• 4 ripe plums
• 1 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon  optional

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C [350°F] or 180°C fan.
2. Cut 5 circles out of your pastry using a cookie cutter that is as close to the size of your small dishes/ramekins as possible. Be mindful that the pastry will shrink away from the edges slightly in the oven.
3. Using a fish shaped stamp or a sharp knife, cut out 5 little fishes. Roughly cut a few stripes of pastry and press them gently onto the circles, then press the fish onto the top.
4. Chop up the plums into small chunks, being sure to remove the core (including the stone).
5. Pour them into a bowl and sprinkle over the cinnamon and sugar. Give everything a good mix.
6. Spoon the plum filling into your small pie dishes/ramekins, then top with your pastry lids. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar if desired.
7. Place the dishes/ramekins on a baking tray and bake the pies for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is cooked through.
8. Keep the pies in the oven with it turned off to keep them warm until ready to serve. Otherwise, cover with tin foil and refrigerate. Warm in the microwave for 20 – 30 seconds before serving.

Tea for Two

Tea, tea, tea! It’s an anime TEA party, after all. 

Fill your pot of tea with whatever your favourite is. Earl Grey is my personal favourite, but I’m partial to lots of herbal and fruit teas, too. Loose leaf or in bag form, the tea options are near endless.

For a traditional tea that milk and sugar (if that’s how you take it) can be added to, go for a black tea like English Breakfast.

If you want to achieve a specific aesthetic through the colour of the tea, pick something like hibiscus or blackcurrant tea as they both provide a lovely pink/purple colour and are delicious.

Brew the tea bag or loose leaf (in a strainer) in the teapot and serve into teacups for the ultimate tea party service.

Soft Spring Soft Drinks

Okay, I understand that tea is likely not everyone’s favourite drink, so it’s important to have options.

Of course, water should always be available to keep everyone hydrated.

But, for an extra hit of flavour, I recommend going for something like elderflower presse, lemonade, or water with a floral or fruit flavouring to keep it in line with the brief.

See my Lilo & Stitch movie night menu for a delicious homemade lemonade recipe.

You could even throw together a punch to serve instead or alongside a pot of tea if that’s your vibe!

Anime Tea Party Cuteness

I thoroughly enjoyed putting together my Kiki’s Delivery Service inspired tea party, especially when I could lay it all out and was able to see all of the elements come together.

It’s always a joy to see people enjoying my food, too.

Who knew putting together themed tea parties could be so satisfying and rewarding?

Let me know in the comments if you’re throwing your own Kiki’s Delivery Service anime tea party!

You can check out my other anime menus and inspired recipes here!

Kiki’s Delivery Service Anime Tea Party Printable Menu