Travelling the lands in a moving castle with a wizard and his companions? Sounds like a very interesting time, count me in. My Howl’s Moving Castle movie night menu features so much of the food we see in the film, including the iconic breakfast. It’s the perfect Howl’s Moving Castle food spread for a themed movie night or party, especially if your themed night is spontaneous as none of the dishes require making from scratch.
Read on for tips, a super simple recipe, and a free printable menu graphic!
Contents
- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
- Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu
- YouTube Video
- Sophie’s Snacks for the Road
- Breakfast in the Castle
- Lettie’s Madeleines
- Calcifer Cake Cups
- Calcifer Cake Cups Recipe
- Tea for Two
- Delightfully Easy Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu
- Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu Printable PDF
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Studio Ghibli really does know how to produce a proper gem of a movie. Especially with Hayao Miyazaki at the helm.
2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle is another fantastic example of this, proving just how wholesome anime can be. This Ghibli fan favourite is a loose adaptation of British writer Diana Wynne Jones’s novel, which explains the landscapes, I reckon.
When a self-conscious and introverted young hat maker is turned into an old lady by a witch, she heads out to find a way to break the spell and discovers that her best chances lay with an equally egotistical and insecure young wizard and his companions who reside in a castle with moving legs.
Howl’s Moving Castle is a firm favourite of mine, that’s for sure. There’s so much about it to like.
The scene in which Howl changes up the structure of his moving castle is one of my favourites. Such magic, much wonder.
My Howl’s Moving Castle movie night menu is a collection of the food we see in the movie, making it the perfect spread to enjoy during a viewing session.
This is also the first menu I have created for Flavour of the Film that doesn’t require making anything from scratch. Naturally, you are welcome to make elements of it – like the bread and Madeleines – yourself, but I wanted to show that you don’t need to.
Even better if you’re hosting a spontaneous Howl’s Moving Castle movie night! The castle is moving so we better get to it.
Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu
Here is the text on the menu in case you prefer to see it in a different format than an image:
Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu
Sophie’s Snacks for the Road
Breakfast in the Castle
Lettie’s Madeleines
Calcifer Cake Cups
Tea for Two
You can find the free printable PDF of this menu at the bottom of this post!
YouTube Video
Sophie’s Snacks for the Road
After waking up in her cursed body, Sophie heads out to find a way to break the spell. On this journey, she takes with her some bread and cheese. A fitting way to start my Howl’s Moving Castle movie night menu, wouldn’t you say?
As mentioned in the introduction, you are welcome to make the bread yourself if you wish! The loaf featured in the film is a simple white one, so it’s minimal effort, but a significant amount of time.
The base of my The Chronicles of Narnia inspired bread or my Kronk’s New Groove milk buns would work well here. Simply skip the flavour ingredients (i.e. the raisins) and bake as one large loaf instead of dividing up into smaller portions.
As for the cheese: choose your favourite and enjoy with the bread!
Breakfast in the Castle
A must in my Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night menu! Everyone knows of the breakfast, even those who haven’t seen the full film.
Fried eggs, fried bacon, bread, and baked beans. The latter is optional as we don’t see them being cooked, but they’re on the plates under the rest of the food.
Personally, I’m not a fan of baked beans, so I skipped them. It’s your prerogative though, friends.
This Howl’s Moving Castle food spread isn’t necessarily designed to be enjoyed in a specific order, so the bread and cheese from earlier can be carried over to eat with the breakfast.
Bacon, veggie bacon, the choice is yours. I cooked veggie bacon for myself, but cater to your preferences. Fry it up with the eggs and you’re good to go. Don’t worry if the egg yolks break, it happens!
Note: I recommend preparing every other element of this menu first, then cook up the breakfast last so it’s nice and hot when you’re ready to serve.
Lettie’s Madeleines
Early on in the film, we are introduced to Sophie’s sister, Lettie. During their talk about Sophie’s first encounter with Howl, one of her sister’s colleagues informs her that the Madeleines are ready to go.
The mere mention of these lovely little French treats was all I needed to include them in my Howl’s Moving Castle food spread.
You can absolutely make them yourself using a recipe like this one on BBC Good Food. However, this particular numnum is pretty accessible in the U.K., so I opted to buy them instead.
Purely to make this Howl’s Moving Castle movie night menu as easy to put together as possible!
Calcifer Cake Cups
As I have a sweet tooth, this element of my menu makes me particularly happy. It’s so simple, but makes a really lovely little dessert or sweet treat!
I called them Calcifer cake cups after everyone’s favourite fiery demon. The cake element is the “logs”, but the cup part is entirely optional. They can be in cups, jars, ramekins, bowls. Whatever you have on hand.
The “logs” are mini chocolate cake rolls and each Calcifer is freshly whipped cream tinted red and yellow. I took inspiration from my Elemental cupcakes for the flame elements. The Calcifer whipped flames are the only thing in this entire menu that requires making yourself, but it’s super simple!
Calcifer Cake Cups Recipe
Serves: 8 (can be doubled or halved to suit your needs)
Ingredients
- 8 chocolate cake rolls
- 300ml [11.25 oz] double [whipping] cream
- 2 tbsp icing [powdered/confectioners] sugar
- Liquid red food colouring
- Liquid yellow food colouring
- Candy eyes optional
Method
- Cut your mini chocolate cake rolls in half if need be to make sure that they fit in your chosen containers. Arrange them in your chosen containers to resemble a pile of logs.
- Pour the ½ the cream into a medium-large mixing bowl and the other ½ into a separate one. Add 1 tbsp of the sugar to one bowl, then 1 tbsp to the other. Squeeze in a few drops of the red food colouring to one lot of cream, then the yellow food colouring to another.
- Using an electric hand whisk, whip one lot of cream until stiff peaks or it can hold its shape. Wipe the whisk attachment clean then repeat with the other lot of cream.
- Spoon the red whipped cream down one side of a piping bag with a closed star tip attached, making sure to keep it away from the other side. Spoon the yellow whipped cream into the bag, keeping it down the other side and being careful not to mix it with the red cream.
- Pipe large swirls of the whipped cream on the top of the chocolate mini rolls to create your Calcifer cake cups.
- Finish by gently pressing two candy eyes in the front of the whipped cream. This is entirely optional, but adds a lot of fun to the treat!
- Store in the fridge until ready to serve and consume within 2-3 days.
Tea for Two
Tea, tea, and more tea please! This particular beverage is mentioned and served a few times throughout the film so it’s only natural that I include it in my Howl’s Moving Castle movie night menu.
This one is nice and easy: choose your favourite kind of tea to serve with your Howl’s Moving Castle food spread.
If tea isn’t your thing, feel free to make up some coffee or select a cold drink. Pour it in teacups or mugs nonetheless just to keep the aesthetic.
Delightfully Easy Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu
I wanted to create a themed menu that was as easy as possible, to show that you can have a really great movie night spread without having to make everything (or anything!) completely from scratch.
The whipped cream element of the Calcifer cake cups is the only thing that needs a little effort and that’s purely to achieve the flaming aesthetic.
I love being able to put together an easy and quick movie night spread. A little effort that goes a long way!
Check out my other themed menus here!
Howl’s Moving Castle Movie Night Menu Printable PDF
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