Cupcakes.  

Yes, yes, I know... They're the "in" thing for the moment.  But let's be honest, Disney has been doing them in their parks for longer than people have been cupcake warring, and they still do it  better than almost anybody out there.  The flavors are decadent, the presentation over-the-top, and the varieties available are seemingly limitless.

One of their signature cupcakes is the Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake, and for a good reason.  It's unique and delicious and the little cheesecake flavoring sets the whole cupcake off.  While it is time consuming to make, it's not all that complicated, and the results are really, really worth it.

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Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes

As is served in Starring Rolls, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT

Red Velvet Cupcake~ 

°o°  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
°o°  1 1/2 cups sugar
°o°  1 teaspoon baking soda
°o°  1 teaspoon salt

°o°  2 tablespoons cocoa powder

°o°  2 eggs
°o°  1 1/2 cups Oil
°o°  1 cup buttermilk
°o°  2 ounces red food coloring

°o°  1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

°o°  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  In a different, large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and combined.  Pour into lined cupcake tins until about 2/3 filled.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove from tins and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting ~ 

°o°  1 pound cream cheese

°o°  3/4 cups sugar

°o°  1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

°o°  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

°o°  2 egg whites (or 1/2 cup)

Also needed for decoration ~ 
°o°  2 cans premade white frosting
°o°  Toffee pieces

 

In a mixing bowel, add cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and egg whites.  Cream together for 3 minutes.  Spread onto a shallow, flat-bottomed, lined baking pan or dish and bake for 45 minutes, or until firm.  Allow to cool before frosting.  Scrape into mixing bowl and cream slightly.

Using a piping bag or plastic sandwich bag with a corner cut, pipe cream cheese using a small circular motion in the center of the cupcake.  In a separate piping or plastic bag, pipe premade white frosting around the edge of the cupcake, around the cheesecake filling.  Roll in toffee bits.

 

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For fun, I decided to have an O'hana party...  And what's an O'hana party without some dishes from the Polynesian?

This recipe was a fun one because I'd decided to make it awhile ago, however I could tell from the recipe floating around that it wasn't complete.  I got in touch with the fine folks at Disney and they were able to fill in the missing pieces, resulting in a great dish.

Keep in mind, some of the measurements for the pulled pork aren't exact.  They depend on the size and thickness of the meat, what kind of pot you're using, how high the heat is, etc etc.  The nice thing is that the meat is being slow cooked in liquid so it's pretty hard, even for the cooking dunce, to screw it up.  If you'd like, keep an eye out for the pork shoulders that have a pop-up timer to let you know when it's done.  However, it's really not necessary.  If you notice the pork isn't cooked through when you shred it, simply add it back to the liquid and continue to cook until all pink is gone.

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Barbecue Pulled Pork

As is served in Kona Cafe, Polynesian Resort

 

Pulled Pork ~ 

°o°  Boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat
°o°  Salt and pepper
°o°  Pineapple juice (I used 12 ounces of Dole)
°o°  Coconut Water (I used one can of Goya)

°o°  Garlic cloves, crushed

 
Season pork with salt and pepper.  Put in a large pot, crockpot, or slow cooker.  Add pineapple juice, coconut water, and crushed garlic.  Cover and turn heat to medium/low.  Cook several hours until pork is cooked through.  Remove meat from liquid (reserving liquid for the barbeque sauce), allow to rest about 10 minutes on a cutting board.  Using two forks, shred the meat and set aside.

Barbecue Sauce ~ 

°o°  1 tablespoon oil

°o°  2 ounces onion, chopped

°o°  1/4 ounces garlic cloves, crushed

°o°  1/8 ounces cinnamon

°o°  1/4 ounce cumin

°o°  15 ounces tomato sauce
°o°  5 ounces tomato paste
°o°  4 ounces mango in syrup, do not drain!

°o°  1/4 ounce liquid smoke

°o°  8 ounces cooking juices from pulled pork

°o°  2 ounces sweet chili paste

°o°  Salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, sweat oil and garlic in oil for about 2 minutes.  Add cinnamon and cumin, stirring until onions and garlic are covered being sure to not allow cinnamon to burn.  Quickly add tomato sauce and tomato paste, stirring until blended and tomato paste is incorporated.  Add mangoes and syrup, liquid smoke, cooking juices from pulled pork, and the chili paste.  

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Using a blender or food processor, blend until smooth.  Return to saucepan and add pulled pork, cooking until pork is warmed. 

Serve in hamburger buns or ciabatta rolls and top with cheese or onions, if desired.  

Alternatively, do not add pork back into the barbeque sauce and instead put undressed pork directly onto buns and top liberally with barbeque sauce and serve warm.

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Yes, yes, I know I promised to reveal what delish dish I worked on over the weekend, but I won't have a chance to finish recopying the recipe until Tuesday or Wednesday.  What can I say?  I've been busy!

In the meantime, I cracked open my cookbook and pulled out a recipe that I got all the way back in 2008...  The Blue Glo-tini.  Now I know it's kind of early to dub a recipe from 4 years ago a classic, but I think this certainly could be a contender.  First of all, it comes from just about the best Disney promotion in recent memory, Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams," a promotion that was so much fun, it lasted over 2 years.  There were special shows, parades, characters, and people chosen at random for all sorts of special magical moments, everything from dream FastPasses to special lanyards, pins, or Mickey ears, to overnight stays in Cinderella's Castle, even a whirlwind trip over 15 days to every Disney theme park in the world, where everything from food to the taxes on the prize were picked up by Disney.  Disney gave away free memberships to Disney Vacation Club, free cruises, exclusive Caribbean resort vacations, trips to what later became Disney's flagship retreat in Hawaii...  

I wish I could tell you the excitement that came with seeing the Dream Squad with their baby blue shirts and crisp white vests walking towards you with big smiles and unlimited wish-granting potential, making your mind reel with the possibility at what you were about to receive, what wish was going to be granted...  And then watching as they choose the family in front of you to carry Dream FastPasses and take an exclusive behind-the-magic tour with an Imagineer.  

To this day I blow right through the Dinosaur! gift shop because I know that the need to look at dyed agate and the same fossilized rocks sold at every knick knack store across the country cost me Dream FastPasses back in 2008.  

Luckily for bad planners like me, there were a variety of special drinks available across all of the parks to help drown away the sorrow that came with losing out to a wish granted, my favorite being the Blue Glo-tini.  I had my first (and second and third) drink at Coral Reef in EPCOT and I remember our server talking about  how, when he lost power due to a hurricane, all he had were the blue ice cubes served in the drink to light up his apartment for 2 days.  I won't lie, I ordered the drink for the blue light-up ice cube.  I'm not much of a drinker, not a fan of martinis, and it wasn't covered under the Disney Dining Plan and paying $8.50 for a drink was against everything I stood for.  But it looked so cool, I just had to give it a shot.  It was so good, I ordered two more, had one of the best meals I've had at Disney, and remember very little about walking back to the bus that took us to our hotel.  

While the "Year of a Million Dreams" is long gone, the special signature drink of the event lives on at a variety of restaurants in both the parks and at the resorts, renamed as simply the Blue Glo-tini.  A word of warning: they're stronger than you think.   

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Year of a Million Dreams Blue Glo-tini

As was served during the "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion

Still featured as Blue Glo-tini in a number of locations across WDW

 

°o°  1.5 oz Citrus Vodka (I use Smirnoff)
°o°  .5 oz Peach Schnapps (I used Jenkins)
°o°  .5 oz Blue Curacao (I used Bols)
°o°  1.5 oz Pineapple Juice (Dole, of course)
°o°  1 oz Sour/Margarita Mix

Combine all in a martini shaker, shake, then strain into a sugar-rimmed
martini glass. Finish by floating a glowing “ice cube” in the glass.

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Pollo A Las Rajas

Maybe it's because of Cinco de Mayo and all I'm reading about is Mexican food, maybe it's because I'm mourning the changes made at my former favorite local Mexican restaurant, but I've been craving Mexican food lately.  Really, really craving it.  Needless to say, living in New England does put a crimp on finding good Mexican food.  And while it may sound weird, some of the best Mexican food I've had was at the San Angel Inn.  

The San Angel Inn, taken by me in January 2012

Now yes, I know that it's dressed up Mexican cuisine...  Having been to Texas and eaten my way around Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, College Station, and numerous places in between, I'm familiar with the places that were very Americanized and other places that were maybe just a tad too authentic...  And I think that San Angel Inn has found that wonderful middle ground between authentic feeling and taste, without being too intimidating or Americanized.  

Plus, food in the shadow of a volcano?  What's not to like.

When I went last September, I had one of their signature dishes, the Pollo A Las Rajas and it was amazing.  Even by my non-spicy, non-pepper-liking standards.  But then again, can you really go wrong with chicken in a cream sauce?  As absolute dumb luck had it, the recipe happened to be included in one of my Disney World cookbooks.  Good food that I don't have to search to find the authentic Disney recipe for?  Win.

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Pollo A Las Rajas

As is served at The San Angel Inn, Mexico Pavilion, EPCOT

 

°o°  4 chicken breast halves 
°o°  Salt, pepper, and 2 crushed garlic cloves (to season chicken)

°o°  5 tablespoons oil (I used canola), divided
°o°  1 cup of chorizo, casing removed, diced

°o°  1 large poblano chili
°o°  1 garlic clove, minced
°o°  1 large red bell pepper, sliced

°o°  1 large Spanish onion, sliced 
°o°  1 cup sour cream

°o°  1/2 cup half-and-half cream

°o°  1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, divided

°o°  Ground black pepper to taste
°o°  Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides and place in a roasting pan.  Place crushed garlic on top of and underneath the chicken breast halves.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until cooked through and juices run clear.  If desired, flip the breast halves halfway through cooking.  

Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of oil and lightly saute the poblano pepper until the skin separates (it will appear like the pepper is becoming burned or charred).  Peel the skin from the pepper under cold running water.  Remove the core and make a slit down the side of the pepper so as to remove all seeds.  Slice into thin strips.

In the same skillet, heat remaining 3 tablespoons of oil and add chorizo, garlic, onion, bell pepper, and poblano pepper.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, until the onions are soft but not yet translucent, and peppers are soft.  Add sour cream, half and half, black pepper and salt to taste, stir, and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

On oven-safe plates, place 1 cup of the vegetable/chorizo mixture, then top with roasted chicken breast.  Sprinkle each serving with 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese.  Broil until cheese melts.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

The final product

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This recipe is really easy and the results taste almost exactly like what they serve at the San Angel Inn.  The trickiest part for most will be cooking the poblano until the skin cracks and peels off.  It will look like you're burning it...  The skin will turn white and brown and blister, maybe even a little black, and it will look completely inedible.  However, when you shock it with the running cold water and rub the burned areas gently with your thumb, the skin will peel right off and the pepper itself will look soft and green.  

 

The only real difference I can tell between this recipe and how it's served at EPCOT is that I believe the chicken is grilled, not baked.  I unfortunately don't have a grill-style griddle and my outdoor grill is still not up and running for the year, so I couldn't make it exactly as I suspect they do.  If you have either of those available, simply grill the chicken and adjust your cooking times accordingly.  I also stopped just short of broiling the cheese to the golden-brown color you sometimes see there, simply because I prefer the just-melted, ooey gooey cheese.  If you'd rather that golden crust, broil it for slightly longer and serve.

Anybody else now feel like taking a boat ride down a quiet Mexican river?

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I know I'm in the minority, but EPCOT truly is my favorite park.  I'm a Soarin' freak, I love "Living with the Land" probably more then anybody should, and I could spend hours touring the World Showcase, but my heart belongs to the Japan Pavilion.  It has the coolest store in probably all of the World Showcase with the most fun, obscure things you never knew you always needed.  Silly snacks, sake samples, fun toys...  Honestly, I'm there so much that if by the end of the trip I'm not on a first name basis with some of the employees, I've done something wrong (shoutout to Madoka, the most enthusiastic, over-the-top and engaging pearl picker there is!).  

The Mitsukoshi Department Store in the Japan Pavilion at EPCOT

 One of the passions that the Japan Pavilion fueled for me was a love of Japanese food and a willingness to try all sorts of Japanese snacks.  Some were amazing (Pocky, YanYan, Panda Cookies), some were not (shrimp-flavored french fry chips).  It was this drive to try all snacks Japanese that led me to Ramune.

Melon flavored Ramune

 Ramune is a Japanese carbonated drink that is as much fun to open as it is to drink.  Instead of the conventional twist cap, it's sealed with a marble that you push through with a wacky little plunger.  I won't lie, it takes a great deal of "oomph" to mash it through.  Once it does finally break through, the fizz of the carbonation, the sound of the marble rattling around in the neck of the bottle, and that smell of the flavored soda just hits me and reminds me of sitting on a bench by the World Showcase, excitedly anxious to get that first sip of a new flavor...

Pushing through the marble...

 It's sweet, and when I say sweet, I mean it's SWEET.  Toothache inducing, 100 Pixie Stick-strong sweet.  Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, but it sure is a shock to the mouth for the beginner, and that first swig is always like a jolt of caffeine.  Of the flavors I've tried, Strawberry is by far the sweetest, and original (which tastes vaguely like Sprite and is my favorite) is the most reasonable.  There are dozens of flavors out there, melon, cola, banana, yuzu, even wasabi and green tea.  It seems there's a different flavor for every mood and season.  I'd say I'd want to try every flavor, but there's 35 of them and, for some reason, I know I could never get up the courage to try the curry or Korean beef flavor...

That first fizz after the marble breaks through...

The fun fact about Ramune is that when you push the marble through and it sits in the bottle's neck, it sits in just a way so that the bottle looks like a big-eyed alien.  Apparently, the look of the "alien soda" is as recognizable as the Coke logo to Japanese children.  I'm so ashamed to say that, in spite of what I'd like to think of is a really active imagination on my part, I didn't see it until a woman at the Japan Pavilion pointed it out to me.

See the alien?

The best thing about trying new foods at the Japan Pavilion is that they're mostly widely available at Asian markets outside of EPCOT, so whenever I feel truly lonely for Disney, I'm one snack away from pretending I'm waiting for Illuminations in front of the torii of the Itsukushima Shrine or killing time by walking to "Captain Eo" for a quick show before our Test Track FastPass window to open.  

Sigh...   

Now all I can think about is how, right now, somebody is walking into Soarin', sitting down, getting ready to smell orange groves and pine trees, and that person isn't me.  Where's my Ramune?

Oh, EPCOT, I miss you...

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I was missing EPCOT so badly this weekend, I had to pick up a little something to help bring me back.  

Any guesses as to what this is?

 

Here's a hint...  One push of a plunger and I was instantly transported to a bench by the World Showcase. 

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I have far too many bananas in my house.  

The circumstances behind this overflow is in large part due to the fickleness of my son, who overnight went from having to be limited to two bananas a day (with much protest and tears on his part) to deciding he never wanted to see eat another banana ever again.  Since this sudden decision happened to coincide with a sale (.29 cents a pound!), I found myself in the midst of a fruit-related disaster.

Luckily, some genius out there came up with the recipe for banana bread.  Even more luckily, banana bread is, at varying times, featured in several Disney parks including the Monorail Cafe, Boma, and even Tusker House, and I just so happened to have one of the recipes (and all of the ingredients) handy.

The results were amazing.

The bread was dense without being to heavy, moist, and it had this fantastic marbling from the banana that made it so pretty to look at when it was sliced.  Seeing as this was the first banana bread I'd ever made that didn't require any spices beyond vanilla extract, I was worried it'd be "boring," but it ended up being the first bread I'd ever tried where the bananas did all the talking when it came to flavor.  I did make it without the nuts due to allergy concerns, but we certainly didn't miss them.

It took me right back to eating at Tusker House.  All I needed was the Jungle Juice.

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Mickey's Banana Bread

As is served at Monorail Cafe, Boma, and Tusker House

°o°  1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

°o°  2 cups sugar

°o°  2 eggs, beaten

°o°  2 cups banana, mashed (about 3 medium-large bananas)

°o°  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

°o°  3 cups flour

°o°  1/2 teaspoon salt

°o°  2 teaspoons baking soda

°o°  1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix melted butter and sugar in large bowl until very well blended (sugar will not melt, the mixture will be the texture of wet sand).  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, then add bananas and vanilla.  Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda and fold into the banana mixture, making sure all flour is moistened but the mixture is not over-mixed (to prevent air bubbles).  Fold in walnuts, if desired.  The batter will be thick.

Grease and flour two bread pans and divide batter equally between them.  Bake for 1 hour or until center of loaf is firm with a somewhat crunchy top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for 1 minute before removing the bread from a pan and transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Serve either warm or cold with butter, bananas, syrup, or even ice cream.

Makes 2 loaves.

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If two loaves seems like a lot to eat, simply freeze one.  Banana bread does really well in the freezer and thaws quickly and beautifully.  

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A bag of premade pizza dough from the grocery store, a Mickey cookie cutter, butter, sugar, and cinnamon and what do you have?

Mickey-shaped fried dough.

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A few months ago I made this amazing individual-sized Mickey Ice Cream Cake for a birthday party...  It was crazy easy to make and it tasted amazing.  I know I promised the recipe a few months ago and I'm only just now delivering on said promise, but hey, better late then never!

Below is the recipe I used to make my cakes.  The recipe was designed for a full-sized cake served in a springform pan, so the amounts match that.  When I did this, I only wanted to make 5 mini-cakes, so I halved the amount.  I'd suggest you do the same if you're doing mini-cakes for anything short of a major Army, otherwise you'll have more ice cream then mouths for cake.

The other thing to know is that to make the cake, I did use my trusty Mickey shaped sandwich cutter as the mold for the cake.  I happen to have four of them, so I could do four at a time.  The sandwich cutters are available all over the place, including the Disney Store (currently out of stock) and Ebay.  Keep in mind, I paid $4.95 each at Disney World.  If you really want them, I'd order them from Disney's merchandise line directly.  This can be done with regular cookie cutters, but the cake will be shallower but much wider, which honestly may be better for some.

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Mickey's Ice Cream Cake

°o°  1 (16 ounce) package chocolate graham crackers

°o°  1 cup of butter, melted

°o°  1/2 cup white sugar

°o°  1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened

°o°  1/2 cup milk

°o°  2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant chocolate pudding mix

°o°  chocolate syrup, for decoration

°o°  Mickey Mouse sprinkles (found in the party section at Wal*Mart), for decoration

To make crust, combine crackers, butter, and sugar in a small bowl.  Place the Mickey cutter (lightly greased, if desired) on a cookie sheet or plate that's lined with parchment paper or lightly buttered (to prevent sticking).   Using the Mickey sandwich cutter as a mold, press the graham cracker mix evenly onto the bottom of the mold.  Put in freezer until ready to use.

While the crust is setting, in a large bowl, combine the ice cream and milk with an electric mixer until very well mixed (there should be no standing milk anywhere in the bowl).  Blend in the pudding mix until thoroughly mixed.  

Remove the Mickey crust molds from the freezer.  Either pour or spoon ice cream mixture into the mold until half or 3-quarters full.  Freeze at least 4 hours or overnight.

To serve, remove from freezer and run a small knife around the edges of the cake and sandwich cutter.  Gently push ice cream free of the mold using a spoon, starting with the ears, using even pressure around the cake so as to release the cake from the mold evenly.  Place on a plate for serving.  Drizzle with chocolate syrup and finally top with Mickey jimmies, if desired.  Serve immediately.

Full recipe makes one cake (follow directions above, using a springform pan in place of the mold), half recipe makes up to 6 mini-cakes.

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Trust me, it sounds more complicated then it is, and the results are far worth it.

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