Day 894: Cupcake Crazy

For those of you that may just be joining us here at Everyday Disney, I really, really, really like to make cupcakes, and not to feed my ego or anything, but apparently I'm good at making them too. I've made cupcakes for most of my friends, each with a different flavor that they pick, so when Ashley asked me to make cupcakes for her graduation party, of course I said yes!

Little did I know what I had in store. 100 cupcakes. Well, 200 actually, but 100 for her party. Four flavors were made and one entire day spent making cupcakes like a crazy person. I'm pretty proud of the final product though, some of which was most certainly inspired by Disney!

We'll start with the non-Disney cupcakes, like this carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting and candied carrots on the top. These were actually pretty easy to make, and to be honest I didn't even get to try one so I have absolutely no idea how they were....

These Lemon Meringue  cupcakes were definitely a fan-favorite and I'm sure they'll be back in the future. Even my friends who said they normally don't like lemon told me they liked these little guys, although I'm sure some of them picked one up simply because it had the torched top. Because yes, I sat with a culinary torch and roasted the top of each and every little lemon meringue cupcake. 

And now we get into the Disney cupcakes. Long-time followers might remember these Grey Stuff Cupcakes, which are definitely one of my most requested...and one of the first specialty cupcakes I made about a year ago. They're actually Ashley's favorite, so of course they had to be at the party, and let me tell you...it's been over a week since her party and we just finished the last of the grey stuff the other day. 

Finally we have my personal favorite, the Butterfinger Cupcake. I've blogged time and time again about these cupcakes and how I find inspiriation from those served at Hollywood Studios pretty much every time it's frost your own cupcake night on campus. Oh yes, I love my butterfinger cupcakes, so when we decided to add them on as the fourth flavor for her party, I spent a good portion of time debating whether to make the legitimate version or a more regular version. As you can see, Disney won out. These aren't HARD to make, but they just take a LONG time. I made 24 of them and it probably took me at leats 3 hours to finish them all. Just as at Disney, it's a chocolate cupcake, the center is taken out and filled with a chocolate fudge, the center is placed back on, a thick buttercream is piped around it and upwards, they're frozen for around 20 minutes to let the frosting harden, then dipped in chocolate and covered with crushed butterfingers. Yeah...not so simple, and not for the basic cupcake maker either. However, once you've had one of these on a smaller scale, you'll be making them forever. The Butterfinger Cupcakes at Disney are huge, but these you can make whatever size you want...which also means you can eat two instead of just the one at Disney. 

If you're interested in any of the recipes, let me know below! The grey stuff cupcakes don't have a specific recipe, and the others I just found online and modified as needed, but I can do my best to help you towards your own cupcake dreams! 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This Blog Post Was Written on June 24 due to travel).

Day 458: This Isn't Disney Food!

It seems that after coming back from Florida, a lot of us have a bit of a problem. Actually, it happens no matter what Disney Park you go to. It can happen with Disneyland too. The issue here? Food.

I'm pretty sure that if we didn't force ourselves to eat, we would actually starve, because the food outside of Disney World is just no where near the same as the food inside Disney World. Like I am so deprived right now that I was discouraged from eating last night.

I guess it's kind of interesting though, since here at my college there ARE various foods that I can compare and contrast with Disney foods. It's kind of scary actually, the things I eat here compared to the things I eat there. And these are just three of them. I could go off on a whole list of foods that I've had in both places...but that are also just significantly better at Disney, because everything is.

The Butterfinger Cupcake

I know, I know. I've talked about this before. In fact I had a whole blog post on it back in September. But that doesn't mean it's stopping me from making another comparison right now, especially since I literally had the two different cupcakes a week apart from one another. Less than actually.

In general, I do love the butterfinger cupcake I make here. It's small enough for me to eat, and it's just kind of fun to make your own in the dessert line here at college. But it only comes around once every month or so, making it kind of depressing when we DON'T have frost your own cupcake bar. On the other hand, it's kind of funny though, because I have obviously converted Shovell to my side already, and she hasn't been to Disney yet! The Butterfinger Cupcake is one of the things she's specifically asked to try when we go in June, and who would I be to deny her the deliciousness that is the butterfinger cupcake?

House Made Chips

Yesterday for lunch we had like a chicken sandwich and then these house made chips. So I'm just sitting there eating my chips and my sandwich and my strawberries when it occurs to me that...these...these remind me of Disney (to which my friends always respond: "Everything reminds you of Disney"). It's true, everything DOES remind me of Disney, especially in these stages of Disney Depression that I'm trying to counteract with Once (OH MY GOSH HOOK'S COAT...Ok, freakout done) and the fact that I'll be back at Disney in 80 some days with my best friends. But still, it doesn't mean I don't think about it all the time. Because I do. I very much do.

The chips here at school were ok. Good even, but certainly not the stuff they have at Disney...specifically like the ones I ate a couple weeks ago at the Grand Floridian. Like seriously, I'm pretty sure I could live forever just eating those chips. Ok, maybe not...but they are delicious.

Bread

Yes...just bread. And no, I don't really have a picture for this one from college because I was really lazy last night and wasn't thinking about how I would write a blog post about this today. Either way, last night it was like a dairy fest in our caf, and guess who forgot her lactade? THIS GIRL. So I may have stolen a few Mozzarella Sticks to eat when I got back to my dorm and mostly ate a sandwich and then some baguette with butter. Only I'm sitting there eating it and like halfway through doing so I realize that this bread is not Disney bread, and it tasted nothing like the amazingness that comes out of the France Pavilion.

It was super, super depressing. So instead I just have a picture of said amazing bread from a couple weeks ago. I literally just want to sit and eat bread there all day. ALL. DAY.

Can we just go back to World Showcase for lunch?

Have a magical day!

Day 252: Butterfinger Cupcakes

College is a great place. I mean, you live in a dorm room, which I actually really enjoy, and you don't have class ALL day, although you do have to spend a lot of time studying. You get to meet new people, and then spend lots of time with those new people. There's a beautiful campus, and freedom waiting outside your door. Oh, and you get to have cupcakes.

Yes, that's right, cupcakes. I will, in time, talk about the food service here at my college, because, in many ways, it does relate to Disney. But that's not the point here. Today when I walked into the caf for dinner, I noticed there was a frost your own cupcake bar. Now, I'm not kidding, there were cupcakes, and a bunch of different frostings and then toppings. Seriously awesome. Look:

So I'm going through and grab a chocolate cupcake and put on some chocolate frosting, and my friend Emily commented that no one puts whipped cream on a cupcake, so I threw on some of that, and then butterfinger crumbs, because who doesn't love that. Now, I get to the end of the line and look at the cupcake on my plate. Can you guess what my realization was? 

Ok, it's the title of this post, so it'd be kind of ridiculous if you didn't figure it out. I realized that I had just created myself a butterfinger cupcake. Now, obviously those of you who have never been to Disney will not understand this (unless you know me...then you may have heard me talk about this). In fact, even if you HAVE been to Disney there's a good chance that you won't know what I'm talking about. You see, at Disney's Hollywood Studios there's this little shop, called Starring Rolls, and inside of it is one of the greatest things on this planet: the butterfinger cupcake. 

What is it, you ask? Well, basically it's a chocolate cupcake covered in delicious chocolate frosting (and there's like this chocolate filling too), and then it's covered in butterfinger crumbs. Or something like that. It's been a while since I've had one. These things are giant and seriously amazing. I know that when my band goes (OH MY GOODNESS! I CAN SAY THAT FOR SURE NOW!), I shall be recruiting some people to share one with me. 

Either way, that was my dessert tonight. It may not have been anywhere near as amazing as the Disney version, but it did remind me and obviously stand out as "DISNEY!" in my life today...and that meant that I had to blog about it, of course! 

Today for #Frumpstagram, the prompt was "Iconic," so I went through some of my old pictures in search of, not Spaceship Earth, but actually the Chinese Theater at Hollywood Studios. I didn't find a picture of it, so instead I just did the Spaceship Earth one because one can never have too much Spaceship Earth on their Instagram feed! 

Here's today's Disney History: 1966: Comedian, actor, writer and film producer Adam Sandler is born Adam Richard Sandler in Brooklyn, New York (though he was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire).

Have a magical day!