Disney World Cupcake Crawl 2015

Whisk went on our first trip to Disney World last week and had the time of our lives!! While researching all things Disney through Pinterest and fellow blogs I came across this informative, and drool worthy, post about all the cupcakes that Disney World has to offer from Emma at A Pinch Of Pixie Dust It is a couple years old, from 2013. So I made it my goal to try to get to every location while on our trip and give my own review.

While I didn’t make it to every location, I made it to a few and to be totally honest, what Disney World had to offer was not only disappointing to my taste buds, it was disappointing to my wallet as well. At nearly $5 per cupcake at every location, I learned that I either need to raise my own prices by 50% or move down to Florida so I can cash in on this cupcake robbery!

Downtown Disney

We started our trip at Downtown Disney because we had some time to spare before dinner reservations. I was thrilled for this area because some people make this entire downtown experience their only experience of Disney World. I picked up my map and was ecstatic when I saw some new bakeries listed! I dragged my kiddos in tow and we raced towards them all.

First stop was Goofy’s Candy Company. The name drew me in right away. I could smell the sugar in the air and followed my nose to the sweets display counter. Sadly, I was welcomed with the same old boring flavors of chocolate and vanilla. Don’t get me wrong, I love vanilla and chocolate but my taste buds need more! Give me something I cant get at home, give me something that makes me want more, give me something that screams DISNEY! Honestly, didn’t even taste them at this location because the line was ridiculous and I really didn’t want to waste $10 for two cupcakes that were nothing new or exciting.

Next stop was Erin McKenna’s Babycakes Bakery NYC.

This place screamed bakery before you even walked through the door. Aside from the color choices, my dream shop would be exactly this! It was adorable!! Her main shop is in NY so this is technically a chain. The selection was very good with such items as cupcakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, brownies and much much more. I ended up buying a “Cookie Monster” cupcake,  “Chocolate Blondie” cupcake and also a cinnamon roll (special request form my mother in law who was with me).

My mouth watered thinking about those cupcakes. I let them sit for a little while because they came from a refrigerated case and I know the golden rule, never eat a cold cupcake!

Once it sat for a while I dove in first with the cookie monster cupcake. I couldn’t even chew the first bite without spitting it out. I know, I sound crazy. Who doesn’t like all cupcakes?!?! But let me tell you, this was HORRIBLE. And just to be sure I wasn’t being a cupcake snob, I had every member of my family try it as well, including my 6 and 4 year old. No one swallowed it. The cake was so hard that I felt as though I was eating month old cookies that sat out on the counter. When you think of frosting you think of light, sweet, creamy deliciousness. This was none of those. It was rock hard. So hard that I could hardly taste it to even decipher what flavor it was suppose to be. The Chocolate Blondie was just as bad. Nothing but hardness. I can promise you that these cupcakes must have been made days ahead, maybe even weeks, frozen and then defrosted.

Bakers will argue one thing to their grave, freezing cupcakes. Some say never, some say always, some really don’t care. I will say that I have never made and then froze cupcakes for my customers. Now, extras for my kiddos, maybe. But NEVER any that I get paid peoples good, hard earned money for. When people pay a bakery for baked goods they expect that payment to be for freshly made goodness from the heart. NOT something frozen weeks beforehand with no care in the world. That argument aside, one thing that should NEVER happen is freezing an entirely made cupcake, including the frosting!!! Frosting will NEVER be the same after being frozen. You loose all texture and creaminess and can never get it back.

After the horrible disappointment of the last bakery I was very excited when we walked upon the Candy Cauldron. 

When I walked in I was immediately enthralled by the smell of caramel! I have to admit, caramel apples are my biggest guilty pleasure!! After drooling over those for a couple minutes I walked to the case to check out the cupcake selection. Don’t let the picture fool you, It may look identical to the one from Goofy’s Candy Company, however this is in fact the Candy Cauldron. Once I saw this it was becoming perfectly clear that there was going to be one theme for the cupcake choices at Disney World, none would be home made, none would be original, and all would be mass produced and more then likely, frozen. Again, didn’t waste my money on some boring flavors so I decided to wait until the last stop for this area.

We stopped at Earl of Sandwich on our way back to the buses to the hotel. It is a cute little sandwich shop with a small dessert menu. 

 I immediately looked in the glass case for the cupcake selection and was disappointed when there weren’t any in it. I asked an employee who then pointed to the little cake stands by the check out registers. Again, I was met with utter disappointment with the only flavor choice being chocolate or vanilla. However, these did look original and somewhat freshly made. The chocolate was moist, the frosting was very hard however. The vanilla was dry and overall lack luster. I definitely wouldn’t spend another $10 on these.

My overall theme for day 1 was sadness. I was so excited before arriving and after today I feel like America in general has forgotten what truly homemade confections are, because if so, none of these places would still be in business based of their cupcake sales. It saddens me to see people wasting their money on not worthy items.

Magic Kingdom

I was most excited for this location because it is where it all begins, the center of the Disney World universe!! I just KNEW that Magic Kingdom wouldn’t let me down. Or so I thought.

The first stop was Main Street Confectionary.

The name says it all, it is the main spot for all things sweet at Disney. The minute I walked in the glaring bright colored frosting attracted me and I raced to the counter. Only to be met with disappointment. They were the EXACT same cupcakes from Goofy’s Candy Company and the Candy Cauldron. My inclination was right and all of these cupcakes must be mass-produced either on site somewhere or at a factory.

After leaving the confectionary I needed a pick me up and was thrilled when I saw my heaven on earth. I know, I know! A small business owner should NOT be supporting big chains like Starbucks but sometimes a girl just needs a dang Tiramisu latte! I usually never get food at Starbucks but while waiting in line I took a glance over and to my surprise there were two adorable, and yummy looking, cupcakes staring back at me!! 

Starbucks. Really?!? Starbucks was my saving grace on my cupcake crawl?!?!? Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing, but either way I knew I was buying both. 

 One was claimed to be a chocolate mocha and the other was vanilla. The Chocolate Mocha one was ok. Just ok. The cake was more muffin like, but completely edible, unlike its predecessors before. The frosting was a little soft but good. However, I tasted no mocha flavor to it. The vanilla cupcake was nothing to rave about. The vanilla cake tasted very much like box cake and the frosting was grainy and overly sweet. But they do get points for being adorable!

Polynesian Resort

We had dinner reservations at the Polynesian Resort and after we

enjoyed an amazing meal I stopped by the café on our way out to see what they had to offer. There were two choices, both plain in flavor but were cute Mickey and Minnie themed. To be fair, I did swing by around 8pm so they very well could have been sold out of all the good ones.

Hollywood Studios

The only real “bakery” at Hollywood Studios was the Trolley Café. 

Cute set up and very retro looking, but once I walked in I realized that this was actually now a Starbucks! Adorable cupcakes, like the Starbucks at Magic Kingdom, but this location did offer some new flavors such as Toffee Crunch and Chocolate Peanut Butter. 
We ended up hanging out in there for an hour or so to wait out the afternoon rain so I decided to try both of those flavors. The outside of the Toffee Crunch cupcake had a delicious candy coating. I was cracking off pieces of it and eating it with my coffee. The frosting however, YUCK! It was nothing but Crisco and sugar, greasy, grainy, just overall bad! The cake was the same chocolate from the other Starbucks. Ok, but nothing special. The chocolate peanut butter was a gorgeous cupcake!! Very modern in décor, which I love. The chocolate curls were delicious. The frosting didn’t have a very peanut butter flavor to it and was hardly noticeable when eaten with the chocolate cake. Again, not terrible but still a little sad that the most decent cupcakes were coming from chains. I was really hoping to see more local and fresh options.

Epcot

Day three started with the continuing theme of my trip. The best, and nearly only, cupcakes were again at Starbucks. 

This Starbucks offered chocolate and a strawberry and cream cupcake. I tried the Strawberry cupcake. It was not very good. Artificial flavoring and you could tell that just from the fake pink color and the frosting was rock hard.

Animal Kingdom

I didn’t notice any stores or restaurants on the map that would have cupcakes so I asked a cast member if they knew of one. I am not joking, this was the response, “No, Starbucks hasn’t opened yet.”. Well. Ok then.

Art of Animation Hotel

We were staying at the Art of Animation Hotel, which is AMAZING by the way, and they offered their own cute line of cupcakes. 

Again with the bland and boring flavors and not so tasty frosting but still cute for the kids.

Magic Kingdom Day 2

We spent our final day at Magic Kingdom hitting up the rides we didn’t get to on day one and finished our trip with what I have been looking most forward to, dinner at Be Our Guest. It is a fairly new restaurant themed to the movie, Beauty and the Beast, a personal favorite of mine. When we walked in we were greeted with an entire cart of desserts just waiting for us to hurry and eat them, I couldn’t wait for dinner to get done fast enough. 

I made it easy for the waitress and just said bring me one of everything! We all took a bite of each dessert, 6 total with 3 being cupcakes, and passed them down. At the end we all claimed our favorites. For the cupcakes, they offered a Lemon Cloud, a lemon cake with meringue topping. The lemon was by far my favorite. Moist cake with perfectly made meringue. Strawberry and Cream, which was a strawberry cake and frosting. It was ok, there was something off about the flavor to all of us and we could not pin point what it was. The final cupcake choice was a chocolate on chocolate. The cake was slightly dry and the frosting was too thick. The frosting was a dark chocolate frosting and as very rich. I think it would have been better if it were glazed on like a ganache because with it piled on it was just too much.

Honorable Mentions

While majority of my time was spent analyzing cupcakes I encountered some amazing culinary and confectionary delights and would love to share them!

First, Dole Whip. Seriously, if you have never had it you are missing out! It is only available at three places in the world, Disney World, Disneyland and the Dole factory in Hawaii. Its delicious and we may or may not have had it three times. Also, my son learned that brain freezes hurt but are sometimes worth it. 

Le Cellier in Epcot was a special dinner for just my husband and myself. Its located in Canada at Epcot and is pretty pricey. Perfect for a special date night though. And since we will be on an entirely different continent from any family we are getting all the date nights we can while we have the chance. I tried poutine for the first time, essentially just some yummy fries and these were topped with feta and a delicious balsamic glaze reduction. The steak for dinner was literally cut with my butter knife!! Best steak I have ever had. And for dessert I got one of my classic favorites, crème brulee. Everything about that restaurant stuck out as memorable and I highly recommend it.

Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie in France at Epcot had so many deserts that I became awe struck while trying to decide. 

All freshly made and actually made my French exchange students!! I tried my favorite again, crème brulee and also a chocolate éclair. If you are a sweets lover, this is the place to go.

And finally my favorite experience of the trip, Be Our Guest. The ambiance, the food, the dessert, and the drinks. All memorable. All amazing.

All in all, I feel disappointed with the cupcake side of the trip. I’m really saddened to see what has become normalized in the confectionary world. As a culture we need to get back to scratch baking. The health benefits alone should make people want to do it, not to mention that the honest and true flavors are incomparable. I hope to make it to Disneylnad this summer while visiting family, we will see what Starbucks there has to offer, haha.

Welcome to Whisk!

Welcome fellow sweet lovers to the exciting new chapter of my life, Whisk!  Now you may be asking yourself, what is “Whisk”?  Well for starters, the name is something I picked to not only represent me, but the amazing adventure I'm about ready to set sail on.  My name is Britani Stratton, and I am a wife, mother of 3, and a self-taught baker with a love of all things sweet!

The tale of how Whisk came to be starts back a few years ago, right after I had my second son.  Instead of lying around eating all things sweet, I decided to start my very own business making the things I absolutely love: Cupcakes!!  In 2011, I launched “Cupcakes by Britani" from the kitchen of my very own home, making me an "at home bakery" in the quaint city of Augusta, Georgia.  But being a military wife, you never truly know when Uncle Sam decides to send you somewhere else.  My family and I suddenly found ourselves on the opposite coast, separated from my husband as his training took him elsewhere.  After being reunited, our follow-on orders to Germany fell through, and we found ourselves returned to Augusta, Georgia.  Needless to say, the journey of how "Cupcakes by Britani" truly got its running start was when we returned east and I restarted my fully licensed at home bakery specializing in all things cupcake.  From the cakes themselves to smash cakes, pull-a-part cakes, and sweet treat bars, my little bakery would do it all, plus so much more!

The next few years I watched my business grow, orders get filled, and referrals fill up my inbox. I was even featured on The Dish on 6, which increased my customer base immensely. To my greatest delight, I was doing something I loved which was supported by family and friends from all over the United States.  I didn't think things could get any better for my little home bakery. Then as 2015 rolled around, we received a huge surprise!  Uncle Sam finally gifted us with international orders sending us to Germany.  The move would come as quickly as this summer, and I realized I had much to prepare for and a lot of decisions to make.  I started to re-look at my little bakery, and think long and hard about rebranding my business and goals. “Cupcakes by Britani” was such a hit, and brought so much success for my family and I.  But as I stepped back and observed all that it encompassed, I saw that it was a success that solely specialized in cupcake items.  Only one type of confectionary delight.  Right then and there, I realized that I am SO much more than that!  It was with that epiphany and the want to step outside my comfort zone, that I understood I needed to rebrand my namesake and spread my baker's wing to soar to new heights and challenges:

Hence Whisk was born.

My blog is to focus on my past and future experiences, recent projects and creations; essentially the entirety of my baking adventures around the world, in particular Europe and all the secrets of confection delights she holds dear.  As I travel, I will not only be observing the majestic beauty of this old country, but learn the tricks of the trade otherwise forgotten about in American Bakeries. I want to learn all things sweet that Europe has to teach me.

Join me on my international journey of sweets and the exciting experiences of apprenticing across the vastness of Europe.  You can even bake along side me as I come across new recipes and techniques.

My only request is that you ask as many questions as possible while attempting not to drool all over your computer! 

Come live the sweet life with Whisk!