Disney Cakes and Sweets Review| Issue 1

I have been baking for quite a few years now, and I have been a disney fan for all my 21 years of exsistance, so you can only imagine my uncontrollable excitement when I learned of this magazine!

For those of you who don’t know, a new weekly magazine has been published entitled Disney Cakes and Sweets which gives various recipes and tips for baking in relation to different disney characters. The first issue was released on the 5th of September as far as I know as is still available in your local newsagents (providing you live in Ireland/UK that it).

So if you live outside of Ireland/UK and are dying to see more of the magazine, I hope this blog post will help somewhat. Also if you are contemplating buying the magazine but are unsure, hopefully this review will help.

So the first issue will be available for 2 weeks. I imagine this is so to give people plenty of time to get it. Otherwise, it is a weekly magazine, with the next issue available this thursay, the 19th.

So without further ado, let’s get to the review.

First thing’s first, here is what the magazine looks like.

If you are looking for it in a shop though, this is what the packaging looks like…

My first reaction to the magazine was that I was plesantly surprised my how many recipes were given. From the advertisement on tv, I was expecting maybe 3-4 recipes in each magazine, but in reality, the first issue gave a surprising 7 recipes (as well as giving 4 basic cake recipes at the end of the magazine!)

So what are these 7 recipes?

• Giant Mickey Mouse Cookies
• Winnie the Pooh’s Honey Cupcakes
• Sleeping Beauty’s Marshmallow Pillows
• Patch’s Dalmatian Paw Print Cake
• Bullseye’s Best Ever Brownies
• Minnie’s Fruity Chocolate Chunks
• Castle Cake

The magazine itself is very well laid, with very clear instructions on how to creat these cakes and sweets. I feel a lot of people may think it is orientated toward children but this is not the case. I would say it is more for adults, however there are boxes on different pages of the magazine which suggest which parts your children can help you make so they can definitely get involved.

Personally, I am 21 years old with no kids, but I still find it a great magazine, whether you are making a cake for a child’s birthday or just making treats for yourself.

One aspect of this magazine I really liked was at the back it gave four standard cake recipes which I found very helpful.

And it also gave the different units of measurement which is fanatsic because depending where you get your recipes from, they can sometimes have different methods of measuring ingredients and you can easily get confused, especially if you are a beginner in baking.

Of course this review wouldn’t be a review if I did not try out some of the recipes.

I was most interested in trying out the recipes that needed the ‘free gifts’ you get with the magazine.

In this issue, the magazine came with a giant Mickey Mouse cookie cutter, and two Winnie the Pooh stencils.

Mickey Mouse Cookies

I followed the cookie recipe given in this magazine and made some Mickey Mouse Cookies.

One thing I learned from using it is not to press to hard on the embossing part of the cutter. This just cuts the dough and makes the cookie difficult to move and it falls apart easily. You just have to play around with it until you find a techique that works for you.

Here is what the cookies looked like.

They held their shape well which I am quite pleased with, but like all cookies they do expand a little bit.

Left plain as they are, I found them a bit dry. I would recommend melting some chocolate and covering them or something similar.

I also covered one with some coloured roll out fondant which was quite fun but very time consuming (which is why I only did one). But this would be very cute for a little boys birthday party (and for a girl you could make some Minnie Mouse ones, a cutter of Minnie Mouse will be coming with Issue 3 I believe!).

Winnie the Pooh Honey Buns

I was very intruiged when I read the ingredients for this recipe because I noticed there was no sugar! Also it is made using whole wheat flour, so in actual fact these buns are reasonably healthy.

Honey is used as a substitute for sugar and surprisingly, despite the fact this recipe calls for 7oz of honey, the taste of honey from the bun is not too strong.

When I was a kid, I loved Winnie the Pooh so much that I use to force myself to eat honey, despite the fact that I hated it! So naturally I was unsure as to whether or not I would actually like these buns considering there was a lot of honey involved. But they actually turned out okay.

I can see why the magazine suggests covering them with fondant though because it does need that extra bit of sweetness, but if you do not have a sweet tooth then perhaps this recipe is perfect for you!

The stencils that came with the magazine were designed for this recipe so naturally I had to give it a go.

I rolled out the fondant and tried several different methods of using the stencil.

First I mixed yellow food colour powder (yellow) with vodka. I know what you are thinking vodka on a cake? But what happens is the vodka mixes with the powder creating a sort of food paint. Then as the ‘paint’ dries, the vodka evaporates and I promise you, you can not taste the vodka!

I tried this method but the ‘paint’ was too runny for the stencil, which resulted in a smudged mess as you can see below

I also tried using edible glue and edible glitter. This method actually worked surprisingly well, despite the fact I forgot to cover Winnie’s eyebrows – whoops!

Finally I accidentally discovered my next method. I pushed down too hard on the stencil against the fondant and it came out as a reverse embossed effect and it worked so that is an alternative method you could use.

Another great thing about the magazine is it actually gives you instructions as to how to use the stencils, which is great for beginners.

It also gives more hints and tips, like how to cover a cake with roll-out icing (or fondant)

So, since this was the first issue, it only cost €1.99 (£0.99), and I believe the next issue will cost €3.99 (£2.50) but then from Issue 3 onwards it will cost the regular price of €5.99 (£3.99).

I honestly think you get your moneys worth. The way I always look at it is, if you were to go on a night out in Ireland, one drink would cost you roughly €5, which is gone in minutes, whereas this magazine will only cost €6 and you get to keep it for life, not to mention the gifts that come with it each week. So am I happy I purchased it? Absolutely!

Now if you are wanting to go that extra step, you can always subscribe to this magazine by going to http://www.eaglemoss.com/disney-cakes

This will cost the exact same as shipping is free, plus you get 5 free gifts worth up to £80!

I was going to subscribe, but the thing that put me off is you get one delivery of 4 magazines per month, whereas I could just go down to the shop weekly to purchase the magazine. I am very impatient so I don’t think I could wait once a month knowing other people already have their copies.

One reason I was tempted to subscribing was the binders you get to hold all your magazines. BUT alas, I read that once their online shop is set up (which they said could be a while) you can buy the binders from here, so I think that is what I will do.

So I think that pretty much covers everything, but if you have any questions about the magazine, please feel free to ask me. If anyone is interested I would definitely be willing to do these posts every week when the magazine comes out trying out the recipes etc.

– Bee