Disney Cakes and Sweets Review | Issue 4

I was so excited this morning to go get the next issue of Disney Cakes and Sweets Issue 5 and then I remembered I completely forgot to do my review on Issue 4!

So my apologies that this is late and you probably won’t be able to pick up Issue 4 anymore (unless you get it online) but I wanted to go ahead with the review anyways because I really enjoyed this Issue.

Issue 4 featured Piglet on the cover, and with the magazine, you were given an adorable 3D Piglet mould.

It is hard to tell from this picture but this is actually a pretty big mould.

It is about the size of a small child’s head.

The magazine gives a recipe for blancmange which you can make using this mould, and also suggest baking a sponge cake in it.

I didn’t use the Piglet mould yet but it could potentially come in handy for making a small cake in the future.

So the seven character related recipes given in this issue were as follows:

Piglet’s Blancmange and Sponge

So as I mentioned above, you can use the Piglet silicone mould to create either a blancmange (which is basically a creamy fruity jelly) or bake a sponge cake in it.

If you would prefer, you can also make regular jelly in it or even if you made your own homemade ice-cream and let it set in the mould I think could work.

Cruella’s Peppermint Creams

Cruella is the first Disney villain to be featured in this magazine series which I was very excited about. I love Cruella, and also loved her peppermint creams.

So these peppermint creams are basically like eating a minty sugar cube, but they are really good!

The recipe called for a lot of sugar, so I decided to half the recipe and it still made 12 peppermint creams.

I won’t give away the actual recipe because that wouldn’t be fair to those to paid money to buy this magazine, but the ingredients are basically cream, icing sugar, peppermint extract and chocolate. So definitely not a healthy recipe, but it was nice as a little treat. And they didn’t last very long in the house!

One tip I will give you if you are making these is to make them just before going to bed, this way you don’t feel like you have to wait as long for them to set. It says they take about 12 hours to set. And I know that I get very impatient when I have to wait for things to set so I made them at night then the next morning when I woke up they were ready to put the chocolate on and eat.

Eeyore’s Crunchy Nut Cookies

When I read that this recipe had pecans I knew I had to try them because I freaking love pecan cookies.

Something I found odd with this recipe was that instead of mixing the sugar and butter together with a mixer (like you would in most cookie recipes), the first step was to add the butter in cubes and rub into the flour (which is what you do when making pastry or bread).

So even though this was odd, I went with it and the cookies came out more like mini heavy cakes but it still tasted good so hey can’t complain.

I did however tweak the recipe a little bit. For instance the recipe never says to toast the pecans before adding them to the mixture, but I know from past experience that toasted pecans are WAY nicer in cookies and brownies than raw pecans. So I toasted my pecans in the oven before making these cookies.

Also I added a lot more flour than stated in the recipe because the mixture was far too wet for a cookie dough.

Other than that the cookies were nice – but having said that I think I will stick to my own Pecan Cookie recipe from now on.

Jungle Book Party Pavlova

Pavlova is basically a meringue with fruit on it so this recipe would be perfect for a party or even a birthday if someone doesn’t like cake.

On this particular pavlova it had fruit like mango, kiwi, pineapple even banana. If I were making it I would probably go with berries but you can pretty much make it to taste.

Thumper’s Cute Carrot Cake

Well you can either look at this as either very sneaky or very clever.

This ‘carrot cake’ is not actually a carrot cake. It is a madeira cake in the shape of a carrot!

Now I can see why they made a madeira instead of a carrot cake, because a carrot cake is so moist that it wouldn’t really hold the shape of a carrot and the whole thing just wouldn’t look as good as it would if you made a madeira. Having said that you can still make an actual carrot cake too.

I didn’t make this cake (but I might do it for a future birthday cake!) but it did have an adorable 3D sugarpaste Thumper on top which is too cute not to show you.

Mater’s Really Rocky Road

I had a good long laugh at this title – probably longer than I should have, but if you have seen Cars then you will get the joke.

I had never made Rocky Road before but I have made biscuit cake and they are very similar.

This recipe was so simple to make. It would be perfect to make and bring to a friends house, or perfect if you have little kiddies who really want to make something.

Instead of the cherries that were called for in the ingredients, I put in raisins but you can pretty much add in anything you like – raisins, nuts, etc.

I didn’t actually have any of this seeing as there were marshmallows in this and I am a vegetarian, but my brother really seemed to like it which is good because I made it for him specifically.

Peter Pan’s Treasure Chest: Part 1

This issue gives part 1 (of 2) how to make a treasure chest cake.

I had no reason to make this cake but it would be perfect for a little boys birthday cake or any kind of novelty cake for a specific occasion.

 

 

Also included in this issue was a step by step guide on how to model a thumper for the top of the ‘carrot cake’ and six different meringue recipes (I didn’t even know there were six different types of meringue!)

That is it for this weeks Issue (Well I guess it was last weeks, whoops!)

I’ll be back in a few days to review Issue number 5!

– Bee

Disney Cakes and Sweets Review | Issue 2 & 3

I was so busy last week that I have had to combine Issue 2 and 3 in the same post, I do apologise!

Let’s start with Issue 2 (The Winnie The Pooh cover)

The utensils given with this issue were two Winnie The Pooh moulds.

In the magazine it shows how you can use these moulds to make a cute Winnie the Pooh cake.

I however did not have any need to make this cake but I did use these moulds this week. I had a few cupcakes to make for a little girls second birthday who, luckily for me, really likes Winnie The Pooh.

Instead of using the moulds as suggested in the magazine, I took a different approach.

In one batch I simply melted milk chocolate and made the characters this way. But for the cupcake toppers I used coloured candy melts that you can buy from a cake supply shop. I used yellow for Winnie, Pink for Piglet, Orange for Tigger, and for Eeyore, I used the pink and added some blue to get that indigo colour eeyore has which worked perfectly. Unfortunately I was in such a hurry with the cupcakes I forgot to take a picture of them but here is what the chocolate moulds looked like.

 

Also in this issue there was a recipe for fudge, and seeing as both my brother and father like fudge, I thought I would give it a go. I followed the recipe exactly but the fudge never set, which is quite annoying but it worked fine as a fudge ice-cream sauce. Still though, fudge is supposed to be fudge so I’m not sure if there is a problem with the recipe, or one of the ingredients I used, who knows.

On to Issue 3 which gifts were as follows: Minnie Mouse Cookie Cutter, Modelling Tool, and 10 Disney Characters to stick into your Castle Cake (Part 3 of 3 was in this issue)

Now I never made any cookies with my new cookie cutter, but it is actually the exact same cookie recipe as in Issue 1 which I was a little annoyed at because it’s only issue 3. It’s a bit early to start repeating recipes (not that they should be repeating recipes at all!) But oh well. Overall I was still pleased with this issue.

The only thing I had time to make though was Piglet’s Snuffle Truffles, and boy was I glad I did. This is a delicious recipe and makes really nice truffles which are great for treats for yourself and family, but would also make great little presents for your friends etc.

To the left is the recipe from the magazine and to the right is the truffles I made. And let me tell you they went down a treat! I don’t think they lasted more than a few hours! But they are very rich and filling.

 

Again both magazines had extras in the back. In Issue 2 it gave 6 different pastry recipes which will come in very handy, and in Issue 3 they gave 6 different icing recipes, again very handy.

The magazine has now gone up to €5.99 and will stay at this price for the duration of the subscription. I know this may seem steep to some of you, but honestly it is well worth it. It would cost that much to buy the giant Minnie Mouse cookie cutter, or Winnie the Pooh moulds alone, and each recipe gives 7 different Disney related recipes, as well as tips on how to decorate cakes, and as I said various standard recipes (like pastry or icing).

3 Issues in and I am still a very happy camper.

Sorry I didn’t get chance to try out too many of the recipes, but hopefully after next week I’ll have a bit more time.

Hope you have enjoyed, and get busy baking!

– Bee