A Taste of Disney: Staffer recreates classic movie desserts

My recent nostalgic Disney movie marathon left my stomach growling at the sight of the delicious desserts featured throughout the magic-filled films. Hungry and inspired, I was desperate to try these classic Disney sweets in real life, so I took on the challenge of recreating a few.

Alice in Wonderland: “Eat Me” cookies

Before Alice is transported into Wonderland, she finds an array of various cookies and drinks with beckoning messages like “Take One” and “Eat Me” that cause her to grow and shrink. For this recreation, I used a simple sugar cookie recipe and whipped up icing, dying each one nearly every shade on the color wheel.

From etching out little phrases using a toothpick to swirling together the vibrant icings, I went all out with my decorating skills. Although my cookies didn’t have the special sprinkle of Disney magic and sadly kept me at my height of only 4-foot-11, they were a colorful and tasty remake of the whimsical confection.

Brave: Empire Biscuits

I’ve always wondered what the infamous cake that turns Princess Merida’s mom into a bear in Disney Pixar’s “Brave” would taste like. This Scottish dessert is known as an Empire Biscuit and is more of a flat cookie in real life. However, I found a modified version of the recipe to make them fluffier and more cake-like to better replicate the ones in the movie. 

These pastries were a pretty simple combination of flour, sugar, butter, milk, baking powder and eggs that formed a sticky dough to lay out in clumps on a baking sheet. Just make sure your dough is spaced out far enough or they may all bake together into a globby mess — I learned that the hard way with my first batch. 

Topped off with a drizzle of royal icing and a maraschino cherry, this “Brave”-style Empire Biscuit served as a perfect reward for completing my first day back at school. But don’t worry — I’m still human after chowing down on this delectable biscuit cake. 

The Princess and the Frog: Tiana’s “Man-Catching” Beignets

Ranking high on the list of my favorite Disney movies, I had to recreate the classic New Orleans cuisine from “The Princess and the Frog.” Princess Tiana is strong-willed and a hard worker, which is certainly needed for these fried pastries that took much more work than I expected. 

The process of mixing, kneading, chilling, frying and dusting the beignets took an entire day, leaving me no time to turn into a frog and float down a Louisiana bayou like Tiana did. But the end result was 100% worth it. 

This light and airy, honey-drizzled, powdered sugar-dusted fried goodness had me feeling like I was on a Mardi Gras parade float in the middle of New Orleans. 

Beauty and the Beast: “The Grey Stuff”  

“Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious//Don’t believe me? Ask the dishes,” Lumiere sings in his iconic musical number “Be Our Guest.” But what actually is the grey stuff? It turns out the official Disney Parks website released the mysterious recipe, which is a combination of crushed Oreos, pudding and whipped topping, frosted in a heap onto an Oreo or shortbread cookie and sprinkled with edible white pearls.

Realistically, the “grey stuff” was likely meant to be pâté — a creamy hors d’oeuvre made of animal liver, crackers and brandy. But when it comes down to choosing between chopped liver paste and creamy whipped sugar, I think the answer is obvious. 

This recipe was the simplest to make, as I combined all the ingredients in under 10 minutes to then refrigerate until it was stiff enough to pipe onto the Oreo. Pro tip: Unless you’re bringing snacks for a party of 50, I’d recommend halving or even quartering the recipe, as I had over half of the unused cream left after frosting my remaining Oreos. Although it turned out to be more of a brownish color, “The Grey Stuff” made for a quick and easy bite-sized treat.