Easter Egg Cake Pops with a Disney Spin

Join us on another Disney inspired baking adventure, just in time for the Easter holiday!

Allergy Friendly

If you have a food allergy, then you probably know finding sweet treats that are gluten free while at a Disney Park can be a challenge. Now, there are some out there to be found but not quite as many as we would like. So, this specific recipe is geared toward those of us with a gluten allergy. BUT don’t worry, you can still use this same recipe using regular ingredients.

What You Will Need

We need to get all of our ingredients together before we start. Grab a pen and paper or just screen shot this section of the blog and head on out to the grocery store. I use both Betty Crocker and Pillsbury products. I shop by sale or whichever is available at the time. There are several other brands available that will work just the same.

Cake Pops

• 1 Box – Gluten Free Cake Mix – (Sub for Regular if desired)
• 2 (16oz)- containers of Gluten Free Frosting (Sub for Regular if desired)
• 10 to 12 Ounces gluten free semi-sweet baking chocolate

Decorating

• Food Coloring 
• 1 pack – Lollipop Sticks – (optional) 
• Sprinkles, Decorative Sugars, Marshmallows, Mike & Ike Candies (or jellybeans), decorative eyes, gels, and any other items for decorating you desire.

Instructions

First, prepare the cake mix according to the package directions. I just used a square cake pan. You can use any size pan you would like. I don’t suggest a cupcake pan unless that is the only one you have available. Only because we will just be crumbling up the cake in the next steps.

While the cake is baking, go ahead and prepare your decorations. Mix up different color frostings. Place marshmallows and candies in a bowl for easy access and so you don’t get frosting all over the bag while decorating.

Prep 

Once the cake is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for about 30 minutes. Place the pan on a counter or cooling rack. You don’t want to leave it on top of the warm oven. While the cake is cooling line two baking sheets with parchment paper. You will need to place these in the freezer later so use this time to make sure there is space in the freezer for the pans to sit flat.

Next Steps

Once the cake has cooled, in a large bowl crumble the cake with your fingers.  Add half a can of the frosting and press the cake together using a spoon. You will want to add more frosting as necessary until the mixture is smooth.

Shape the mixture into egg shaped pieces. You can make other shapes or just round as well. Place each shaped piece onto the baking sheets you prepared earlier. Once you have shaped all of your cake mixture place your pans in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Or up to a few hours if you plan to decorate later.

Using Lollipop Sticks

If you are planning to use the lollipop sticks you will need to prepare them before you begin decorating. First, you will need another cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. In a microwave safe bowl, melt 10 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate on high for 30 seconds at a time. Stirring in between until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Stick the tip of one side of the lollipop sticks into the melted chocolate. Place them on the lined cookie sheet and freeze for one minute until the chocolate is set. If you are not using lollipop sticks just leave each egg on the cookie sheet.

Let’s Decorate

Now, for the fun and messy part! Decorating. I don’t know about you, but I like recipes that are fun and easy. To decorate, I just simply frost each egg and then used the gels, candies and marshmallows to create eggs that represent some of my favorite Disney characters. 

Don’t be afraid to get creative! Trust me, unless you are a professional chef who has been trained, they are likely not going to be perfect. That is ok, just go with it have fun and let the kiddos make a mess all while you create some Easter memories. Place any left over cake pop eggs in an air tight container and store in the freezer.

Easter Egg Cake Pops With A Disney Spin are such a cute way to incorporate a little Disney into your Easter holidays! If you enjoyed this recipe you may want to also want to give our Dole Whip Cupcakes a try!

We would love to see your egg cake pop decorations! Snap a photo and come share it with us over on Facebook at Disney Express Lane. 

The post How To Make Easter Egg Cake Pops With A Disney Spin appeared first on WaltExpress.com.

Disney Inspired No Bake Christmas Cookies

We Cheated (a little)

We have totally stolen this blog and are using it here! Just kidding, well sort of. What can we say? We are tired and pooped this holiday season, but wanted to bring our Disney fans a little something extra!! As most of you know, our sister site is amandamiddleton.me. We totally have permission to “borrow” her cookie blog! This is a great AND easy way to bring the family together for some holiday baking, that involves our favorite MOUSE and it IS pretty easy!

Allergy Friendly Disney Inspired No Bake Christmas Cookies

Without further ado, here’s Mandi!

I really did not expect for these to be so much fun, but being the Disney fanatics we are they were SO much fun and tasty too! It also helped that they were super easy and no baking was involved. I found this amazing recipe on Pinterest and now it has a special home on my Christmas Board. These cookies were so much fun to make and I even adapted them, so they are allergy friendly for my family.

We travel to Disney World quite often and I am always inspired by the beautiful cookies and cupcakes that they have to offer. But, we are not always able to eat them due to our food allergies. Disney World has a few options for Gluten-Free and Nut-Free Treats, but they are few and far between! So I was determined to make these tasty treats with allergy-friendly ingredients of course. They were too cute to pass up!

Although ours did not turn out as beautifully as a pastry chefs’, I think they turned out spectacular with some added character.

(Side Note: We are a gluten and nut-free family. These cookies are adapted to our liking. You may need to adapt for your family’s allergies.)

Ingredients for Gluten and Nut Free Cookies

• larger (Oreo) cookies
• smaller cookies
• Red Candy Melts
• Bow Decorations 
• decorating icing 
• Allergy Friendly Christmas Sprinkles
• Buttons for Mickey
• Christmas Sprinkles

Directions (I promise, this is so easy)!

1. Get all of your ingredients together
2. Grab the kids
3. Place the smaller cookie slightly inside of larger cookies for Mickey and Minnie’s ears. Be careful not to break the cookies
4. Dip the bottom half of the cookie into the red candy melts
5. Place the coated cookie on wax paper
6. Decorate while drying
7. Wait to dry to add embellishments such as lines or bows
8. Have fun
9. Enjoy

This project is great for kids of all ages with parental supervision. Kids over the age of six may not need to be supervised as much.

Happy Decorating and Merry Christmas!
Until next time….

~xoxo

Mandi

We hope you have enjoyed this fun little recipe. We would love to see your pictures if you try it! Head over to our Facebook group and post them there: DISNEY EXPRESS LANE. For more Disney inspired recipes, check out: THE GREY STUFF or MICKEY’S SANTA HATS!

The post Allergy Friendly Disney Inspired No Bake Christmas Cookies appeared first on WaltExpress.com.

In my family of five, we have four diabetics and three with celiac disease. Traveling can be difficult at times but it is NOT impossible! Here are some tips for you or your family members who are visiting Disney World With Diabetes and/or celiac disease!

Disney World With Diabetes And/Or Celiac

Visiting Disney World can be stressful, but visiting Disney World with diabetes and/or celiac disease can add even more stress. We are going to help you to take some of that stress away. Visiting Disney World with diabetes and/or celiac IS totally doable. These tips help my family tremendously!

Supplies

Make sure to have a full supply of your diabetic supplies. In the week before our trip, I always go through and make sure we have plenty of insulin, blood sugar test strips and lancets for our blood sugar test kits. If we need those (or extra Dexcom supplies), we order them. Both my husband and daughter wear a Dexcom CGM, so I make sure we have the charging cord, and the other things that go with it. I always pack a few boxes of needle tips because we use Insulin pens. If you are still using needles, you are going to want to bring extra needles with the script. Making sure to have the labels on the boxes is important, especially if you are flying. I also keep all of our supplies and medicine in my carry on bag when we fly. I don’t want anything getting lost or damaged if it’s in a checked bag.

Snacks

Snacks! I always carry “low” snacks with us. We call these snacks “low snacks” because they are in case someone’s blood sugar starts to rapidly drop. We all know there can be long lines at the snack carts and waiting is often not an option. So we keep snacks with us just in case. I also keep things like glucose tablets on us at all times. Sometimes in the heat, it’s hard to eat and the glucose tablets work fast and aren’t too filling. This leaves plenty of room for the delicious Disney themed snacks we love so much!

Extra Bandages

I have also gotten into the habit of bringing extra sticky bandages for the Dexcom. We spend a lot of time in the pool, but when visiting Disney World,  we always make sure to get a lot of use out of our resort pool! Sometimes the tape around the Dexcom can come off if you are spending a lot of time in the pool. Also many of the resorts have slides and if you have a child wearing a Dexcom you know there is a chance it could get pulled off on the slide. So I always put the extra bandage we have around the Dexcom as an extra layer of adhesive.

Disney World With Diabetes And/Or Celiac DINING Options

Let’s talk about dining in Disney World. Disney World is full of all kinds of amazing foods and restaurants. Being a diabetic and/or celiac is not going to change that at all. Disney World is amazing at having so many different options for allergies and food requirements. When making your dining reservations, you can always add to the reservations that there is a diabetic/celiac in your party. While Disney World cannot provide you with the actual nutrition information, they do have options for everyone. Another wonderful thing about Disney World is that you can use your My Disney Experience app to look at menu options for almost every restaurant on Disney World property. I do this often before booking anywhere to be sure there are foods my family will eat, or safe choices my kids will be interested in.

Traveling as a family can be overwhelming and when you add medical issues to the mix it can get a lot more interesting (and stressful). Hopefully these tips can help take some of the stress our of your next Disney World trip! For more great tips, check out these 10 things to pack when traveling with kids!

We have a Facebook Group dedicated to helping plan the perfect Disney World vacation. Join at DISNEY EXPRESS LANE! We are also affiliated with an amazing travel agency, WALT EXPRESS TRAVEL. They have travel planners that would love to help you plan your next trip.

The post Visiting Disney World With Diabetes And/Or Celiac Disease IS Doable appeared first on WaltExpress.com.

How We Made Disney Copycat Churro Bites At Home.

Disney Copycat Churro Bites

Making Churro Bites at home was very easy and did not take long at all. The ingredients are likely already in your kitchen. One of the BEST things about this recipe is it can be totally adjusted to accommodate some allergies! Yes, this Disney Copycat Churro Bites recipe can be ALLERGY FRIENDLY!

Ingredients

•  1 cup water
•  8 tablespoons butter
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
•  3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
•  1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (Use Gluten Free Flour for Allergy Friendly)
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups vegetable or canola oil (I use Olive Oil)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used Truvia)

I recruited my husband to help me bring this recipe to life. As you may know, I have a gluten allergy. When we make Churros at home, I alter the recipe with a simple switch. This recipe calls for all-purpose flour, so I used gluten free all-purpose instead.

First Step

Combine water, butter, salt, and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon in 1 ½-quart saucepan over medium heat. Bring pot to rolling boil. Then reduce heat to low. We added in the flour and stirred vigorously until the mixture forms into a ball. Remove from heat and let rest for 5-7 minutes.

While we waited for the 5-7 minutes to pass, we cleaned up the counters. Next we got a piping bag and fitted it with a large star tip. Now we are ready for our dough. TIP: If you do not have a piping bag or star tip on hand you can use a large zip lock bag and just cut the tip to squeeze out your churro mix.

Second Step

Once the 5-7 minutes is up, we added in the eggs, one at a time. Stir until combined. Set aside. Next, we heated the oil in a 1-quart saucepan over medium-high heat until the temperature reached 350˚.

While the oil was heating up, we spooned the dough into piping bag fitted with large star tip. Once the oil was heated, we piped 1-inch strip of dough over saucepan, cut with knife, and dropped it into hot oil. We repeated until churro bites fill saucepan with room to fry.

Fry churro bites until golden brown. We removed each one with slotted spoon. You can also use a mesh spider strainer if you have one. Drain churro bites on paper towel.

Third Step

While my husband finished up with cooking the remainder of the churros, I went ahead and mixed up the sweet coating! Use 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in medium bowl. I started tossing the churro bites until evenly coated.

Fourth AND Best Step

We placed them on a serving plate and enjoyed them immediately. The Churros can be eaten with your favorite dipping sauce. We love to eat them just the way they are. Making churros at home was a fun family activity. We suggest eating them all as soon as they are done however, they can be stored and refrigerated to enjoy the next day.

Whip up some of these delicious bites and play Disney Charades! A perfect night!

Have you made this delicious treat? We would love to see your version. Join our Facebook Group, DISNEY EXPRESS LANE!

The post How We Made Disney Copycat Churro Bites At Home appeared first on WaltExpress.com.

Everyone knows that Disney World is absolutely amazing when it comes to allergies and dining. They take every precaution and will work with you in any way that they can. You have to do your part also, though! Walt Express helps make that process easier for you with our tips and tricks for an allergy friendly vacation. This week, we are talking about Quick Service Allergy Tips At Disney World.

Quick Service Allergy Tips At Disney World

Quick Service restaurants are literally EVERY WHERE at Disney World parks and resorts. Quick Service dining is like a “fast food” type restaurant, only Disney Style! Many people think that a quick service meal is not “doable” with a food allergy, but we are here to tell you that it’s totally doable! We have some great tips here to make the process easier and safer for your allergy friendly family.

Stay in the know with these allergy tips at Disney World!

• Ask for the BINDER. Each dining establishment at Disney World will have a binder with all ingredients listed. Things do change sometimes and you need to be sure to ask the right questions. This is ALWAYS the rule when you have an allergy: ask questions and don’t assume.
• Ask for the CHEF. If a chef isn’t available, ask for a manager. A sit down, table service is of course easier to do with a food allergy, just because there is always a chef available. This is not always the case in a quick service restaurant, but a manager will know exactly what to do.
• Don’t get in line at the quick service restaurant, until you have spoken with someone about your food allergies. Let them know right away that you have an allergy and need to speak to someone.
• Our favorite quick service restaurant is over at Pop Century Resort, Everything POP Shopping and Dining.
• If you love BREAKFAST PASTRIES, head over to Erin McKenna’s Bakery at Disney Springs and grab a few for each morning of your vacation. This bakery offers MANY allergy friendly options. The Disney Dining Plan is NOT accepted at Erin McKenna’s Bakery, so keep that in mind.
• Quick Service meals are NOT always quick! It does take a little time to make sure everything is safe and allergy friendly, so be prepared for a little wait time.
• Pastries, candy and desserts. Disney World has many PRE-PACKAGED allergy friendly pastries, candy and desserts. This way, you can see what the ingredients are and KNOW that it’s a safe option for you and your family.

We hope these tips and tricks help with your planning process in deciding the best options for your allergy friendly family. Don’t be afraid to dine at quick service restaurants while visiting Disney World, just be prepared! For more great allergy friendly planning tips for Disney World, just click the link!

Do you have more allergy friendly tips or advice that you would like to share with us? Join our Facebook Group, DISNEY EXPRESS LANE, and let us know! We would love to hear from you!

The post 7 Allergy Friendly Tips and Tricks For Quick Service At Disney World appeared first on WaltExpress.com.

Having a food allergy does NOT mean that you cannot enjoy your next Disney World vacation! Walt Express has some great advice and tips that will make your next trip with allergies, the absolute BEST ever! Disney World and allergies go hand in hand like Mickey and Minnie! Learn how to have an allergy friendly Disney vacation!

Allergy Friendly Disney Vacation

Yes, you read that correctly! We are going to show you how to have an allergy friendly Disney vacation! Check out the video to learn all about how you can have a great AND safe Disney vacation.

Here is a recap of the video and you can even print it out and take it with you for reference.

1. LOOK AT MENUS! Simply go to the Disney website and search the menus. Each dining establishment offers allergy friendly menus, simply ASK.
2. When making your dining reservations online, there is a spot to “check” for any allergies. Also, if you are using a travel planner, they can call and have it noted on your reservations!
3. Be prepared for the Chef to visit your table during a sit-down/table service meal.
4. For Quick Service type meals, tell the cashier that is taking your order BEFORE placing an order, about your allergy. A Chef may come to speak with you here also.

Just so you know, you don’t have to miss out on fun events such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! There are plenty of allergy friendly options at these events, as well!

These are just some tips that we have learned over the years. The best advice is to be prepared and that begins before your vacation begins. We hope you have a wonderful and safe time on your next Allergy Friendly Disney Vacation!

Allergy Friendly Disney Vacation TIP

If you do not have an allergy, please be patient for those that do, if you are behind them in line. It may take a few minutes longer, but we truly believe someone’s life is more important. Just be nice!

EXTRA! EXTRA!

If you would like to see more information like this, make sure you check us out LIVE every Monday night at 6 pm on our Facebook page, WALT EXPRESS!! Be sure to say HI and bring any questions or concerns you may have! We would love to meet you!

We would love to have you in our Facebook Group, DISNEY EXPRESS LANE! We discuss lots of Disney information, such as this and more!

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Cupcakes at Disney: A Disney World Dining Review

Let’s talk cupcakes! Oh yum! Everyone’s heart melts when at Disney, but when we add delicious cupcakes, the heart and tummy are happy. Oh so happy!

This past weekend I got to experience first hand one of my favorite spots at Disney Springs. Upon arrival, my family headed straight to Disney Springs and we made a beeline to Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC.  We are a family with food allergies and this bakery has some amazing allergy free options. These cupcakes and goodies may be allergy friendly, but the taste will certainly help you appreciate a good cupcake again. It is SO hard to find treats when you have food allergies, and even harder to find ones that taste good. So when we found this place and tasted the treats for ourselves it did not disappoint.

What to Expect

As you walk in, of course you will be smacked in the face with the smell. Oh the smell! It smells so divine! We enjoyed a donut and cupcake but the possibilities are endless. Just make sure you eat it fast; the icing will melt in the Florida sun!

They have gluten-free options, but nut-free options are a little more complex and need to be thought through before consuming. But this bakery isn’t your only cupcake option in the Disney Springs area!

Sprinkles Cupcakes and Ice Cream Disney Springs or Sprinkles Cupcake ATM Disney Springs are available for more cupcake magic. Just take your pick, because both will crush that sweet tooth of yours. If you don’t have food allergies these are two options that will make your taste buds happy. (They do have some gluten-free options as well.)

Speaking of Sprinkles Cupcakes, The Downtown Disney District at the Disneyland Resort will be a little sweeter come November! Be on the lookout for the new Sprinkles location!

Look! The bottom line is cupcakes make everyone happy, so you have to know where to find the goods! Am I right? So no matter if you are in Disney Springs in Florida or Disneyland’s Downtown Disney District, you will find a location that will satisfy that sweet tooth and give you that sugar rush we all crave.

Have you tried any of these amazing cupcakes? What did you think?

Join the Disney Express Lane Facebook Group to discuss this and many other Disney related topics.

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