Where can I find the original treat?

• This treat was originally found at Shmoozies! in DCA as part of the Food and Wine Festival.

It’s been record-breaking hot in Southern California this weekend, and as today is the unofficial close to summer, I thought we’d end on a sweet, ice cold note. If there’s one thing you can rely on to cool you off and satisfy a sweet tooth at Disneyland, it’s their shakes. So today we’re making the Almond Mocha Shake, which happened to be the very last thing I ate when I was visiting California Adventure back in March for the Food and Wine Festival.

So no, for this recipe I will not ask you to make your own ice cream. That’s because I recently discovered that Disneyland uses Dreyer’s brand ice cream in the park. So, if you want an almond mocha shake… you can grab mocha almond fudge ice cream from the supermarket. For those of you who live on the east coast, that would be Edy’s brand (not Breyer’s!).

Now, one component here that you can either make yourself, or buy pre-made, is the English toffee. You’ve got a few options here. One, you can make it, and I have my favorite adaptation below. Second, if you’re able to get to Marceline’s in Downtown Disney, they are selling the English toffee BY THE BAG FULL!!!! It’s the exact kind you’d find on the shake and it’s a hefty bag and yes, I finished the whole package in less than two days… Your third option is to buy either an Almond Roca bar, a Skor bar, or Heath bar from the store. It won’t be the same as what you get on the shake, but it will be reminiscent of the original.

The third component of this shake is the whipped cream and here’s the thing about whipped cream on shakes in Disneyland: it’s thick. My guess is stabilizers in there, but it could also be something like Cool Whip (but not the actual brand). At home I make homemade whipped cream because I have a dispenser, but you could pick up a canister at the store. If you want your cream to be closer to what’s at the parks, I like the brand Truwhip. To create the swirl effect, spoon it semi frozen into a piping bag, attach a open star tip (or just cut the end off the bag), and pipe on top of the shake. 

I love that this recipe can be quickly made by a few grocery store ingredients, but also can be adjusted to how much involvement you’d like in the kitchen. And since we’re making this on Labor Day, I say just buy the ingredients and give yourself a day off.

Kids can help assemble the ingredients and add them to the blender (I used my Magic Bullet for this and it was a perfect one serving container). They can also help decorate the glass and top with whipped cream. Older kids can help to make the English toffee due to the extremely high temperatures you need. I would not recommend it for the younger kids.

Extra credit: the shakes at Disneyland, like this shake, will sometimes come with a delicious decoration on the outside of the cup. Totally not necessary to enjoy at home unless you want the true park treat experience. So, if you’d like that, we’ve included the instructions below in the recipe card. It’s pretty easy, but it’s one more step.

Now let’s relax and blend up some magic!