Magical Treats at Home

candy melts

Cheshire Cat Tails

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Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com
  • These treats can be found at the Candy Palace on Main Street in Disneyland.

These sweet treats, based on the iconic pink and purple coloring of Alice in Wonderland’s Cheshire Cat, are more than meets the eye. At its base, it’s a marshmallow wand, enrobed in a layer of caramel, and then dipped in pink colored white chocolate. The white chocolate is strawberry flavored, and the whole thing is finished with stripes of purple sanding sugar held on with white chocolate.

Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com
Wands on the left have have had excess caramel removed. Wands on the right were placed immediately onto sheet without excess caramel removed.

While these marshmallow wands might seem straightforward, there is actually a lot of temperature control needed, as well as precise ingredients. Why? Because we’re dealing with caramel and chocolate.

Now, admittedly I started this recipe off with the wrong caramel recipe. See, I have this super yummy salted caramel recipe that I love. So without thinking I started there and only when I tried to dip the marshmallows in it, and it just started falling off the marshmallows, did I realize that this yummy recipe was in fact the wrong type of caramel. A soft, liquid-y caramel is not what one wants here for two reasons. One, well, it falls off the marshmallows and does not become fully solid. And two, when the not fully solid caramel hits the very warm white chocolate… it all just melts off into a puddle. Yuck.

Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com

So, melting caramels are a good bet here. And on second try this was the perfect solution to getting a firm caramel that held up to being dipped in warm chocolate. Alternatively, there are homemade caramel recipes out there that will become solid, you’ll just need to use that type of recipe. Usually there is corn syrup in it.

With melting chocolate, there are a few factors you need to remember. First, the type of chocolate you’re using will determine how hot you can get your temperature. White chocolate, which isn’t technically chocolate, should not go above 110°f. If you temper your chocolate you will lose its temper and you also risk burning your chocolate if you get it too hot. Also, if you get your chocolate too hot, it will start to “break” when you try to coat items like these caramel covered marshmallow wands. Check out the notes below the recipe for tips dealing with this if it happens. The trick with coating is to get it warm enough to drip off your spoon and keep it warm, not hot, for even coating.

Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com
Kid Friendly icon

I did say this was a “kid friendly” recipe and you might think I have lost my mind. Molten caramel! Scalding hot chocolate! What the heck?! But really, the fun part for kids is the decorating. Older kids can dip wands into the pink white chocolate because really, at the dipping point the chocolate should not be hot enough to burn skin. And small kids will have lots of fun covering their marshmallow wands with purple sprinkles. And it’s OK if adults enjoy it just as much (I do!!).

So let’s get into the kitchen and whip up a batch of Cheshire Cat Tails! They’re sure to make you grin!

Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com
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Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com

Cheshire Cat Tails

  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 6 Cheshire Cat Tails 1x
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Description

These ooey-gooey marshmallow wands found at the Candy Palace at the Disneyland Resort are more than meets the eye! Sweet, buttery caramel covers a marshmallow wand while the whole treat get covered in strawberry flavored pink white chocolate and topped with purple sanding sugar stripes… just like the Cheshire Cat’s tail. A Disneyland-inspired treat.

Scale

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place four marshmallows, round side facing out, on each lollipop stick. Set aside.
  2. Place a sheet of parchment on a sheet pan. Butter it lightly and set aside.
  3. Unwrap all the caramels and add to a small saucepan. Pour water in and heat over medium-low heat.
  4. Stir constantly until everything has melted and caramels are smooth (about 7-8 minutes).
  5. Once melted (caramels should drip in a ribbon from a spoon back into the pan), dip each wand into the caramel, turning quickly to coat. Let excess caramel drip off for at least 30 seconds, turning while it drips for even coating, and then place on the buttered parchment.
  6. When all the wands have been dipped, refrigerate for one hour.
  7. About 15 minutes to wands coming out of refrigerator, set up your sanding sugar station by setting out an empty wide, shallow bowl and another bowl with sanding sugar in it.
  8. Remove wands from the refrigerator. Then, in a double boiler, combine pink candy melts, strawberry flavoring, and coconut oil (this can alternatively be melted in the microwave as well. Please see notes below.). Melt over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Do not let the temperature go above 110°f (you might want to use a candy thermometer if you’re unsure).
  9. Once smooth, dip caramel covered marshmallow wands in the chocolate, turning evenly to coat and fill in any gaps. Let the pink chocolate drip back into pan and lightly scrape one side on the edge of pan to remove any additional excess. Place back on buttered parchment. Repeat for all wands and let coating dry about 30 minutes.
  10. Next, melt the white chocolate (you can melt in a heavy duty piping bag as well), and create stripes on the first marshmallow wand, and immediately pour the purple sanding sugar over the stripes, letting excess catch in the empty bowl. You can press the wand lightly into sugar if you’d like a more thicker coating (I was fine with the lighter stripes). Set aside. Repeat with additional wands. If sanding sugar adheres to the pink coating, use a small brush to brush crystals away after fully dried. Then enjoy!

Notes

  • Melted caramel is HOT! Use caution in the kitchen. Do not dip your fingers or hands into the caramel has it can adhere to skin and burn you. Keep away from children.
  • Use hot water to remove caramel from pans and utensils.
  • If you wish to microwave your candy melts, combine them with strawberry flavoring, and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl, and heat for 30 seconds on half power, stir, and continue to microwave in about 15-20 second increments until smooth.
  • If you have extra melted caramel that has dried around your wand, use kitchen shears to remove it immediately after removing from the refrigerator.
  • Did your chocolate coating break when you first dipped your wand in? Wait for the chocolate to cool down more. It should drip freely from a spoon without it seizing when the spoon is shaken slightly (will cause crevices in the chocolate on the spoon). If it breaks on the wand, your wand also might be too cool, so let them warm up more. And don’t worry, once that chocolate starts to firm up, you can dip it AGAIN into the chocolate to get a more even, although slightly thicker, coating.

Keywords: treat, marshmallow, Candy Palace, strawberry, caramel, white chocolate

Cheshire Cat Tail // magicaltreatsathome.com

Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops

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Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com
  • These treats can be found at the Candy Palace on Main Street in Disneyland.

Since we covered Mickey Mouse doughnuts last week, I figured it was definitely time to give Minnie Mouse a turn. If you’re looking for a nostalgic treat, these Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops fit the bill!

Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com
Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

Chewy, Minnie Mouse shaped rice krispie pops are dipped into red and light cocoa candy melts and decorated with red sprinkles, white buttons, and Minnie’s signature red bow. The trick to getting that chewiness is with the butter; don’t skimp on it or the rice krispie treats will turn rock hard. Still edible, but rock hard.

Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

Also, try not to use too large of a sauce pan to melt the marshmallows in. If there’s too much space once you add in the cereal, what happens is the marshmallows have too much space to move around in, and will start to dry out and form strings, making it harder to mix together. I used the red candy melts to also make the bows in addition to the dipped lower half. If you are more advanced with your chocolate, go ahead and use high quality white chocolate here with red food dye and temper.

Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

There are lots of variations of these rice krispie treats throughout the parks. If you have a favorite one, let us know in the comments below, or shoot us an email at hello@magicaltreatsathome.com and we’ll add it to our list of treats to make.

With this post, I’ve also started to note which recipes kids can participate. A big reason for starting this site, apart from having Disneyland treats whenever I want them, was to get my kids more involved with baking and cooking projects at home. I started helping in the kitchen at an early age (maybe four?), and that helped cement a life long love of creating with food. Many people find baking intimidating because they did not do it at home, or had parents who didn’t do it or let them help, and because baking is, well, more specific, it can seem daunting. So, if you’re a little uneasy with the idea of baking, these kid friendly recipes are a great place to start!

Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

Kid Friendly tips:

  • Older kids can complete this recipe from start to finish. Have an adult supervise when using the stove.
  • Elementary age kids can help cut out shapes, dip in chocolate, and put on the sprinkles and decorations.
  • Very young kids can help sprinkle on the sanding sugar. Sprinkling on decorations is always a good task for the very little ones! (If the sanding sugar on these looks a bit uneven that’s because my two year old helped me with that!)
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Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops

  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 3 Minnie Mouse Pops
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Description

Crispy, chewy, chocolatey Minnie Mouse shaped rice krispie treat pops. A Disneyland-inspired treat.

Ingredients

For the rice krispie treat:
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
157 g ( 2 cups) mini marshmallows or 10 jumbo marshmallows, ripped apart
1-1/2 cups crisped rice cereal

For the chocolate dips:
2 ounces light cocoa candy melts
2 ounces red candy melts

For the bow:
8 red candy melts
1/2 ounce white candy melts

Decorations:
red sanding sugar
white M&Ms

Tools:
Minnie Mouse cutter
parchment
9″ bread loaf pan
Minnie Mouse bow mold
lollipop sticks

Instructions

For the rice krispie treat:

  1. Before beginning, line a 9″ bread loaf pan with parchment.
  2. Combine the butter and marshmallows in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until marshmallows have melted and mixture is smooth.
  3. Immediately dump in the crisped rice cereal and mix to combine.
  4. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and gently press mixture into place with a rubber spatula. Set aside for at least an hour in the refrigerator so that the mixture can firm up enough to cut shapes.
  5. Once firm, use parchment to lift out rice krispie treats. Use a Minnie Mouse shaped cutter to cut out shapes and set aside.

To decorate:

  1. First, melt the light cocoa candy melts in the microwave inside a microwave safe bowl, like glass, for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave again for an additional 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving in short bursts of 15-20 seconds until melted and smooth. Use can alternatively use a double boiler for melting.
  2. Once melted, dip top half of Minnie ears into the light cocoa. Set aside on parchment. Repeat for all treats.
  3. Using the method above, melt the red candy melts. Dip the lower half of the Minnie Mouse treat, letting any excess drip off. Immediately sprinkle with red sanding sugar and press 5 white M&Ms into the sanding sugar. Set aside.
  4. Make the bows by melting the remaining red candy melts using the method above. Pour into bow molds and set aside for 15 minutes.
  5. Melt the white candy melts in a microwave safe piping bag using the method above but kneading instead of stirring.
  6. Gently pop out bows and pipe small white polkadots on them. Set aside.
  7. Pipe a small amount of the white candy melts onto the center head part of the rice krispie and press the bow to “glue” on.
  8. Let everything stand for about 30 minutes and then enjoy!

Notes

The chocolate will be smoother if you use the flat side as opposed to the bumpy rice krispie side.

You can combine some extra rice krispie treat scraps into the mold to shape a third Minnie Mouse if you could not cleanly cut out 3 from your batch.

Treats can be kept in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Keywords: chocolate, rice krispies, Minnie Mouse

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts

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Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts // magicaltreatsathome.com
  • These vanilla cake doughnuts can only be found at White Water Snacks inside the Grand Californian Hotel in Downtown Disney.

I found myself googling “does Mickey Mouse wear pants or shorts?” this morning to make sure I was getting the title correct for this treat. Answer: most definitely shorts.

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts // magicaltreatsathome.com

And these are most definitely delicious and easy to make. My #1 easy tip for this is that you most certainly can use store bought doughnuts to make these. The actual treat from White Water snacks reminds me of grocery store doughnuts (like Donettes!), but today I’m also providing a super quick (and I mean quick!) recipe to make baked doughnuts. So put that vat of hot oil away for another day (like churro making day… we have a lot of those recipes coming up!).

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts // magicaltreatsathome.com

One surprise after dissecting my doughnut to find out all the components… Disneyland uses M&Ms to make all their buttons for treats! Who knew? Well, maybe you if you’re like me and need to know how they make everything.

If you can find chocolate wafers, go ahead and use those for the ears, however since my chocolate wafers were on the small side, I used the same candy melts chocolate to make rounds in a mold, and then that chocolate was used again to coat the ears and doughnut.

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Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts // magicaltreatsathome.com

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts

  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 6 doughnuts 1x
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Description

Vanilla cake doughnuts dipped in chocolate look a lot like Mickey Mouse’s shorts. A Disneyland-inspired treat!

Scale

Ingredients

Vanilla Cake Doughnuts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 tablespoons butter
25g (1/8 cup) vegetable oil (or refined coconut oil)
49g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
35g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
1 large eggs
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
159g (1-1/3 cups) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
113g (1/2 cup) milk (or milk substitute like almond milk)

Chocolate Discs

1–1/2 ounces light cocoa candy melts

Decorating

5–1/2 ounces light cocoa candy melts
3-1/2 ounces red candy melts
12 yellow M&Ms

Instructions

For the doughnuts:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease one standard doughnut pan.
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars until smooth.
  3. Add the eggs, beating to combine.
  4. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla.
  5. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined. 
  6. Spoon the batter into the lightly greased doughnut pans, filling the wells to about 1/4″ shy of the rim.
  7. Bake the doughnuts for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven, and wait 5 to 7 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto a rack.

For the Chocolate Discs:

  1. Melt candy melts in a microwave safe bowl (preferably glass) or piping bag for 30 seconds. Stir, and continue to microwave in short bursts until fully melted and smooth. (I found once more at 30 seconds and then again at 20 seconds worked for me, but your microwave may be different)
  2. Pour melted chocolate into round molds about 1/8″ high or alternatively, pipe out into rounds on parchment.
  3. Wait 10 minutes and then remove from molds. The discs are ready to use.
    Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts // magicaltreatsathome.com

For assembly and decorating:

  1. Start by cutting two slits for the chocolate discs in each doughnut for the ears along the seam line of the doughnut. Insert the discs halfway into the doughnut. Set aside.
  2. Melt the light cocoa candy melts following the method above. Alternatively you can do this over a double boiler as well.
  3. Dip the doughnut half including the “ears” into the melted light cocoa candy melts. See note below if you have trouble keeping the discs in place.
  4. Set the dipped doughnuts down on parchment and melt the red candy melts using the same method above or in a double boiler. Dip the bottom half of the doughnut in the red candy melts, overlapping with the light cocoa candy melts. Immediately press two yellow M&Ms into the red to make Mickey’s buttons. Set aside.
  5. These take about 30 minutes to fully set and can be eaten then, or stored in an air tight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

  • Several components can be purchased instead of made. The doughnuts and chocolate discs can be store-bought and assembled.
  • If the discs pop out while dipping the doughnut into the melted chocolate, remove them and dip the doughnut separately, and then they can be dipped separately in the melted chocolate and inserted into the doughnuts.
  • Never rest items that have been dipped into candy melts on a wire rack. Always use parchment paper or you risk the melted chocolate fusing onto the wires and ripping off once cool.

Keywords: chocolate, doughnuts, Mickey Mouse

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