Tag: Halloween

29
Oct
2014

Mickey Mouse Inspired Pumpkin Cupcakes

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

Happy Halloween Week Everyone!

One of my favorite things about visiting a Disney Park during the holiday seasons is the festive cupcakes and treats that Disney sells. While visiting Disneyland Resort I enjoyed seeing the Halloween creations made by Disney’s talented Cast Members and as usual, they did not disappoint. Here’s a look at some of my favorites!

Anytime of the year you can find amazing character apples, but I think during the Halloween season the selection is Spooktacular!

As soon as I saw Mickey Mummy treats I wanted to run home and make them!

However, first I decided to make my version of these adorable Mickey Mouse pumpkin cupcakes! They were so easy to make. It took less than a half hour for 20 cupcakes. Would you like to make some during this week of Halloween?

My simple version of Disneyland’s cupcakes have a marshmallow based icing. I used the “Super-Easy Marshmallow Icing” recipe by King Arthur Flour. You can check out the photo tutorial on how I made the cupcakes, including the icing below.

Gather your supplies. The icing recipe is for 24 cupcakes so that’s how many cupcakes I made. However, I was only able to transform 20 cupcakes before running out of icing.

You’ll need the recipe for the “Super-Easy Marshmallow Icing” and you can find it here:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/super-easy-marshmallow-icing-recipe .

Tootsie Rolls (Not Shown Below) are used for the pumpkin stem.
Chocolate wafer melts (Not Shown Below) are used for Mickey’s Ears.
Green icing- optional (Not Shown Below) is used to make the leaf.
The photo below shows you the ingredients I used to make the icing: Salt, Vanilla Extract, Heavy Cream, Powdered Sugar and Marshmallows.

As the recipe states, make sure you continuously stir the ingredients while they are heating or the marshmallows will stick. It took a bit longer than I expected for the marshmallows to start to melt and then all of a sudden it started sticking at warp speed.

Once the marshmallows, heavy cream, sugar, and salt have blended together this is what the icing looked like.

After I poured the mixture into a large mixer bowl, I added the vanilla AND equal amounts of red and yellow food coloring to create orange icing.

As the recipe suggested, I covered the orange icing and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day I used my mixer to whip the icing into shape and I was ready to go!

I played around with different icing tips creating different kinds of pumpkin cupcakes. I found that I liked the Wilton #12 tip’s results the best. I piled icing in the center of each cupcake and covered the center by starting at the cake and meeting the icing at the top.

After covering the cupcake with icing I pushed an unwrapped Tootsie Roll through the center of the icing.

Add a two chocolate wafers for ears and you’re done!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

13
Oct
2014

Let’s Celebrate with Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Attraction and Brownie Pops!

categories: Disney-Inspired Treats, Disneyland vacation tips, Reviews

Happy 21st Birthday “Nightmare Before Christmas!”

On October 13th, 1993 “The Pumpkin King” was introduced to Americans. “Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas” was such a phenomenal success that The Walt Disney Company decided to thrill obsessed Jack Skellington fans by creating a special attraction overlay. This overlay shows Disneyland guests how Jack would celebrate Christmas in The Haunted Mansion. On October 3rd 2001, Disneyland opened an amazingly transformed Haunted Mansion, with the help of Jack Skellington of course, and called it “Haunted Mansion Holiday.”

Haunted Mansion Holiday is a seasonal attraction offered exclusively to Disneyland guests from the end of September through early January each year.

On my recent trip to Disneyland I was able to experience this enchanted attraction. Walt Disney Imagineering did a mind-blowing job bringing Jack’s special touch to every corner of the Haunted Mansion. Would you like to take a look? I promise brownie pops at the end!

Jack welcomes guests to explore the grounds outside the mansion where decorations adorn everything! Walking through the queue is almost as entertaining as the attraction!

This is a side view of The Haunted Mansion. As you can see, pumpkins, garland, and candelabras add Jack’s festive touch to the otherwise gray mansion and gloomy grounds.

At the entrance to the mansion a giant clock counts down to Christmas…looks like Christmas has arrived!

Upon entering, guests will immediately notice the difference between the original version of the attraction and this special festive overlay. There’s a reason the attraction closes for a few weeks to transform. This is not a minor refurbishment. It takes the attraction to a level worthy of FassPass! If you’ve never had the opportunity to see Haunted Mansion Holiday, I won’t spoil it for you by telling you every single difference, but I will say that the stretching room is so cool!

My camera didn’t take the best photos inside of Haunted Mansion Holiday, but I thought you still might want to see a few peeks at the attraction.

The photo featured above is of the Doom Buggie loading area.

Guests travel through all of the same rooms as in the original attraction. However, each room has been decorated for the holiday celebration.

When comparing attractions available at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Park attractions, there are quite a few attractions offered at Disneyland Park that are not at Magic Kingdom. Haunted Mansion Holiday is by far my favorite! OUTSTANDINGLY detailed with animatronics and special effects from not only Disney Imagineering but also Garner Holt Productions. If I could pick it up and take it to Walt Disney World I would in an instant!

In celebration of the 21st anniversary of “Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas”, let’s enjoy a tasty treat! So simple to make, using a box of brownie mix, a bit of white and chocolate icing, you could whip them up for this evening’s dessert.

If you’d like to see the step-by-step directions on how I made these “Brownie Kings”, here’s the direct link!

http://www.mouseearsmom.com/2013/10/21/jack-skellington-brownie-pops/

Enjoy!

30
Oct
2013

Happy HallowSCREAM Favor Tag {Free Printable}

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts, Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Free Printables

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Today is a short post that may come in handy this week. After my little “monsters” and I finished putting together Gavin’s classmates’ Monsters University-Inspired goody bags, I thought I’d create a simple tag for the back side of the bag. If you’re preparing your children’s classmates goody bags today, you may be able to use this tag too! They are a basic white tag with a little eyeball in the center. The tag simply states, “Happy HallowSCREAM”. These tags could be used on any trick-or-treat goody bags! I used Avery brand 2 1/2″ diameter glossy white round labels to print out the tags. Using a sticker to apply the note was so easy! If you’d prefer to use white cardstock, punch the tags out using a 2 1/2″ round craft punch and glue it on the back side of the bag, so easy! Just make sure your little Monster remembers to sign them!

To use these tags, click on the Adobe pdf file below.

Happy Hallowscream printable

If you newly discovered Mouse Ears Mom, you might have missed my post of what’s inside the Mike inspired gift bag and an easy tutorial on how I made them. Check out the post here:

http://www.mouseearsmom.com/2013/10/15/classmate-halloween-gift-idea/

Have a Monstrous Halloween!

28
Oct
2013

“Mistress of All Evil” Maleficent cupcake

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

This Halloween season I’ve had fun making cupcakes inspired by my favorite Disney villains. Today I’d like to share with you, Maleficent!

Love Disney villains like I do? Here are the links to check out the tutorials for other Disney villain inspired cupcakes!

Cruella de Vil Cupcakes:

http://www.mouseearsmom.com/2013/10/11/disney-villain-cruella-deville-cupcakes/

Evil Queen’s Red Apples

http://www.mouseearsmom.com/2013/08/26/the-evil-queens-red-apple-cupcake/

Captain Hook’s Cupcakes

http://www.mouseearsmom.com/2013/07/22/a-pirate-picnic/

To make this “Mistress of All Evil” cupcake start with a basic chocolate cupcake.

To save time, I use Wilton Decorating Icing for a lot of my projects, especially if the cupcake needs black icing. For this cupcake I used the two decorating icing tubes featured in the photo. The tips used are round.

With the icing tubes and tips, draw an outline of Maleficent’s headpiece and face. Once outlined, continue to fill in the top of the cupcake.

Melt black candy melts in a small bowl. Using a spoon dip Bugle cone-shaped snacks into the chocolate.

Using a toothpick, remove the Bugle out of the chocolate and place it on a wax lined cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened around the tooth pick.

Place two of the chocolate covered Bugles in each cupcake to act as horns. Then place the cupcake within another black cupcake liner to represent Maleficent’s collar. To create the stripes around the horns, I used a Cake Mate Writing Icing.

That’s it!

Did you know that this special Disney villain will soon be sharing her side of the “Sleeping Beauty” story on the big screen? The film, Maleficent, is scheduled to be released on May 30th, 2014.

I hope you all have a Not-So-Scary Halloween this week!

25
Oct
2013

A Beauty Makeover By The Disney Villains

categories: Reviews

Can we agree that Disney’s Villains have a sense of style and beauty?

You may not be aware that your local Walgreens carries an evil line of beauty products inspired solely by Disney Villains, Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, Ursula and the infamous Evil Queen. With products priced $7.99 to $9.99, I thought it would be simply wicked of me not to share this info with you! Here are some photos of the product that I purchased and the product that is still available of this very popular line.

From Eyelashes to Fingernails, the Villains are ready to bring out the villainous side of you!

As shown in the photo above, the products produced for this line are Makeup “Look Books”, “Ponytailers”, nail kits, fake eyelashes, and makeup travel bags. Each beauty item has four different styles representing each villain.

This is a photo of the Evil Queen Look Book.

It includes 1 eyelid primer, 6 eye shadow colors, 1 brightening eyeliner, 1 liquid eyeliner, 1 mascara, 1 lip color and 1 eye shadow brush. The cost is only $9.99.

The Ponytailers, advertised as “for your hair and wrists” are priced at $7.99 and come as a 7 piece set.

The featured photos are of Ponytailers inspired by Ursula and Cruella de Vil.

Villain false eyelashes are sold for $7.99 per each wicked set.

I fell in love the artwork on the cosmetic cases. Notice on this Cruella de Vil inspired bag the London landscape camouflaged on the right side of the bag and the puppy paw prints on the left side that morph into flowers.

Check out the inside lining of the bag- Puppies! The costs of the bags are $9.99. I think anyone traveling to a Disney vacation NEEDS one of these bags. Don’t you think?

If you like these products, stop by your local Walgreens to check out their supply. I spoke with Walgreen’s management and the Villains beauty products were stocked for the Halloween season and will not be reordered!

Tag: Halloween

Happy Halloween Week Everyone!

Anytime of the year you can find amazing character apples, but I think during the Halloween season the selection is Spooktacular!

As soon as I saw Mickey Mummy treats I wanted to run home and make them!

However, first I decided to make my version of these adorable Mickey Mouse pumpkin cupcakes! They were so easy to make. It took less than a half hour for 20 cupcakes. Would you like to make some during this week of Halloween?

My simple version of Disneyland’s cupcakes have a marshmallow based icing. I used the “Super-Easy Marshmallow Icing” recipe by King Arthur Flour. You can check out the photo tutorial on how I made the cupcakes, including the icing below.

Gather your supplies. The icing recipe is for 24 cupcakes so that’s how many cupcakes I made. However, I was only able to transform 20 cupcakes before running out of icing.

You’ll need the recipe for the “Super-Easy Marshmallow Icing” and you can find it here:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/super-easy-marshmallow-icing-recipe .

As the recipe states, make sure you continuously stir the ingredients while they are heating or the marshmallows will stick. It took a bit longer than I expected for the marshmallows to start to melt and then all of a sudden it started sticking at warp speed.

Once the marshmallows, heavy cream, sugar, and salt have blended together this is what the icing looked like.

After I poured the mixture into a large mixer bowl, I added the vanilla AND equal amounts of red and yellow food coloring to create orange icing.

As the recipe suggested, I covered the orange icing and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day I used my mixer to whip the icing into shape and I was ready to go!

I played around with different icing tips creating different kinds of pumpkin cupcakes. I found that I liked the Wilton #12 tip’s results the best. I piled icing in the center of each cupcake and covered the center by starting at the cake and meeting the icing at the top.

After covering the cupcake with icing I pushed an unwrapped Tootsie Roll through the center of the icing.

Add a two chocolate wafers for ears and you’re done!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Share this:

Happy 21st Birthday “Nightmare Before Christmas!”

Haunted Mansion Holiday is a seasonal attraction offered exclusively to Disneyland guests from the end of September through early January each year.

Jack welcomes guests to explore the grounds outside the mansion where decorations adorn everything! Walking through the queue is almost as entertaining as the attraction!

This is a side view of The Haunted Mansion. As you can see, pumpkins, garland, and candelabras add Jack’s festive touch to the otherwise gray mansion and gloomy grounds.

At the entrance to the mansion a giant clock counts down to Christmas…looks like Christmas has arrived!

My camera didn’t take the best photos inside of Haunted Mansion Holiday, but I thought you still might want to see a few peeks at the attraction.

The photo featured above is of the Doom Buggie loading area.

Guests travel through all of the same rooms as in the original attraction. However, each room has been decorated for the holiday celebration.

In celebration of the 21st anniversary of “Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas”, let’s enjoy a tasty treat! So simple to make, using a box of brownie mix, a bit of white and chocolate icing, you could whip them up for this evening’s dessert.

Enjoy!

Share this:

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Have a Monstrous Halloween!

Share this:

This Halloween season I’ve had fun making cupcakes inspired by my favorite Disney villains. Today I’d like to share with you, Maleficent!

Love Disney villains like I do? Here are the links to check out the tutorials for other Disney villain inspired cupcakes!

Cruella de Vil Cupcakes:

Evil Queen’s Red Apples

Captain Hook’s Cupcakes

To make this “Mistress of All Evil” cupcake start with a basic chocolate cupcake.

To save time, I use Wilton Decorating Icing for a lot of my projects, especially if the cupcake needs black icing. For this cupcake I used the two decorating icing tubes featured in the photo. The tips used are round.

With the icing tubes and tips, draw an outline of Maleficent’s headpiece and face. Once outlined, continue to fill in the top of the cupcake.

Melt black candy melts in a small bowl. Using a spoon dip Bugle cone-shaped snacks into the chocolate.

Using a toothpick, remove the Bugle out of the chocolate and place it on a wax lined cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened around the tooth pick.

Place two of the chocolate covered Bugles in each cupcake to act as horns. Then place the cupcake within another black cupcake liner to represent Maleficent’s collar. To create the stripes around the horns, I used a Cake Mate Writing Icing.

That’s it!

Did you know that this special Disney villain will soon be sharing her side of the “Sleeping Beauty” story on the big screen? The film, Maleficent, is scheduled to be released on May 30th, 2014.

I hope you all have a Not-So-Scary Halloween this week!

Share this:

Can we agree that Disney’s Villains have a sense of style and beauty?

From Eyelashes to Fingernails, the Villains are ready to bring out the villainous side of you!

This is a photo of the Evil Queen Look Book.

The featured photos are of Ponytailers inspired by Ursula and Cruella de Vil.

Villain false eyelashes are sold for $7.99 per each wicked set.

I fell in love the artwork on the cosmetic cases. Notice on this Cruella de Vil inspired bag the London landscape camouflaged on the right side of the bag and the puppy paw prints on the left side that morph into flowers.

Check out the inside lining of the bag- Puppies! The costs of the bags are $9.99. I think anyone traveling to a Disney vacation NEEDS one of these bags. Don’t you think?

Which Disney Villain products would fit your personality?

Share this: