Disney Halloween Caramel Apples

Happy Halloween everyone! I thought I would show you a couple of the delicious Halloween caramel apples available at Disneyland. But first, here are some of the decorations at the entrance to Disneyland.

The pumpkin versions of Mickey and the gang are really cute.

I like Minnie Mouse the best.

The orange banners are very festive as well.

I love the partners statue surrounded by flowers in fall colors and pumpkins with some characters carved in them. 

Now for the apples. They are one of my favorite treats to get at Disneyland. I like to take one home since it can be very messy. Of course, I picked the witch Minnie apple. 

 When it's sliced open, you can see the layers of caramel, chocolate, white chocolate, and purple sprinkles, orange M&M's for her polka dots, marshmallow ears, and white chocolate hat with her bow.

 This pumpkin caramel apple is really cute also. This apple is caramel and then white chocolate to make the orange sprinkles pop. 

Picture from Mousewait.com

There is even a Dia de Los Muertos caramel apple this year. I'm a sucker for these seasonal goodies.

Check out the video above from the Disney Parks Blog that shared how they decorate the witch Minnie apple on YouTube.

I'll leave you with this shot of It's a Small World that I took during the Mickey's Halloween Party that I attended. It was really awesome to see during such a fun night. 

What is your favorite Fall/Halloween food or treat?

Halloween Time at Disneyland

 Well, Halloween is over but here is some of the seasonal fun and treats enjoyed this season.

The flowers in front of the train station are always a beautiful welcome. 

 The giant Mickey pumpkin is a great photo op. 

 All the orange and yellow really pops in the hub. This is a good spot to get a picture of the castle in the background even if it does already have snow on it the week before Halloween. Christmas and winter holidays will be in full swing before you know it.

 I love all the pumpkins and flowers surrounding Walt and Mickey's statue.

And now on to the treats.

 There are several different caramel apples available year round at Candy Palace on Main Street and Pooh's Corner in Critter Country in Disneyland and Trolley Treats in Disney's California Adventure, but this one of course is only around for Halloween Time.

 I love candy corn so this apple covered in caramel, chocolate, and candy corn was incredible.

 I enjoyed this caramel apple funnel cake at Hungry Bear Restaurant. The funnel cake was topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon apples, whipped topping shaped like Mickey, caramel, and some sort of cinnamon sugar crumble topping. It was delicious and huge. I shared it with a couple of friends and we still didn't finish it. 

 The are lots of pumpkin treats offered around the resort, but I only tried a couple. First was this piece of pumpkin fudge. It doesn't look like much, but it was SO good. It was hard to stop eating it. I don't think I've ever bought any of the other fudge at Disneyland, but I heard about how good this one was and decided to give it a try. I'll be checking to see if this is still around on my next visit. 

 I stopped by Maurice's Treats to check out the pumpkin twist. I heard good things about this as well, so I was excited to try it. 

 These are all the different twists in their display case. I believe they are chocolate, strawberry, garlic, and the seasonal pumpkin.

The flaky pastry is filled with pumpkin and a little bit of spice and sprinkled with sugar. It's really good.  I would have to say that this was my favorite snack of the season. 

 Over in California Adventure, I headed over to Schmoozies! to try their caramel apple smoothie. 

 I didn't have enough of an appetite to try the pumpkin muffin. Oh well. 

I wasn't too sure about what the smoothie would taste like, but I really enjoyed it. A sweet, refreshing, cool drink while walking around the parks on an 85 degree day was perfect. 

These Mickey Halloween bat cookies are always good. It is a shortbread cookie topped with chocolate and decorated to look like a Mickey bat. They are not only delicious, but cute and quite big. 

Those were all the seasonal items I was able to enjoy this Halloween Time. There were even more that I didn't get to. Maybe next year! I'll leave you with some more of the holiday decorations around the park.

 Near the Rancho Del Zocalo Restaurant in Frontierland is a Dia de Los Muertos display. 

 Here is a little more information about this holiday from the Disney Parks Blog.

 

I took another picture when I was passing by at dusk. 

 Across the way is the Halloween tree. I love it's orange glow at night. 

 I stopped by the Haunted Mansion Holiday, but it was broken down at the time. I've already ridden it a couple this season, but looking forward to riding it again until January.

This was my last picture of the Mickey pumpkin until next year. Soon the giant Christmas tree will take it's spot.

A Classic Disneyland Treat: Churros

 A churro at Disneyland is always difficult for me to pass up. It's one of those classic treats that I never seem to get tired of. In my opinion, the churros at Disneyland just taste better than most churros you'll find elsewhere. 

Churros are sold on several carts located throughout both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. This cart pictured above is located in Town Square near the entrance. Each cart has a different look to match the theme of the land or area of the park. The sweet smell of cinnamon and sugar is hard to pass up when walking around the parks. 

The churro is served warm and covered with the right amount of cinnamon and sugar. The outside is crispy while the inside is soft. It is perfect for a snack, dessert, or even sometimes breakfast. This treat will cost you $3.75, but bring you lots of enjoyment.

5/19/14 update: The price of churros has gone up to $4 as of the end of April :(

Gingerbread Beignets and Pumpkin Pie Hot Chocolate

I've been enjoying the holidays in Disneyland and California Adventure. The decorations throughout both parks are pretty remarkable. 

There are also plenty of seasonal treats. I snapped these pictures above while on my way to try some of them in New Orleans Square.

Of course, I had to back to the Mint Julep Bar to try the gingerbread beignets. This is the 3-pack for $4.19. You can look back at my original and pumpkin beignets posts if you missed them.

It's almost too cute to eat...,but that didn't stop me. I really liked this flavor as well. If you like gingerbread, then you will like these.

Here's a shot of the inside of a beignet. You just have to go and try them yourself. Don't forget that you can also order them at Cafe Orleans.

The beignets are even better with some hot chocolate (or coffee if you prefer). I decided to get the pumpkin pie hot chocolate again since I heard how much someone else enjoyed it. The one that I got from my previous post did not come with whipped cream. For this reason, I decided that I needed a do-over.

This already looked much better to me. Whipped cream and a  little bit of shaved chocolate were placed on top. It really made all the difference. I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first time. The subtle pumpkin flavor mixed with chocolate is delicious. It tasted really good along with the gingerbread beignets. This was a perfect chilly afternoon treat.

Napoleon's Macarons at the Americana at Brand

Recently, I spent some time at one of my favorite shopping centers: The Americana at Brand in Glendale, CA. It is a modern outdoor mall that was built with references to American architecture from a couple centuries ago. It's just a beautiful place to shop, eat, or just hangout. I did a little bit of it all on this visit. I'll share with you my first time having Napoleon's Macarons.

Napoleon's Macarons has their own kiosk inside the Americana. 

For those of you who may not know what it is, a macaron is a French cookie sandwich. The actual cookies are meringues with different flavors. They are filled with different flavors of buttercream, ganache, or jam. Napoleon's displays all of their 15 varieties in the front window. I think I've only had a couple of macarons before from another bakery. So, I was looking forward to trying some different kinds. 

A couple of the flavors that caught my eye were salted caramel and raspberry. They change some flavors with the seasons and holidays. 

I decided to splurge on a dozen. Since I am a member of the Americana's loyalty rewards program, they have a special offer for Napoleon's. During the month of your birthday, you can receive 3 free macarons and 25% off of a dozen. I couldn't pass up that deal. The macarons cost $1.70 each. A dozen was about $20 (~$15 with my discount). 

The flavors I got were intense chocolate, salted caramel, pistachio, pistachio with raspberry, strawberry, raspberry, hazelnut, and vanilla creme brulee. (I think I might have missed one, but I can't remember what it was. Ooops!) I love how pretty, colorful, and delicious they look in the box.

These macarons were all light, flavorful, and yummy. My favorites were (in this order) salted caramel, vanilla creme brulee, and intense chocolate. The vanilla creme brulee surprised me in the fact that you could taste the caramelized sugar inside of the cookie. It was almost like having the real dessert sandwiched between cookies. 

I know I will be indulging in these tasty treats again in the future. They will be hard to resist when walking by at the Americana.

While at the Americana, I also recommend doing a few other things. 

1. Taking some time to enjoy the park and beautiful fountain that dances to music every hour on the hour
2. Admiring the outdoor chandelier hung above the street
3. Riding on the trolley (it only runs in the afternoons)

One last look before leaving from the parking structure. If you look in the background, you can see the lights of downtown LA.