LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Pastry chefs throughout Walt Disney World Resort make things a little sweeter with deliciously decorative displays and sugar shacks made of yummy ingredients during the winter holidays. These candy-decked dwellings adorn the lobbies at various Walt Disney World resort hotels beginning in November. On the menu this holiday season at Walt Disney World Resort:

Disney’s Beach Club Resort

A fully detailed, life-sized carousel in the resort’s lobby is created from a recipe that uses gingerbread, chocolate, sugar paste and tons of enthusiasm, energy and talent. Guests who wish to take home a treat of their own can buy small gingerbread houses from the Beach Club Marketplace. Pastry chefs give demonstrations on select days to provide guests with tips on creating a gingerbread invention at home.

Carousel fun fact: seven “hidden Mickeys” can be found on the carousel.

Ingredient fun facts:
36 lbs. of honey
96 lbs. of bread flour
100 pints of eggs
10 lbs. of spices
10 quarts of simple syrup
100 lbs. of icing
50 lbs. of dark chocolate
10 quarts of egg whites
100 lbs. of confectioner sugar

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Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

The lobby of Disney’s Yacht Club Resort becomes home to a delectable scene in motion: A miniature New England-style train races through a sugary rock mountain surrounded by a candy-coated model village in this don’t-miss edible display. One lucky guest will be chosen daily to meet Chef Stefan Riemer for treats and a photo during “The Year of a Million Dreams” celebration at Walt Disney World Resort.

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Disney’s BoardWalk Inn

The lobby of Disney’s BoardWalk Inn is a “Home for the Holidays” scene with an artfully crafted miniature train made of gingerbread and chocolate. Walt Disney World pastry chefs also create small souvenir gingerbread houses which are offered for sale at the BoardWalk Bakery.

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Disney’s Contemporary Resort

A holiday toy shop made of sugar and chocolate, featuring Pinocchio himself, is the sweet spot for guests to purchase treats and toys on the first floor of the tower building.

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Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Opening to guests Nov. 19 is a gingerbread house large enough that it doubles as a real bake shop in the Grand Floridian lobby. Featuring gingerbread using a classic Austrian recipe, the bake shop offers freshly baked items such as cookies and gingerbread ornaments. Other homemade items for sale include Stollen Bread, chocolate peppermint bark, lollipops and special Grand Floridian logo boxes filled with truffles. Demonstrations of how to decorate a gingerbread house take place in front of the Gingerbread House six days a week.

Gingerbread house fun fact: Chefs spend 400 hours baking the gingerbread and 160 hours decorating the house.

Structure Composition:
16 feet high
17 feet wide
> 1,000 board feet of trim
60 sheets of plywood
40 window panes
80 square feet of retail space
100 square feet of display
10,000 pieces of gingerbread used>

Gingerbread Ingredients:
1,050 lbs. honey
600 lbs. powdered sugar
35 lbs. spices
800 lbs. flour
140 pints egg whites
180 lbs. apricot glaze

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American Adventure at Epcot

Santa’s Gingerbread Bake Shop at Liberty Inn at American Adventure enchants guests of all ages. Guests peer inside the life-sized gingerbread house at goodies galore. The giant structure, made entirely of gingerbread, cookies and icing, features more than 800 pounds of sugar and more than 1,000 eggs. Inside the bake shop, Christmas cookies and hot and cold beverages, as well as souvenir gingerbread recipe cards, may be purchased. Opens in late November.

© 2007 Disney

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Because I think these are one of the best little desserts in Walt Disney World, I thought I would post a few pictures of this perfect little treat.  Found at many counter service restaurants (this one in particular was purchased at Cosmic Ray’s in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom) this chocolate cake tastes just like Mom’s signature recipe.  It’s very sweet and hits the spot on those days you need a little extra sugar rush to get you through that 10th time on Space Mountain.  Plus, it’s also part of the Disney Dining Plan so you can use your snack credit for it as well!

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Hello everyone!

I finally got around to posting the pictures of the Boma buffet from our September trip.  You can check it out by clicking here:

http://www.diningindisney.com/animal-kingdom-lodge-boma-flavors-of-africa/

Just a quick story about our dinner at Boma (which was back at the end of September.)  We arrived for our 4:40pm advanced reservations about 20-minutes early and there was a little bit of a crowd already waiting so I had to stand in a short line to get checked in.  We ended up waiting for about 10-15 minutes before they actually opened up the restaurant so I was able to walk through and get some pictures of the untouched buffet!  (before all the hungry crowds jumped on it.) 

Of all the times we’ve eaten at Boma we never experienced buffet lines like this before.  At one point, while waiting for 15-20 minutes in line for the Spit Fired Prime Rib, I looked back and counted 40 people in line!  It stretched from the right side of the restaurant near the Prime Rib table all the way back to about mid-way through the dining area.  Mind you this was a Sunday night, but holy cow was that a long time to wait in.  It was like the “Perfect Storm” of buffets because as the night went on the crowds dispersed from the Prime Rib area and slowly moved to the dessert tables like a Hurricane moving up the East Coast.  Everyone must have been eating the same things at the same time as you could see the lines forming at the next logical area of the buffet. It moved from salads, to soups, then to meats, then finally over to the coveted dessert bar.  It was almost like a herd of cattle gradually moving from one area of the buffet to another as the night went on! Sure enough towards the end of dinner we looked back and the lines were building at the dessert bar!!  OH NO!  I will not lose out on Zebra Domes without a fight!  My wife immediately dispatched me to the dessert area with orders to stand in line and not come back until I had enough desserts for both of us (well, she was much nicer about it than that but I’m in BUFFET BATTLE mode so that’s what it felt like!)  I immediately walked very briskly (and yes, I contemplated running through the crowds of women and children but figured I would look like a nut and would end up knocking over a few tables which wouldn’t go over too well with the staff) to grab a plate of whatever I could get my hands on.  I was in luck……..I ended up getting some tasty treats including the zebra domes, cookies, yummy fruit tartlets and a very good Peach Crumble. Success!

Looking back I’m not sure if it was the mere thought of getting to an empty dessert bar (which I now know is a near impossibility in Walt Disney World) or whether I was just locked in the moment of feeling like I was in a Buffet Battle with hundreds of other hungry people (a battle I was NOT going to lose.) But it was one crazy night at the buffet which felt more like a Hot Dog eating competition with Takeru Kobayashi to eat as much as you can as fast as you can so you don’t miss out on the Zebra Domes at the dessert bar!

I can’t be the only one who feels this way……..hmmmm……or am I ??

Bottom line is that Boma still takes the cake in my book for best buffet in Walt Disney World.  Long lines or not.

Enjoy the pictures and try not to salivate on your computer keyboard too much! 

Technorati Tags: Boma, Disney Dining, Buffet, Walt Disney World, pictures

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