Quick links: Faux Pink Champagne | Green Jello | Versatile Vanilla Cake | French Chocolate Cake | Butter Pecan Cake | Rainbow Cake | Berry Sorbet | Green Pistachio Cupcakes | Strawberry Cake | Strawberry Mousse | Verdict
Onto week three! This is the second half of one of my favorite songs in the Disney-verse, Be Our Guest. It’s basically a bunch of cakes! Since I posted the original be our guest video last week, here’s a horrible remake/remix from the Disney Channel original movie Descendants.
Faux Pink Champagne
This pink champagne acts as a diving pool for a bunch of utensils after a bunch of bottles blow their tops.
(Credit: Disney)
Naturally, we’re not using real alcohol, but I found a simple recipe for faux pink champagne. I didn’t really like it, but my wife did.
- 2 cups Cranberry Juice
- 2 cups Ginger Ale
- 1 cup 7-up
- Mix and Chill
Cogsworth’s Green Jello
Man, Cogsworth just has a bad time. He’s constantly getting flung into food.
(Credit: Disney)
I cheated on this one. I didn’t use a from-scratch recipe. I just followed the instructions on the back of a lime Jello box. Sorry everyone.
Versatile Vanilla Cake Platform
Now onto the mountains of cakes. Lumiere uses cake platforms at the climax of the song
(Credit: Disney)
We assumed that the 2 giant cakes at either side were just for show. But we made the other 5 cakes.
The one on the left, we made a Versitile Vanilla Cake.
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
- Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.
- Divide batter between pans; smooth tops.
- Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes.
- Let cool in pans 10 minutes.
- Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.
- Place one cake, bottom side up, on a cake stand. Tuck strips of parchment paper underneath. Using an offset-spatula or table knife, spread top with Whipped Frosting. Top with remaining cake; frost top, then sides.
French Chocolate Cake Platform
For the cake second from the left and the full right, we made a French Chocolate cake. This is a legit french recipe. We even had to translate it.
- 125 g flour
- 125 g butter
- 250 g sugar
- 200 g chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 packet of yeast
- Preheat oven to 180 ° C (gas mark 6).
- Melt the chocolate in a saucepan with a little water.
- Off the heat, add the butter, flour and yeast.
- Prepare a foam with egg yolk , sugar and a little water; add it to the chocolate preparation.
- Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and incorporate them into the pan gently.
- Pour into a mold greased with high edges, and bake for about 35 minutes.
- Let cool completely before frosting
Butter Pecan Cake Platform
Lumiere’s cake is a butter pecan cake
- 1 box butter pecan cake mix
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- Mix for 2 minutes in big bowl
- Cook as directed on back of box
Rainbow Cake Platform
Last but not least, is the rainbow cake, second from the right. You can find the recipe for that in Alice in Wonderland
Belle’s Berry Sorbet
At the end of the song, a few more goodies dance past Belle.
(Credit: Disney)
Notice that in this whole song, there were only a couple non-sugary dishes. Maybe the true intentions of the staff were to fatten Belle up so they could eat her! But I guess this isn’t a Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tale.
The first dish I believe is a sorbet of some sort. So here is Belle’s Berry Sorbet
- 1-3/4 cups sugar
- 1-3/4 cups water
- 2 cups raspberries
- 2 cups strawberries
- 1-1/2 cups real cherry juice
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
- Combine the sugar and water in a large pot.
- Boil until the sugar has dissolved completely.
- Stir in the strawberries and raspberries.
- Continue cooking for ten minutes.
- Strain through a tight strainer.
- Refrigerate the juice until chilled and toss the pulp.
- Once your juice has cooled stir in the cherry juice, lime juice, and orange concentrate (I added a bit extra orange concentrate).
- - pour mixture into an ice cream maker and follow instructions that came wit it.
- - pour into an air tight container. Freeze solid. Blend until smooth and freeze again.
- - pour into an air tight container and place into the freezer. Whisk every 20 minutes for the first two hours then freeze solid.
Green Pistachio Cupcakes
Also we see some green frosted cupcakes. As the giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk would say, “smersmash, smishash, GREEEEEN FROSTING.” We made some green pistachio frosting. For the cake, we used the leftover from our Butter Pecan recipe.
- 1 tub buttercream frosting
- 2 tbs ground pistachios
- 1 tablespoon almond paste
- 4 drops green food coloring
- Blend all ingredients well
Strawberry Cake
There is also ANOTHER cake. This time it seems to be a possibly strawberry cake.
- 1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
- 1 (3-ounce) box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
- 1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
- 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 7 cups confectioners' sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1/4 cup of the strawberry puree and the strawberry extract. (The rest of the puree is leftover but can be used in smoothies or on ice cream for a delicious treat.) Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth.
- Spread frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with sliced fresh strawberries, if desired.
- Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen
Strawberry Mousse
Last but not least, to round out the song. There is the mousse inside a tarte dish. We ran out of time to put it in a pie dish, but the mousse is the main event anyway.
- 1 cup finely chopped strawberries
- 1/2 cup sugar, divided $
- 5 tablespoons water, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- Dash of salt
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- Combine chopped strawberries and 1 tablespoon sugar in the bowl of a mini chopper or food processor, and toss gently.
- Let stand for 10 minutes.
- Process until smooth.
- Pour 2 tablespoons water in a large bowl, and sprinkle with gelatin.
- Let stand for 5 minutes.
- Place 6 tablespoons sugar, the remaining 3 tablespoons water, and dash of salt in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring just until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 240° (about 4 minutes).
- Add egg whites to gelatin mixture; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy.
- Gradually add remaining 1 tablespoon sugar, beating at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually pour hot sugar syrup into egg white mixture, beating first at medium speed and then at high speed until stiff peaks form. (It helps to form the peaks if you beat with the bowl resting in a larger bowl of ice or ice water)
- Beat in vanilla.
- Place cream in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold one-fourth of egg white mixture into whipped cream.
- Fold in the remaining egg white mixture.
- Fold in strawberry mixture.
- Spoon about 1/2 cup mousse into each of 6 dessert glasses; chill 2 hours or until set.
Will it make you Our Guest?
All the food, minus the faux champagne, was delightful. My favorite was actually the strawberry cake. It was so fruity, sweet and moist.
Verdict:
Faux Pink Champagne – 6.5/10
Green Jello – 8/10 (what can I say, Lime Jello is delicious)
Vanilla Cake – 8.5/10
French Chocolate cake – 8.5/10
Butter Pecan Cake – 9/10
Berry Sorbet – 9.5/10
Green Pistachio Frosting – 8.5/10
Strawberry Cake – 10/10
Strawberry Mousse – 8.5/10
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