Baking Through Disney: Pinocchio and Wishing Star Cupcakes!

I finally got my act together and took care of the next Baking Through Disney.  This time, its for Pinocchio! If you  missed the movie review, you can check it out HERE!

I’m going to be honest and say that I went through a few concept ideas for Pinocchio and many of them proved to be more time-consuming and much higher than my rusty baking skills.  Its been busy so time efficiency is a huge consideration in what I had to make.  It might sound a little crazy but the idea dawned upon me when I was aimlessly exploring the baking aisle at the grocery store.  Its not as perfect as I’d like it to be and I’ll talk about what changes would’ve been more along the lines of my ultimate design later on but I ended up making these for a potluck I had over the weekend.

For lack of a better name, they are just Wishing Stars Cupcakes.  You know, from the song in Pinocchio called When You Wish Upon a Star.

Let me present them to you!

Before we get to the recipes, the first batch was for the potluck.  Then the day after, I used up the remaining batch for 6 more cupcakes where I decided that my original concept was to use white and yellow stars to imitate the sky a little more.  Obviously, if the icing was not sky blue but midnight blue, it would have been more suitable but I was a little taking the easy way out while I master making good cupcake icing so I used a store-bought can of it.

Here is the recipe.  The Chocolate Cupcakes are from Butter Baked Goods by Rosie Daykin.

Butter’s Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups dark cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup coffee, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla

Chocolate Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Onto a large piece of parchment paper, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium to high speed until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.
5. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk, sour cream, coffee and vanilla to combine.
6. Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the liquid ingredients in two parts (begin and end with the dry).  Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.
7. Use the ice cream scoop to fill each paper liner about three-quarters full with batter.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden skew inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer the wire racks to cool completely.

Additional ingredients for icing and decoration:

• Ingredients: Cupcake icing (Sky blue color) & Stars Decor –> both of mine are from Cake Mate brand

Changes to the recipe:

• Cocoa instead of dark cocoa
• Almond milk in place of whole milk
• Omit sour cream and coffee

The taste of the cupcake as a whole turned out really well.  Everyone at the potluck wanted seconds and my worry was that it would be too sweet and it wasn’t.  The chocolate cupcakes were moist and a really nice texture.  It wasn’t sweet so paired up with the icing and the sugar star decors, it gave it a little fluff and crunch to the bite and that was a good choice to use.

Overall, this was a success! Pinocchio was hard to concept and the icing could have been mixed into a darker hue to match the night sky but they still looked pretty cute and the effort was definitely in icing them nicely, which I thought I did a decent job. The chocolate cupcakes recipe is definitely a  winner and one I’m sure to use in the future. I had thought about adding in a center, either blue icing or marshmallow or something to give it the trapped in the whale belly idea added in but I ran out of marshmallows so I had to change that a little. Still, I’m happy with how this turned out.

What do you think about these Wishing Stars Cupcakes? Would you have done it differently? I would love to hear your ideas.

Next up is the review for Fantasia! Expect that soon! 🙂

Disney: Pinocchio (1940)

We’re finally here with the next Disney Classic for the Baking Through Disney project. We’re here with the second Disney movie.  Please note that I am trying to do this by year of release so we’re at Pinocchio. I never watched a lot of Pinocchio and actually acquired this one in the last few years to give it a rewatch so now its my third viewing of this one.

If you happen to want to check out more on this project, feel free to drop by the page HERE.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Pinocchio (1940)

Director: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen

Voice cast: Cliff Edwards, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable, Charles Judels, Frankie Darro, Mel Blanc, Walter Catlett, Dickie Jones

A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.-IMDB

Pinocchio is a story that carries a story that sends a good message about repelling temptations, always telling truth and generally being a good boy.  To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of Pinocchio.  As a child, I only really remembered the don’t lie message from it and then when I watched it again a few years ago, I really love the pets in this one, Figaro and Cleo.  I’m a cat person, so that’s not exactly a surprise to many.  Still, watching it again, I can’t help but see that the art and colors in Pinocchio are quite refined and was definitely a step up from Snow White in the quality of the animation art-wise.  Its about the adventures of Pinocchio and how a wooden boy learns the ways of being a real boy through knowing the values of being good and earning a conscience of his own.

We can never quite talk about Disney Classics without looking at its musical value.  I believe that its hard to not know Pinocchio by its signature song at the very least, “When You Wish Upon A Star.” Its a hopeful song and one that has a nice melody.  However, it does keep the fun going with its other tunes like “I’ve Got No Strings”.  It really gets a lifting spirit to the movie with those pieces and the orchestral soundtrack behind it carries the emotions it needs to mesmerize its audience.

Pinocchio also carries a wonderful range of voice casts.  One of the most important aspects of animation, other than the art, is having a voice cast that can carry the audience into the movie and this one does a fantastic job.  Its hard to find quality animation in the modern days that quite does the same thing to help connect us with our characters.  Pinocchio is a little wooden boy who needs to learn and somehow we can get his innocence and naivety through his words.  The bad guys also have a sly tone from the fox duos to Stromboli and the temptation of the clueless boys who fall for the trap at the carnival.  Pinocchio falls into danger, seemingly learns a lesson and falls for another temptation.  And we grow with him as he conquers each one until he realizes what is important to him and channels how to be brave and goes to save Geppetto.

I might not be a huge fan of Pinocchio as a child or even now, and its definitely not one I revisit a lot, but there is no doubt that it is a masterpiece in animated films.  Its wonderful to see the step up in the art just in a few years between Snow White and Pinocchio.  The story might not be quite as immersive or heartfelt as Snow White, or as renown but it carries a message about growing up, making good choices and learning to see what are temptations and how to overcome these obstacles.  Life is dangerous and this is what Pinocchio’s adventures are about.

Have you seen Pinocchio? What do you think of it?

The baking project should be up before the end of January as I wrap up the final concept of what I want to do.
Any suggestions for what you think would make for a good baking project for Pinocchio?