Super Bowl Sunday Brunch: Disney
Style in the Biggest Stretch Possible
February 6, 2011
Being a Sunday blog, I've had the fortune to write a
Super Bowl Sunday
themed article, and with Disney, Football, and Food, only one thing
can come to mind...(cricket)...(Cri-kee)..
Well, adding football to the mixed bowl of Disney
and Food doesn't really bring any immediate thoughts to mind.
Sure, there's the classic Disney shorts "How to Play
Football" and "Football Now and Then," and also the feature films
Remember the Titans,
Invincible, and everyone's favorite Disney TV movie
The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon
(starring
Tony Danza!). While cartoons and films are a great way
to salute Disney and Football on this popular television viewing
day, what will you be snacking on to continue using elements of
Disney while staying thematic with your day?
Have no fear, your favorite
Disney-writer-culinary-scientific chef is here! With little
experience in the realm of football outside of gym class, I've
approached this article in the broadest way possible. Grab
your favorite
chocolate cupcake recipe and a tub of pink icing, we'll be
making some pigskin cupcakes, starring the Disney
presentation of a Pixar Studios production
Toy Story's
Hamm!
If you had trouble with last week's
Chocolate Chip
Crumb Cake recipe, you can breathe a sigh of relief, this
week will be a breeze! And if you are thinking I'm a little
hog wild for this Disney football food themed blog post, you might
want to hold on to your foam fingers and find out the
SECRET INGREDIENT.
For this recipe you will need:
-
Chocolate Cupcakes
-
Secret Ingredient, coarsely chopped and baked into your
cupcakes' revealed at the bottom of the article!
-
Vanilla frosting (store-bought is best for today's purposes)
-
Pink icing color (made by Wilton, available in craft stores
such as Michael's, AC Moore, and some
Wal-Mart super
stores)
-
Pink Decorating goodies! Here are some suggestions:
o
Pink Starbursts
o
Pink
vanilla wafers
o
Pink Sweetheart heart shaped candies
-
Black decorating goodies! Here are some suggestions:
o
Chocolate
chips and Sprinkles
o
Black licorice
o
Black icing
I hope you've learned a lot about mis-en-place
last week and how easy it makes your life. For today's mis-en-place,
bake and completely cool your cupcakes, gather all your decorations,
and melt your frosting. This can be done in two ways: melt in
in the microwave (20 seconds, then 10 seconds at a time until it's a
thinner and creamy, but not soupy, consistency) or over a double
boiler as seen below. This is simply down by placing your
icing in a metal bowl and placing the bowl over a pot of simmering
water. It's not a great idea to put the bowl on your pot of
water then turn on the heat-this creates a pressure cooker in the
air between the bowl and the water and could overheat your icing.

With your icing melted, you can achieve a
great smooth, solid surface and also easily add in the Wilton icing
color. With icing colors, a little goes quite a long way.
If you have a small bowl of icing as pictured below, you want no
more than a touch of color at the end of a toothpick. After
you color the icing, simply dip your cupcake into the melted icing
and pull it out. With a small offset spatula or butter knife,
smooth the surface to get rid of the little dollop when you pull out
the cupcake.

Now you're ready to decorate with whatever you
got! Search your panty,
candy store,
or baking aisle at your local supermarket for different little
edibles that you can use as pig ears, pig snouts, pig eyes, etc.
Based on what I had at home, I made Hamm with
Necco Sweetheart ears, rolled fondant snout, black buttercream eyes,
and chocolate Jimmies for the eyebrows and smirk. First, I
rolled out the fondant with a small dowel rod to get the snout.
Use circular items to cut out the snout (I used the lid of my Wilton
icing color) and poke out holes for the nostrils (I used the #6
Wilton plain tip from my piping tip set). You can also roll
out pink Starburst fruit chews using a dowel or
rolling pin or
just flattening it with your hands.

Next, arrange all of your little decorations
to make Hamm's face. The key to recreating any character or to
give character to a generic design is the tiny little details your
brain does not process as first. Use a reference to see how
the original artists designed the character. If you notice,
Hamm has teeny tiny ears, long and oval shaped nostrils, and tiny
eyes that are close together and have eyebrows that give him
expression. A smirking smile completes your Hamm cupcake with
the same attitude
John Ratzenberger gives the character in the movie.

You don't have to go out and buy fondant or
Starbursts-be creative with what you have at home. You could
use chocolate chips for the eyes or even black beans! Here are
two different Hamms hamming it up with different resources.

And finally, to thank you for your patience,
here's some insight into the
secret ingredient:

With the pigskin being tossed across your
television screen, enjoy a pigskin cupcake flavored with-pig!
Yes, that's bacon - fried, dried, and coarsely chopped - mixed into
the cupcake batter. You can mix in the bacon in your full cake
batter while in your mixing bowl, or sprinkle a little in each
cupcake cup so you have some bacon-free, Kosher friendly cupcakes.
I know what you're thinking-too crazy right? Bacon in baked
goods is actually growing more and more in popularity and it works
because a) it's bacon, b) the classic synergistic relationship of
salty and sweet is demonstrated with bacon and sweet chocolate, and
c) it's BACON!
Kick that into your field goal. =)