Sunday Brunchies and Crunchies: Summer Cupcake

28 July 2012

by Reuben Gutierrez

Picnics in the state park, barbecues in the backyard, or afternoon iced tea on the lanai are just a handful of outdoor summer events families and friends look forward to every year. Whether you're accompanying that outdoor meal with a mint julep or a pot of sun tea, one thing's for sure, it's concluding with a seasonal sweet treat. At Walt Disney World, one of the leading destinations for summer fun, seasonal treats are a specialty.

Specifically, the bakers at Disney's Hollywood Studios always have a few sunny tricks up their sleeves. Guests sense a disturbance in their summer's start with the sinful dark chocolate peanut butter Darth Vader cupcake, but after Star Wars weekends finishes, what's next? Strawberries and cream is a favorite summertime specialty, becoming the Studios' next specialty dessert the Summer Delight: Strawberry and Cream Cupcake.

While described as Strawberry and cream, a first look at the cupcake would think it was just strawberry cream as in strawberry flavored cream. The cream portion of the cupcake is pink, which would cause one to guess it was colored by the item it was flavored by. Alas, the cream tasted like cream'perhaps a subtle strawberry flavor but I couldn't tell if it was from that or the strawberry pink white chocolate shavings. The cupcake was also pink, which I'm guessing was colored and flavored by strawberries, either artificial or real, the flavor was so minute it was difficult to tell. At least an actual fresh strawberry was used to garnish the top, so since the cupcake had a serious lack of strawberry flavor, the strawberry (as in the single strawberry atop the icing) and cream description is quite accurate.

The Summer Delight cupcake is an incredibly simple and basic cupcake. Sometimes simple is a good thing, but in this case simple meant lacking and uninspired. For the picky eater, take off the real strawberry and this cupcake is perfect, but for seasoned Disney cupcake diners, this one has much to be desired. Disney never fails in offering high quality food, though with this park's past repertoire of gourmet cupcakes, this seasonal treat is one I won't be looking forward to next summer.