A Pondering Post from the Hundred Acre Woods

I am not and have never been officially affiliated with the Walt Disney Company, or any of its previous forms.

Of course, if you know me for more than 15 minutes, you’ll known how badly I want to change that. As badly as Pooh wants hunny, and I’m sure it’s been haunting my thoughts just as frequently of late, if not more so.

That is why, when I visited Anaheim Disneyland with my friend on Friday,

Did I mention that I’ve been reading the Unofficial (but Officially Fantastic) Disneyland Encyclopedia? It’s a spot-on reference guide written by Disneyland frequenter Chris Strodder, who lives in the area and knows the history, layout, culture, and characters behind everything Disney. I’d say he even knows it better than he knows the back of his own hand, but that would be a highly inaccurate statement. How many people “know” the back of their own hand? I certainly don’t. I have better things to be doing. And so does Strodder, apparently. Like learning Disneyland by rote, for example. Now there’s a worthwhile ambition.

Another ambition I have is to make this cake. It’s the Unbirthday Cake from Alice in Wonderland, and since I absolutely adore anything Alice-related (who doesn’t love a mad cat and company?), I would love an excuse to make this one day. Just hand me an excuse. I dare you. Please?

In fact, I was going to make this cake earlier this year for the Edible Book Festival hosted by my school, but I ended up making a Dr. Seuss-themed cake instead (I’m a children’s lit gal, so as long as it’s related, I’m happy):

It was my first time using fondant under very difficult circumstances–this was a six-layer topsy-turvy cake, and much more difficult to frost/cover than a regular sheet cake–but things ended well anyway. The cake won “Most Creative” and I even received a $50 gift card! I made six layers of a fantastic white cake recipe and dyed the inside rainbow colors to make the Seussian theme. Those are white chocolate-dipped Cat Hat cake pops lining the back.

I could probably bore you to death with everything exciting we managed to do on our Happiest-Place-on-Earth adventure day, but here are some highlights:

1. Hunting for little-known historical markers from the Disneyland Encyclopedia. For example, see this balcony?

This is the balcony that used to house the Disney Gallery (I still remember going into it way back when, in the early 2000’s) above the Pirates ride. The ornate golden letters spell out the initials of Walt Disney and Roy Disney, respectively. Why? An apartment complex for the two of them had been on the planning board in this very space, and even though it didn’t eventually work out, the dedicatory decor still sticks.

We had lots of detail-hunting adventures like this throughout the day, which was loads of fun. I can’t wait until I read beyond the F and G entries in this encyclopedia!

2. We saw tons of cute confections, including these Mickey, Minnie, and Nightmare-themed caramel apples. Yum! Definitely inspired me to host my own Disney party soon, complete with these goodies.

2. After we took a picture with Gepetto (the old man from Pinocchio–which, on a minorly related note, is such a weird story in its original form), the photographer told me that I needed to clean my camera lens; the pictures were getting “faded” because I had gotten gunk on them. (Most likely from my baking/simultaneous-use-of-photographic-equipment.) After I did this, my pictures became so much sharper! In hindsight, I feel incredibly dumb…but just another reason I love the random stuff you give me, Disneyland!

3. My love for Alice in Wonderland is rivaled only by my love for the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise, which is the second top-selling franchise in Disney (the first is, obviously, the Mickey line). I’ve done an extensive amount of research on the original A.A. Milne stories, and am intensely interested in learning more about how the Disney versions adapted the original. But then once in a while, you get adorable things like this, and you could just throw all academics aside and let your heart (and stomach) melt a bit:

Marshmallow wands, Tigger style!

And don’t forget the hunny pots!

Did I mention that my poor privileged future children will all be well-endowed in their wardrobe choices long before they come along?

Did I actually buy it? No. Was I seriously considering it? ….Maybe.

Did I mention the fact that I really, really love Disneyland? And that, you know, say you were in the area. And say you had access to a car. (We had to hop on a shuttle to the airport, then take an express bus from the airport to Disneyland. Total round trip travel costs: 5 hours, and a whopping $60 per person. It was worth every penny, but yeah, not doing that again!) And say you were interested in going to Disneyland with somebody who could really show you the stops and get you through everything you wanted to see.

Say you were to leave a comment and tell me all of this.

Let’s just say that you might get a really fast reply, and possibly a message in your inbox titled, “When are we going to Disneyland?”

All of this is hypothetically speaking, of course. Let’s just leave it at that. Or maybe I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.

More weekend-blast-related entries, including our visit to see original Andy Warhol and Magritte paintings, as well as a homemade honey peanut butter recipe, to come!

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What’s your favorite Disney (or Disneyland)-related memory or franchise? What makes it so special? – and –

Any recommendations for a gal who’s interested in buying a DSLR camera, but has an incredibly tight budget? (Range: $100-250)