Theme park desserts are infamously saccharine: kitchen sink sundaes, funnel cakes buried in powdered sugar, ice cream sandwiches with cookies inside and out. Social media ups the ante with the popularization of photogenic bites (or behemoths) that are meant more to satisfy the eyes than the taste buds. These five Disney snacks deliver on flavor without sacrificing photo-ready aesthetics.
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Hei Hei Cone
This googly-eyed soft serve may look as silly and impractical as its namesake rooster in Moana, but one taste of the frozen treat will have you singing the dessert’s praises. From the bottom up, this treat consists of a green sugar cone, classic pineapple Dole Whip soft serve, its raspberry counterpart, and two cartoonish eyes made of sugar, all topped with a candy sour belt. Are the sugar eyes and sour belt completely unnecessary? Yes. Is it still delicious? You betcha.
Find it: at Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom Park
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Character Cake Pop
Think of the cake pop as the caramel apple’s more petite and portable little brother. Both are served on a stick, both are decked out with squee-worthy character details, both give your dentist nightmares. The difference is that you can actually take a bite out of a cake pop and chew, whereas a caramel apple will cement your jaw shut for the foreseeable future. The chocolate coating on the cake pop has the right amount of snap, and the fudgy center provides a decadent (but not too rich) finish. Sink your teeth into the classic Mickey Mouse (pictured) or a number of other Disney friends, including Lightning McQueen, Goofy, Mike Wazowski, and many, many more.
Find it: at Goofy’s Candy Company in Disney Springs
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Rose Cake Pop
The rose is where things get serious. This flower-shaped sweet seems too pretty to be anything more than Instagram bait, but there’s a reason Disney sells out of these specialty cake pops every day. The sour belt that provides the petal shape offsets the dense chocolate center, while the white chocolate coating encases the whole shebang without overpowering any of the other flavors. If you only get one cake pop, make it the rose, and don’t plan on sharing.
Find it: at Goofy’s Candy Company in Disney Springs
Courtesy of Disney
Mickey Ice Cream Rice Treat
Texture is the name of the game for this one. While a chocolate-dipped Rice Krispy treat sounds like a jawbreaking recipe for infinite stickiness, the result is—somehow—not overwhelmingly sweet. In fact, the milk chocolate coating on this particular snack (which is meant to look like the signature Mickey-shaped vanilla ice cream with a bite taken out of the ear) offers a soft contrast to the crunchy, just-gooey-enough rice treat. You may or may not finish the entire thing in one sitting. (You will.)
Find it: at Goofy’s Candy Company in Disney Springs
Puffed Rice Sushi
Dessert sushi: two words that normally don’t belong together. Even the list of ingredients sounds dubious. Fruit roll-ups, “crisped rice treats,” gummies, chocolate sauce—it’s so wrong, but then, why does it taste so right? Even though this is on the kids’ menu, the head chef says parents are often eating more of the clever dessert than the kids are. The secret may lie in the tartness of the fruit roll-up, which brightens up the dish and plays off the chocolate sauce in a surprising and delightful way.
Find it: at California Grill in Disney’s Contemporary Resort
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