The Best Thing I Ate This Week: Butterbeer Cupcakes!

This may come as a shock to you, but I fucking love Harry Potter.  I love Harry Potter so much, I flew 3,000 miles to go to a museum exhibit with props from the films and to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 with my friend Nicole, who introduced me to the series.  I love Harry Potter so much, I once got kicked out of a gay night club after interrupting a drag show to tell a drag queen that I love Harry Potter.  Into her microphone.  Under a spotlight.  To my credit, I didn’t get kicked out for interrupting the show to talk about Harry Potter, I got kicked out for being a drunk straight girl at a gay club who was on the verge of possibly throwing up, but still.  My love for Harry Potter knows no bounds.

Naturally, I was STOKED when I found this recipe for Butterbeer Cupcakes on amybites.com.  We’re talking almost-lost-control-of-my-bladder excited.  I usually bookmark recipes I’m interested in trying sometime when I feel like baking or cooking something, but I had to make these IMMEDIATELY.

Accio cupcakes!

They were even more magical than I dreamed they would be.  They’re easily the best thing I ate this week.  They’re sweet, buttery, creamy, and the cake came out super light.  I always have a hard time making cupcakes from scratch because I feel like they come out really dense and muffin-y, but these little cakes were absolutely perfect!  I shared some with my best friend, Miranda, and I brought the rest to work.  Someone must have put a Disillusionment Charm on these, because I walked away for a little while and when I came back they were gone!  I even got a self-proclaimed cupcake naysayer to eat one and he claimed to (sort of) enjoy it.  Everyone else loved them and Miranda ate three in a row.

I may have had one or two myself.  And the batter?  OH, the batter.  That’s all I’m saying.

I suggest you fly your broom or apparate over to amybites and make these immediately.  Especially if your letter to Hogwarts got lost in the mail and you need to eat your feelings.

Wingardium Leviosa...into my mouth!

Real Magic: Eating at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Yesterday I spent 8 full hours at Islands of Adventure in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  8 hours.  In the Florida sun.  8 hours.

And it was magical.

I’ve been a HP fan for a few years now; my good friend Nicole talked me into reading the books, and now I just feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t experience the magic.  As a writer and a generally imaginative person, I do have a tendency to love things that allow me to suspend my disbelief, but the Harry Potter series really blows other fantasy series out of the water for me.  I seriously love that shit.

STFU IOA. I LOVE YOU!

That being the case, I loved every second I spent inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I’m thoroughly impressed with the meticulous level of attention to detail.  Non-readers could certainly enjoy the park for what it has to offer, but would definitely be missing out.  Every inch of the park really pays homage to the story, right down to the food.

People keep asking me about the butterbeer.  What does the butterbeer taste like?

Tastes like magic!

For real.  Butterbeer is delicious.  It tastes like magic, if magic tasted like cream soda with a touch of butterscotch, topped with whipped cream, which it does.  You can get butterbeer frozen or cold.  I definitely preferred the frozen–it’s like a Magic Slurpee! Also, someone told me that because we were in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where magic is real, butterbeer contains no calories.

I wish. That would be truly magical.

In addition to the delicious butterbeer, I also drank some Pumpkin Juice, the wizard breakfast juice of choice.  Pumpkin juice contains real pumpkin and apricot puree, apple juice, and spices, and has a really rich, robust fruity pumpkin flavor.  It does not contain high fructose corn syrup and is 81% real juice.  Not bad, IOA.

Double fisting butterbeer and pumpkin juice. You know how I roll.

We ate lunch at The Three Broomsticks, which boasted fresh roasted chicken, ribs, vegetables, corn, potatoes, and shepherd’s pie.  My two friends got big, beautiful plates of roasted chicken, crispy potatoes, and vegetable medleys. Nicole also had a chocolate trifle, which was as beautiful as it was delicious–I had a bite, of course!

Some kind of wonderful

Quite unfortunately, The Three Broomsticks wasn’t very vegetarian friendly, and I ended up eating the kid’s macaroni and cheese meal, which came with grapes and applesauce, and a crappy iceberg lettuce salad.  That was the only part of my day that wasn’t magical.  I’ll be writing a letter to IOA, in which I will argue a case for adding a vegetarian option and will offer suggestions.  I’m also going to work on whipping up a vegetarian shepherd’s pie this week, because now I have it in my head.  That all being said, The Three Broomsticks was still really cool.

Not pictured: Vegetarians

Between riding the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride (which, btw, IS THE BEST RIDE EVER) three times, drinking our butterbeers, and bopping all around Hogsmeade, we made sure to visit the Honeydukes candy store and Zonko’s joke shop.  Honeydukes was filled to the brim with sugary delights, including Ton Tongue Toffee, Sugar Quills, Dark Mark lollipops, Acid Pops, Peppermint Toads, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans (watch out for bogey-flavored ones!), and HUGE chocolate frogs.  Though I wanted everything, I limited myself to one chocolate frog, which is still sitting on my kitchen counter.

All in all, the park and the day were both amazing and I can’t wait to go back.  I spent today recovering and I hit Power Yoga, Abs Stretch, and a spin class to burn off those butterbeer calories.

EXPECTO PATRONUM!