I’m going to Disneyland today! Confession: I go a lot. Like a lot a lot. Like “I am a Disney addict” lot. But today is a special trip because we are heading off to the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party! It’s a special event made even more special by the sheer amount of cool people watching opportunities and the exclusive fireworks show. But about that people watching…

Normally I am not a huge dress up in costume kind of girl, but I love admiring all the guests’ creative costumes! My favorite are the full family costumes like the family I saw last year with the mom as the Queen of Hearts, the dad as the White Rabbit, the son as the Chesire Cat, and the little daughter was Alice. Cue the “awwww” moment. This year my mom and I are actually dressing up (last year I just made us Halloween hats) and I can’t wait to show off Mom’s amazing sewing skills with my dress 😀

In honor of a Disneyland event, today I am going to share with you a new (!) Disney Princess Tea recipe!!! She’s technically the most classic princess around because she is also the first. Yep, we are starting work on our Snow White tea here. And therefore I bring you Apple Cider scones for the first item on your second tier.

These scones are not exactly what you would expect from an apple scone. The apple flavor is very subtle and the scone itself is not that sweet either (but would you expect a poison apple to be sweet? I wouldn’t). To get that apple flavor we are going to replace our cream or buttermilk with apple cider and unsweetened applesauce. That also serves to make these scones low-fat, which means you can have less guilt over doubling the amount of clotted cream you top the scones with, am I right?

Everything on our tea menus has a very specific reasoning behind the recipe itself and the decorations we photograph with, and it should be obvious with this one! Prince Charming saves Snow White’s life after she eats a poisonous apple, so here he is saving all of us from bland apple scones! Just kidding, he is just standing guard over the apples so the Evil Queen doesn’t come to poison them. (Should I have warned that this post is not suitable for children under 6?)

Snow White is a sugary sweet princess, so let’s top these scones with some sparkly turbinado sugar before baking them. I was lucky enough to find Salted Caramel flavored sugar in Virginia, so I used that for one batch and turbaned sugar for another. Every princess tea should have sparkle.

apple cider scones

ingredients

• 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ cup cold unsalted butter, diced
• ¼-1/2 cup apple cider
• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Turbinado sugar or flavored sugar

directions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (all the dry ingredients).

Cube the butter and rub into the flour mixture until pieces are smaller than a pea. Add ¼ cup apple cider and applesauce and vanilla. Stir with a fork until all the dry ingredients are moist. Add additional apple cider 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together. You may have to use your hands to finish incorporating the ingredients, but be careful not to overmix.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat down to ¾ inch. Cut out scones with a 5 cm biscuit cutter. Brush the tops of the scones with apple cider and dip into a bowl of turbinado/flavored sugar. Set on the baking sheet.

Bake 7-10 minutes (we did 8) until the tops of the scones are well done. Transfer to a wire rack to cool immediately.