Hi happy bakers,

You guys have really liked in the past when we showcased members of the Disney community. We have talked about bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters. If they are part of the Disney community, we want to promote them. Around here we believe there is enough room in this community for everyone to succeed. It might sound cheesy but if we just help each other out then we will all shine.

Today in our Disney Community spotlight we are talking about the Obscure Disney Podcast. They have new episodes ever Tuesdays and Thursday. I listen to them on iTunes and you can find all their information at www.obscuredisneypodcast.com .

There are two kinds of Disney Podcasts out there. I like to call one Pixie Dust Podcasts and the other Anti Pixie Dust Podcasts.

The first will say everything Disney does is fantastic. Like everything. They will love every movie, food, and merchandise. Disney can do no wrong in their eyes and some people really respond to that. Some listeners don’t want to hear if Disney raised their prices for the second time this year. They don’t want to know that a Disney movie isn’t doing well in the box office. They want to hear that their favorite place on earth is sparkly, glittery and is only filled with uniforms making pink cotton candy. There are a lot of these podcasts. I think a lot of it comes from a mix of loving Disney and wanting to stay on Disney’s good side. Disney is their happy place and they want to keep it that way.

The second kind of Podcast takes a different approach. They have no problem saying if they don’t like something. If they think Disney is overcharging, they have no problem saying it. If they think Disney has gone cupcake crazy, they will point it out. Their reviews tend to be a little more honest than the first kind of podcast but might not get you as excited to go. Many people respond to this kind of podcast because they want to skip the fluff and get the information they need for the trip. The Obscure Disney Podcast falls into this category. They don’t love everything and they don’t hate everything. They do though have an opinion on everything Disney does in the Parks.

When I was looking for a new Disney Podcast to review, I just popped into Instagrams search bar “Disney Podcasts” to see which would come up. I try not to immediately go for the big ones because lots of people are already promoting them. The little guys have to work twice as hard to get half the recognition. Everyone deserves praise but I would rather introduce you to someone new and fun.

The shortest way to describe the Obscure Disney Podcast is two guys sitting around talking about Disney. That really doesn’t tell you much. The shows I have listened to have been pretty diverse in subject manner. By the name, I expected vintage or rare Disney park information. Maybe something about Walt’s Imagineers, maybe funny stories about the construction of Disneyland or a movie that never got made.

The first episode I listened to was about the Beastly Kingdom and that fit the theme I thought the show was about. I was scared for a moment when they were talking over the music and I couldn’t understand them. So many podcasts do that, and no one knows what they are saying. Luckily here it only lasts for a few moments and then I could hear them clearly. They have really great banter back and forth. Think an old married couple or two friends who have been best friends for a long time. It didn’t seem forced, and they were able to kid around with each other. It didn’t sound like they were just reading from a script and were just two guys sitting around chatting about Disney. Something they love.

As I listened to more episodes, the subject manner changed to more recent topics. They reviewed Disney’s new Captain Marvel, they talked about Disney attractions coming to the parks and about their feelings of people in the parks. Again, this is not the type of podcast where you imagine the hosts are wearing Minnie Ears, custom Esty Mickey shirts and eating Minnie cupcakes. That’s me on a Saturday night incase you were wondering. I like to party it up. These two guys are not afraid to say if they don’t like something, and it’s a lot of dry humor. A lot of guests would agree that Disney snacks aren’t always the healthiest and they would probably leave it at that. These guys went into a great detail about why they don’t like many Disney snacks.

Another example would be when they spoke about superhero movies. They said there have just been too many in a short amount of time. When you are with your friends you may say “I love all these superhero movies” but if you were truly being honest you can see their point. Every time you blink there is a new movie being released. The guys on this podcast didn’t say the movies were bad but just expressed their opinion. I know sometimes I feel like Disney is trying to release a new movie at the speed a certain president tweets.

Something I really liked about the podcast is they express their opinion but they recognized that it’s just that – their opinion. I think that’s really good of them. Not everyone is going to love everything the same. The Pixie Dusted podcasts take the view everyone loves everything Disney does. For someone like me who tends to have their sarcastic button pushed on most of the time, I like someone giving their real opinion.

When I was trying to find a recipe to go with this podcast review it was a hard one. The hosts mentioned numerous times they weren’t a big fan of Disney park snacks. Since this is a Disney parks recipe site you can imagine that might be an issue. One even went as far as to say he hates food in general. He must not have taste buds because food is amazing.

I figured I would make a list of things they didn’t like about Disney snacks and try to go from there. The first thing they didn’t like was sticky things… ok well that cuts out half the things I make. One wanted something healthy… hmm, that cuts out some more. He also said he preferred fruit and specifically apples. I guess I could explain how to walk to the store and buy some. That would be super easy. I also wanted to find a rarer Disney recipe because the podcast is called “Obscure Disney Podcast”.

I decided to look through a Disney cookbook I have that has recipes inspired by Disney characters. It’s from the cookbook called “Disney Recipes – From Animation to Inspiration” by Ira L. Meyer. When I found “ Jiminy Cricket’s Banana Bran Muffins” I knew it would be a great recipe because it’s not sticky, pretty healthy and has fruit inside of it. It also has raisin in it but I’m going to assume this Podcast is pro raisins. They are shrunken grapes after all.  I hope this would be a snack they would like to see in the parks.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. flour
•  4 oz. bran
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 4 oz. raisins, seedless
• 4 oz. sunflower seeds, toasted
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbs. sugar
• 3 large ripe bananas
• 6 oz. applesauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Either use muffin liners or grease 2 muffin tins. This recipe will make 12 muffins. My batter made extract 12 fully filled muffins.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bran, baking powder, salt, raisins, and sunflower seeds.
4. In a small bowl, mash the bananas.
5. In a medium bowl, mix together the egg whites and sugar. Once fully combined, stir in the mashed bananas, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix until there are no lumps. You will notice my muffins were a little lumpy, but I like them like that.
6. Mix the medium bowl mixture into the large bowl with the flour mixture. Mix well together.
7. Place the mixture into the prepared muffin tray.
8. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.
9. Bake for 15-22 minutes. Mine took about 25 minutes to bake.

These muffins are good and dense. Think banana bread kind of thick. I would use some foil muffin liners instead of papers ones if you have them. These muffins really stuck to the paper and I’m going to guess you probably don’t love eating paper. Unless you are a kids birthday party magician because they are always pulling paper out of their mouths.

The podcast and muffins were really interesting. For obviously very different reasons. I recommend subscribing to the podcast, not the muffins, and seeing what you think. They also sell some really cool Disney patches on their site. There are so many great Disney Podcasts out there just waiting for you to give them some love!

Happy baking and listening everyone!