Disney Springs is often overlooked and people don’t realize all of the great eats and drinks that it offers! Being that I have a pretty prominent sweet tooth, let’s discover all of the sweet shops in Disney Springs and the best treats to order! Now, every restaurant has some form of a dessert menu, but we’re not looking at those today. We’re going to focus on the places that treat sugar like a core food group, here the best desserts at Disney Springs!
Amorette’s Patisserie
Amorette’s a super fancy little bakery that will make you feel like you’re in Paris, but with Minnie’s ears. This bakery is most known for its extravagant petit cakes and mickey dome cakes. Amorette’s often promotes Disney’s latest movies or shows with promotional desserts.
Remember that Wanda Vision cake that was a retro TV, complete with black and white screen made of chocolate?!? They may be pricey at $22, but they are more than Instagram-worthy, they are a memory.
MUST HAVE TREAT: Mickey Mousse Dome Cake… $9.00
If you are on a solo trip or adult-only trip to Disney World this is an absolute must have to start your vacation! It has fancy flavors but screams “Mickey” with the cute trademark ears. This is a chocolate chiffon cake with dark chocolate and white chocolate mousse, topped with a red glaze. Nothing says “I’m at Disney” like eating something Mickey-shaped.
Disney’s Candy Cauldron
Disney’s Candy Cauldron takes our classic Disney memories from our childhood and plussed it up a bit. Sure you can find basic caramel apples, marshmallows, or cupcakes, but you can also find fun new flavors, as well! For summer they are featuring a lot of pineapple flavors, like the pineapple flavored cupcake and pineapple sugar cookie. Strawberry is also a heavily featured flavor this month. Personally, I live for the chocolate dipped mickey marshmallow covered in crushed candy canes. I will just have to wait until December, I guess!
MUST HAVE TREAT: Werther’s Original Caramel Apple Pie Candied Apple… $10.99
Buckle up – This is a granny smith apple dipped in Werther’s Original Caramel with marshmallow, white chocolate coating, graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon sugar. The only thing that could possibly make this better is if Cast Members could cut our candy apples again. Disney – if you read this, we’re on our knees begging to bring this service back so we can enjoy your apples again!
Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC
Listen up, all you gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan-friendly, you need to visit Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC! Seriously, you can eat EVERYTHING on the menu? If you have allergies or special diets, you are used to disappointment. Either sweets have an ingredient that is trying to kill you or they taste like cardboard posing as a cupcake. Not here! Everything is delicious, even if you don’t have special dietary needs!
MUST HAVE TREAT: Coffee Crumb Cake… $4.75
A crumbly, buttery, cakey, slice of cinnamon deliciousness? And it has no butter, eggs, or milk? Color me shocked and awed. And going back for more!
Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brews
Everglazed is what you get when you ask a group of children what should go on top of donuts. They have a menu featuring wild concoctions, including an odd amount of cereal-themed donuts, read our full review here. I guess that is a fun twist on a breakfast food that isn’t exactly breakfast-y. If you want to play more with the breakfast/dessert theme, grab a glass of cereal milk. Do you know how the milk is sweet and flavored at the end of your bowl of cereal? Yeah, grab a glass of that. If that’s pushing it a bit for your adventurous side, grab a nice nitro cold brew.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Super Chocolate Topper… $11
This is a double chocolate nitro iced coffee paired with a Brooklyn Blackout donut. This pair is a chocolate lover’s dream with the donut being a chocolate glazed donut, mini chocolate chips, and chocolate wafer cookies. Live your chocolate dreams!
Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop
You can smell it as you approach. The aroma of hot fudge just permeates the area of the Disney Springs Marketplace. Ghirardelli is the place for classic flavors done exceptionally well with high-quality ingredients. Indulge in hot fudge, caramel, and nuts on your ice cream delicacies.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Magical Sundae…$15.25
The Magical Sundae is a classic hot fudge sundae with a Disney twist! Do you know how you make something decadent like Ghirardelli even better? Top it with waffle cone Mickey ears!
Gideon’s Bakehouse
Gideon’s Bakehouse is the newest cult craze to come into Disney World, well, Disney Springs to be exact. This cookie shop is so popular that it operates with a virtual queue that can be hours long! Gideon’s is all about the oversized, over-topped, over-delicious, cookies, but they also feature cake by the slice and cold brew coffee. To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s the cookies or the elaborate fun, gothic-style backstory that Gideon’s has created! Disney is a sucker for a theme, so Gideon’s fits right into the mix.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Cookies & Cream Cookie & The Original Peanut Butter Cold Brew $12.00
You read that right, peanut butter cold brew. It is so different from the norm, you just have to, right?! Now onto the main attraction – the cookie. This baby is a brick house of deliciousness. These babies are heavy enough to be used as a paperweight and nice and thick. If you are a fan of cookie dough, then these are the winners for sure.
Goofy’s Candy Company
Remember how the description of Disney’s Candy Cauldron was a more refined version of classics? Goofy’s Candy Company is the complete opposite! Filled with bright colors of every hue, Goofy’s candy selection is sure to make you and your kids just like him, Goofy! There are giant Goofy pixie sticks, Goofy’s Glaciers (AKA slushies), candy by the pound, and a bakery case filled with fresh-baked treats. The real winner here is the design your own treat that they have available here!
You will be given a questionnaire to build your perfect treat, starting with whether you want to have a cereal treat, cookie, or marshmallow wand. Then you choose what you want it dipped in, white, milk or dark chocolate. Next, you choose toppings and drizzles. Go wild! Get a cereal treat covered in chocolate, oreo pieces, and peanut butter drizzle! Live your best life!
MUST HAVE TREAT: Design your own treat… $ Varies by item
After reading how fun that would be, was there any doubt that this would be the MUST HAVE item?? All things considered cost-wise, the rice cereal treat is the best bang for your buck.
Haagen-Dazs Kiosk
It’s a real mystery what this kiosk sells… Ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes, and iced coffee. The flavors change regularly, but they stay steady in the “safe zone” with nothing overly adventurous. I’m trying really hard to be impartial here, but it is literally the same stuff you buy in the grocery store, but a lot more expensive. This is one of those times where if you’re jonesing for some ice cream, skip this place and check out literally anywhere else. See Ghirardelli, Vivoli il Gelato, and Salt & Straw, or Marketplace snacks below.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Nothing. Nothing here is a must.
Marketplace Snacks
Forget boring ice cream sundaes, you’re on Disney property! And everyone knows that if it’s Mickey themed it automatically tastes better. Now… What if you could get the whole gang? Just in time for summer, Marketplace Snacks has released a Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck sundae!
Marketplace Snacks change its menu depending on the season. Do not just walk by in your rush to the live music or to go shop. Last December they had a peppermint nacho sundae that was AMMMMMAAAAZING. Honestly, it was the best thing I ate in Disney Springs on that trip.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Donald Duck Sundae…$8.99
Everyone is always going on and on about Mickey Mouse and Mickey-shaped food. Sure, he’s what started it all, but what’s a duck gotta do to get a little respect around here! No wonder why he’s so angry. This Donald Duck inspired sundae is perfect for bringing summer with vanilla soft serve, lemon curd, blueberries, and popping candy.
Salt & Straw
Introducing Disney Spring’s newest shop, the home of small batch craftsman ice cream with flavors that should totally not work, but somehow do. With ingredients like cheese, vinegar, avocado, and flowers, you wouldn’t think this place is all about gourmet ice cream. They know ice cream is a dessert, right? Maybe they got a little help from that other studio because it seems like they are doing some magic to make these taste so good. You can read our full review here.
Of course, they have more traditional flavors, like Snickerdoodle, but that’s not what you go to Salt & Straw for. Just released for June 2022 are their Summer Picnic Series flavors: Pink Rose and Watermelon Sorbet, Baked Brie and Fig Cheesecake, Deviled Egg Custard with Smoked Black Tea, Cinnamon and Honey Fried Chicken, and Chocolate Nocino Cherry Pie. Read those flavors again. Oh Mylanta. Just when you think that Salt & Straw has lost their minds, they give you fried chicken in ice cream. Somehow, someway, they make it work.
You can learn more about the crazy concoctions that Salt & Straw makes at their home operation on The World According to Jeff Goldblum on Disney Plus. Spoiler alert, at one point they used… blood. Pigs blood, to be clear. Don’t worry, it was for Halloween, so that’s totally normal. Right…?
MUST HAVE ITEM: Flight… $14.75
If you’re indecisive like me and don’t like making decisions, this is the way to go! All of these flavors are intriguing and weird, but the idea of committing to just one gives me serious FOMO (fear of missing out). A little scoop of each of the new flavors sounds perfect!
Sprinkles
Three major points about Sprinkles that make this a must-visit sweet stop while in Disney Springs – First, Sprinkles, based out of Seattle, Washington, is the nation’s first cupcake shop, or cupcakery, as it is known. I’m all about American history. Second, the owner and founder of Sprinkles has been a judge on Cupcake Wars for 11 seasons. This was a big quarantine binge show for me, so visiting her satellite shop in Disney Springs felt pretty cool! The last reason why you need to check out Sprinkles is because of the ATM. A cupcake ATM. I don’t know why it is so fun, but it really is. This must be how people felt in the 50s with vending machines!
MUST HAVE ITEM: Any cupcake…$5
I know this feels like a cop-out to not recommend an actual flavor, but I take my pastries very seriously. Something like a cupcake flavor is very personal. They are most known for their Red Velvet, but they have a long list of classics to choose from. When trying new bakeries, I like to order classic vanilla because it’s easy to be delicious when combining a billion things on top of the cake, but if a super simple flavor isn’t just right, it is really obvious.
Sunshine Churros
Disney World may not have the sensational churros that Disneyland does, (what’s up with that, anyway?), but Sunshine Churros makes up for it by making our churros interesting. You can get a plain churro, or you can get it dipped in chocolate or Nutella. Why stop there?! This small cart also offers an assortment of flavored churros like, watermelon, apple cinnamon, fruity pebbles, salted caramel, and rose gold (I know, not a flavor, per se, but they look pretty on Instagram).
If you’re feeling fancy, Sunshine Churros features a “gourmet churro” that changes with the seasons.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Oreo Gourmet Churro…$6.25
Go big or go home! If you’re going to get a flavored churro you mind as well get the fancy one! This is a chocolate Oreo-esque churro with Oreo essence throughout. Let it be known, though, that the best gourmet curro at Sunshine Churros is the Pumpkin Spice that’s available in the fall!
Swirls on the Water
You’ve never seen Dole Whip like this before! This is like Aloha Isle’s older sister that likes to sneak out at night to party. There is a boozy Dole Whip with rum or sangria. Buckle up for some spicy, like really spicy, habanero dole whip on nachos made of waffle cone with raspberry drizzle. These are just a few of the fun Dole Whip concoctions that you didn’t know you needed to try.
Just announced for June, Swirls on the Water is getting ready to go infinity and beyond in preparation for the new Buzz Lightyear movie! Apparently, the Disney food team sees Buzz as a purple cheesecake soft served with sprinkles and a green ice cream cone. That’s not all! The geniuses in the kitchen made Buzz Lightyear’s wings out of chocolate to stick into the ice cream. These are more than cute, they’re functional so if you drop your cone it can “fall with style”. Get it?!
MUST HAVE ITEM: Dole Whip Flight…$6.49
You read that price correctly! A flight of 3 different Dole Whip flavors for only $6.49 is a steal! Harness your courage to try the habanero Dole Whip, try the new cookie dough Dole Whip, and classic pineapple vanilla swirl as a palette cleanser.
Vivoli il Gelato
To most of us, there is no difference between gelato and ice cream, but if you were ever curious, gelato has more milk than ice cream and contains no egg. There are some more technical differences in how they are made, but frankly, we only care about taste. The differences make gelato smoother and richer than typical ice cream. Vivoli il Gelato creates authentic gelato in traditional and American flavors. What makes this location fun is that they also make treats and concoctions with their gelato. From personal experience with a cookies and cream milkshake that changed my life at Vivoli il Gelato, anything with gelato can never compare to ice cream again.
MUST HAVE ITEM: Bombolato…$10.00
A bombolato is Italian for a pillow of heaven. Kidding. But it should be! This treat is one scoop of gelato and your choice of sauce inside a warm Italian donut. See? Warm pillow of heaven. Now, the hard part – picking the flavor. Good luck. This would be a great snack to bring friends out and order completely different bombolatos and sharing to create your own flights!
What desserts will you choose?
I am a mother of three that has refused to grow up. Adulting is for the birds, so I go to Disney World every chance I get for that magical escape from reality. I believe that Haunted Mansion is the best ride in all of the Disney Parks, and I am fervently in team Happily Ever After for fireworks spectaculars, (sorry, not sorry, Enchanted). Finally, I hope I never grow tired of skipping down Main Street, USA, and my dream come true would be “friends with” the Fairy Godmother in my old age.