A double scoop for you

Food, as a whole, is an artist’s wildest dream. Like all forms of art there are colors, mediums, textures, and compositions to be studied and explored, analyzed and critiqued. Desserts, however, bring consumers and creators back to the heart of art, when we were children and art was fun. Oh, and we also liked to play with our food.

Today’s dessert delivers all the fun we were meant to have with our sweets in a simplistic, yet stylish form. As we venture back to Starring Rolls Cafe in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, even the name of this snack conjures up images of distant summers, the Banana Split. With a name like that, one would expect bananas, a couple of scoops of ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry on top. While some of the traditional ingredients may be missing, the soul of this grown-up dessert is handled with as much whimsy as its childhood namesake.

For starters, the Banana Split comes in a plastic tube, harkening back to the days when everything was better if it came in tube form. Once removed from its protective outerwear, the dessert can easily be gobbled up. Starting at its base, the Banana Split begins with a dense chocolate crust, delicious with an almost gingersnap quality to its texture. Moving up, the majority of the snack consists of a banana custard filled with bits of chocolate. Creamy, cool, and filled with real banana essence, not the over-the-top fake flavor usually associated with banana flavoring. Topping the pudding layer is a thick dollop of whipped cream, drizzles of both chocolate and caramel, and a curl of chocolate and white chocolate. Each component of Starring Rolls Cafe’s Banana Split is we crafted, but together they create the sensation of scooping the last bit of a banana sundae with a cookie again and again until it is all gone.

Walt Disney World is a destination and home for the young and the young at heart. The Banana Split indulges those young at heart guests who want to be seen as all grown-up, but deep down still have that child begging for a cold treat.