California Adventure Food & Wine Dessert Tasting

Disney California Adventure Food & Wine dessert tasting guide is here! Disney’s Food & Wine Festival is an annual event at California Adventure featuring California inspired food and wine, festival marketplaces, culinary demonstrations, along with live music and entertainment. But in this article I’m covering all the desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth at Food and Wine!

Food & Wine Festival runs March 1 – April 22, 2024.

Wine tasting? Sure, they’ve got that covered. But after you’ve been “garlic kissed” and browsed the various locations of the food and drinks, let’s waste no time and get into dessert tasting! I’ve gathered all the top desserts at the Food & Wine Festival booths so you can hop from place to place and satisfy your sweet tooth while at Disney California Adventure Park this spring. 

Food and Wine Festival Churros

Churros and Disneyland are a match made in heaven and specialty churros are the perfect match for Food and Wine Festival. Churros need to be ordered at the specific churro stand offering that flavor. Be sure to pick the most appealing flavors in advance and don’t pass by if you see that cart.

• Cannoli Churro: Churro rolled in cinnamon-sugar topped with cannoli cream, chocolate chips, and puff pastry (in Hollywood Land)
• Spice Shortbread Churro: Spiced shortbread sugar with cookie butter drizzle (near Goofy’s Sky School)
• Unforgettable Bing Bong Churro: Shortbread cookie sugar and strawberry jelly with sprinkled icing (Señor Buzz Churros on Pixar Pier)

• Butterscotch Banana Churro: Churro rolled in banana sugar topped with butterscotch icing, butterscotch drops, and banana chip crumble (Willie’s Churros near the main entrance route and to your right heading toward Soarin’). This was actually delightfully delicious and I normally don’t like the seasonal churros!

Keep in mind the churros don’t often offer a good value if you’re using your Sip and Savor credit (formally Sip and Savor “tabs”) to purchase churros. You’re better off paying with cash, card or gift card for this one.

Cake and Ice Cream Desserts

Get that extra sweet treat at the end of your meal, or between meals with cake, ice cream and my favorite Mickey shaped macaron.

These desserts are available at Food and Wine Festival Marketplace booths, keep your receipt and pick it up whenever you’re ready that day:

• Raspberry Almond Cake: Almond cake with raspberry mousse and fresh raspberries (Uncork California)
• S’mores Caramel Tart: Graham cracker tart shell filled with caramel and chocolate ganache topped with a toasted marshmallow (California Craft Brews)
• Mickey-shaped Macaron made with SNICKERS bar pieces: Chocolate Mickey-shaped macaron filled with caramel ganache and made with SNICKERS bar pieces (Nuts About Cheese)

No time to wait? Place a mobile order for dessert after your next ride:

• No-Bake Peanut Butter-Salted Pretzel Cheesecake with a cookies and cream crust topped with chocolate-coated salted pretzels and chocolate ganache (Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta). You won’t mobile order this one, but you can walk right in and grab it since it’s cafeteria style.
• Chocolate-Espresso Loaf: Chocolate-espresso cake filled with chocolate mousse and topped with dark chocolate ganache and chocolate and white chocolate curls (Cappuccino Cart)

• Butter Cake à la Mode: Butter cake topped with vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream (Clarabelle’s Hand-Scooped Ice Cream). I loved this and would for sure get it again, similar to strawberry short cake.
• Pistachio Cheesecake: New York-style pistachio cheesecake (Paradise Garden Grill)

If you’re doing sit down dining at Lamplight Lounge, they also have a Strawberry-Lychee Shortcake Donuts selection special for Food and Wine Festival. They’re lychee-glazed donuts with strawberry shortcake crumbles served with vanilla bean ice cream and lychee dip.

Drink Your Desserts at Food and Wine Festival 

Drinks as desserts—absolutely! Here are my favorite sweet and delightful non-alcholic beverage items on the menu this season. Order these non-alcoholic drinks from any festival marketplace, keep your receipt and pick it up whenever you’re ready that day:

• Kiwi-Apple Lemonade: Minute Maid Lemonade, apple juice, and kiwi and Granny Smith apple syrups garnished with a purple orchid (Cluck-A-Doodle-Moo)
• Huckleberry-Citrus Cooler: Gold Peak Black Tea, huckleberry and agave syrups, grapefruit soda, and lemon and orange juices garnished with an orange wedge (D-Lish)

• Fig Matcha Latte: Matcha, soy milk, and coconut and simple syrups topped with a fig oat sweet cream and garnished with matcha powder (Golden Dreams)

• Blueberry Pancake Cold Brew: Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Co. Mexico Origin Coffee, maple syrup, brown butter and demerara syrups, and oat milk with a blueberry sweet cream garnished with cinnamon-flavored cereal crumble (Golden Dreams)

Want to mobile order your non-alcoholic beverages instead? Try these:

• Honeydew Milk Tea with coconut-lychee jelly topped with a creamy citrus foam (Cappuccino Cart)
• Strawberry Horchata: House-made rice and cinnamon beverage with strawberry sauce (Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill)

And we’ll close out our dessert selections with one more look at those amazing Snickers Macarons! I mean, don’t you wish you could take all these home?!

Jr Chef Dessert at Food and Wine

Another dessert crawl option that is not only free, but perfect for your little ones is Junior Chef.

This daily event is available on a first-come, first-served basis for children ages 3 to 11 in the Hollywood Backlot. Check the entertainment schedule on the Disneyland App to see what times are available. Park admission required.

Sip, Savor and SAVE at Food and Wine Festival

There are a few ways to save money during your Disneyland vacation. Here are my top savings tips for Food & Wine Festival:

1. Get discount tickets for your trip, including the SoCal deal tickets, at rates even cheaper than Disneyland offers. 
2. Use a Sip and Savor Pass when it makes sense. The Sip & Savor pass essentially offers you u a set number food items and/or non-alcoholic drinks at a flat price. However, you want to make sure the items you order are above that flat price amount. More on that here.
   
   

Keep in mind the Sip and Savor food credits cannot be used for mobile ordering yet. It’s definitely something I hope comes in the future! Don’t forget to check out our full guide to Disney California Adventure’s Food and Wine Festival here.