Edible Olympic Torch Cone Cakes

There's been a great deal of excitement building up around the world, and here in the UK - especially in the London area as the city and it's residents get ready to host the 2012 Olympic Games.  

I've always been a big fan of the Olympics.  There's just something about them that allows me to get sucked into the hype and watch sports that I would never normally watch, and get really genuinely excited about them. Like the Triple Jump or the Canoe Slalom.  I mean really - who watches those on a regular basis? It seemed like the hype and excitement around the Olympics in the past few weeks leading up to today wasn't as high as I had anticipated it to be, but as the Olympic torch made it's way closer and closer to London the excitement did seem to build.  

 

Last Friday the torch relay past through the town where I live (a 30 minute train ride outside of London).  Although I was working and not able to watch it in person, my husband and son were front and centre while it made it's way down a street near our home.  My husband took the photo above as the torch bearer ran past them.  

I think it's pretty cool to know that the Olympic flame above is the same flame that was originally lit way back in May in Athens Greece, and that it has past from torch to torch without ever going out.

 

I created some fun little edible torches in honour of the Olympic flame making it's way through Greece and the UK, and into the Opening Ceremonies tonight where it will burn brightly above the city of London for all the world to see for the duration of the Olympics.

These edible torches are made with mini ice cream cones that I picked up a couple weeks ago while on holiday in Canada.  I filled them with cake ball mixture and sprayed them with edible gold lustre spray before topping them off with a buttercream flame.  Pretty cute huh!?

Edible Olympic Torches

20 mini ice cream cones

9 inch round cake (baked), chocolate or flavour of your choice (equivalent to half of a boxed cake mix)

3 - 4 Tbsp chocolate icing (I like to use pre-made icing because it holds up better in the summer heat)

Edible Gold Lustre Spray

1 1/2 cups white buttercream icing

Red, orange and yellow food colourings
Piping bag
Large star tip nozzle

1.  Crumble your cake into a large bowl, and add in 3-4 tablespoons of icing. Mix together until they're well combined, and form a dough like consistency.

2.  Form a small amount of the cake dough into a cone shape, and push it inside the mini ice cream cone so that it's flush with the top of the cone.  Repeat until all of the cake dough and cones are used.

3.  Line the cones up on a cutting board, cake side down and spray with edible gold lustre spray making sure to coat the entire cone so that it's nice and golden. Set aside and let dry.



4.  Divide your white buttercream in half.  Tint the first  half orange, and divide the second half into two.  Tint half of the second half yellow, and the other half red.  Imagine that the inside of your piping bag has 4 sides.  Coat 2 opposite sides with the orange icing, and coat the other sides with the red and yellow icing.  The majority of your piping bag will be filled with orange icing, while one quarter will be filled with red, and the other with yellow. 



Pipe the multi-coloured buttercream swirls onto the tops of your cake filled cones to create mini torches.

I used an black food marker to write 2012 on some of my cones.



If you're planning on having an Olympic viewing party these torch cones would make the perfect addition.  If you're not able to find the mini ice cream cones, you can make similar golden torch cupcake cones by baking the cake directly in a regular size flat bottom ice cream cone.  When they're done baking simply spray the cones gold and ice them using the same steps as above.

I'll be watching tonight's Opening ceremonies and celebrating with a few of these edible torches.  I can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store for us, and I'll be cheering on both team Canada and team GB.  We're going to try and get out tomorrow to watch the road cycling race which will pass the area near we live.  How exciting! 

How will you be celebrating the games?  Do you have any viewing parties planned?  Have you been lucky enough to get tickets to an event? 

I've got another Olympic themed dessert in the works, so keep watching for it!