Wednesday, January 29, 2014

H.U.M.P. Day: Olympic Torches

The Olympics are coming!! Is anyone else extremely excited? We LOVE the Olympics around here. It makes me wish I had a mustache so I could do this:


Okay, so I'm glad I can't grow out a 'stache like this guy, but if I did...I'd totally paint it up for the Olympics.
Just walking through Walmart lately and hearing the Olympic anthem on the display televisions gets me so excited every time. 

So what do the Olympics have to do with Pinstrosity? I'll show you. Behold...the Olympic Torch "Cupcake":

http://creativepartyideasbycheryl.blogspot.com/2012/07/olympic-torch-cupcakes.html
She has a whole Olympic Party post with awesome ideas on her blog as well. Check it out! 

Valerie decided to make her own edible Olympic Torches, but decided to combine it with another pin. The original recipe has you make a cake ball mixture (cake crumbs and frosting) which you then use to stuff the cones. Valerie remembered seeing a Pinterest pin where you just bake the cake in the cone and figured that would be easier, and she would basically be hurdling over a step. She also made a substitution, using a waffle cone rather than a sugar cone. Here's how her torch cupcake turned out:

The Pinstrosity

Her torch melted a little. She says, "The waffle cones softened under heat and half of them tipped over and spilled half the batter all over.  The ones that stayed up right just oozed out the sides instead of forming a nice dome on top.  After that I used store bought cream cheese frosting.  Apparently my house is too hot because that just melted all over the place."

Honey, yoU Made a Pinstrosity. 

From what I can find online, part of the problem was indeed the baking of the waffles cones. Every other post I've read where people tried to bake the waffles cones had them "melt", or distort. You really do need to use the sugar cones if you are going to make the cupcake in a cone deal. This is probably why Cheryl (the original pin's creator) made a cake pop mixture to fill the cones with. Now we understand. Kelly at studiodiy.com was able to help her waffle bowls keep their shape some with the aid of tin foil...but I don't know how well that would work on a cone.

The frosting. It looks like problems I've had when I try to dye my frosting with just regular cheap kitchen food coloring. Just those few drops (or many drops depending on what color you're going for) really changes the consistency of the frosting and makes it less "stable". If you want to dye your frosting, I'd suggest picking up dye made for frosting or chocolate. In our Walmart here (our choices here are Walmart, Albertsons, and the local IGA...which is why you hear me suggest Walmart a lot...that's all we have), you can get those dyes in the aisle with the wedding supplies and cake decorating equipment (over by the craft section...or at least that's where it is in our store). Cheryl also suggests putting the torches in the fridge as soon as you've frosted them to help preserve their awesomeness until you are ready to serve them. 

So...lessons learned:
  1. Waffles cones are not your friend if you want to bake a cupcake in them. Sugar cones are better for that. 
  2. If you want to use Waffle cones, make the cake pop mixture. 
  3. Careful with what you use to dye your frosting. 
  4. Keep them cool until serving time. 
  5. The Olympics are awesome! 'Merica! Team USA all the way! (I know...our international readers are probably rolling their eyes...but I don't mind. I'm just excited.)
  6. Eat bacon. I don't know how we learned this lesson from this Pinstrosity, but I'm liking it.
    Bacon Maple Sundae anyone? Don't mind if I do. 



5 comments:

  1. My mom made cake cones all the time for us when we were younger. She used cake cones (flat bottom) and put them in muffin tins. They didn't tip over unless you weren't careful puling them out, and the cone didn't change consistancy and the cake was moist. It's much easier, trust me!

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  2. Another suggestion is that frosting is really not that hard to make, and when you make it yourself you can make it stiffer to stand up better when piped. Most frosting from a can WILL NOT be stiff enough to pipe, especially if it's whipped or easy-spread.

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  3. What I learned in wilton class- store bought frostings are WAY too soft to be used like this. What she'd want to do is whip up some homemade frosting with extra powdered sugar in it. :)

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  4. You want a wafer or a cake cone, not a sugar cone for baking. The pin image is a sugar cone, wafer/cake cones have a flat bottom and are what you find at places like Dairy Queen.

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  5. What everyone else said: make your own frosting. American buttercream is literally just powdered sugar and butter, with a bit of vanilla and cream. Use that with a star piping tip, and it'll look much better.

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