Erupting Volcano Cake Recipe

How to make it

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• Ok, so you want to make an erupting volcano cake, but not sure how. This is easy. First, you can either make your own cakes, or purchase them pre-made from a store or bakery. I recommend making a tube-pan cake like Angle Food along with a rectangular cake in a 9 X 13 pan (recommend lining the rectangular cake pan with parchment paper for easy flip/transfer to baking sheet). Again, these can be your choice of flavors and such, so whatever you want here is fine.
• Now that you have your cakes, here we go. When your cakes are cooled enough to handle, lift the rectangular cake out of the cake pan by the parchment paper, and flip it over onto a large cookie sheet. Slowly peel off the parchment paper.
• Next, remove your tube cake from its pan, and invert it onto the rectangle cake that is already on the cookie sheet. (the bottom of the tube cake should be on top, like a weird pyramid.
• Get a small juice glass about the size of the hole in the tube cake, line the bottom of the glass with aluminum foil, and remove the glass from the now glass-formed foil shape. Insert this foil shape into the hole in the tube cake. This is where you will be creating your foamy lava with special effects.
• With a large, sharp knife, begin to trim the tube cake to form a volcano-type mountain. Don't worry, it doesn't have to be beutiful or perfect. Just a / \ shape so the lava can flow down the "volcano". You can use the pieces of cake that you have trimmed to fill in the strange gaps where the two cakes meet, giving the cake a type of rocky, mountainous effect. Don't worry overmuch about the crumbs, they will be concealed by the icing.
• Take your icing (I chose to use vanilla or white icing so that we could really see the lava flowing), and remove the tamper-proof foil. You can heat it in the microwave for a few seconds until it is very easy to stir, and has a melted type appearance. Begin frosting/pouring this at the top of the volcano, working your way down the sides, spreading it as best you can to cover all of the cake. Depending on the size and types of cakes you have chosen to use, this could take anywhere from 2 -6 cans of frosting. For my cakes, I like to frost the cookie sheet as well, so the effect is continuous. Let the cake sit for a few minutes, then check to make sure that the cake is fully covered, and there are no bare spots.
• When you are done frosting, you can begin to decorate. I like to use Color Mist Food Color Spray (found at most grocery stores or cooking stores) to paint my green grassy hills. Then, to give it a touch more authenticity, I add other edible elements to help decorate it. If you are making an island, you can use crushed Cheerios for sand, blue M&M's for water, or whatever you like. I also like to use Red Writing Gel to add in some lava effects, and trace those with red sugar crystals. Additionally, you can purchase animals and scenery from almost any grocery store that has a bakery in it. Just look in their book to see what you like, and ask for just the topper kit. This should cost you no more than $3-$10.
• For the lava effect, you will need dry ice broken up with a hammer(no more than 5 lbs in an air tight cooler), 1 egg white, some sugar, and red food coloring (concentrated paste will give you a darker red lava effect). Put the egg-white, sugar, and coloring into a zip-lock bag, and mush it around until really foamy. When it is party time, put a piece of broken-up dry ice in the center of the volcano (make sure you use tongs to handle the dry ice). You can add a bit of hot water for some smoking effect. When you are ready to "erupt" the volcano, pour in the egg mixture, and enough hot water to make the lava start to flow.
• I have done this for the last two years for my childrens Kindergarten class when they were studying volcanos. This cake is enough to feed 25 hungry little kids, plus a few parents!