Volcano Eruption Cake

by Donna Windham

(Ashford, Al, US)

We were having a Luau themed party for my son’s 8th birthday and I wanted to do something other than the typical beach scene so I decided that a volcano would be so much fun and very unique plus a little more “boyish”.

Knowing that I would be spending alot of time on the details of decorating the cake, I decided to use box cake mixes rather than homemade.
I used a Red Velvet cake mix for the actual volcano and a white cake mix for the beach.

Instructions for the beach: I made the beach by baking a yellow cake in a 1/2 sheet cake pan. I iced the beach with a vanilla buttercream icing and topped the icing with brown sugar granules to create the sandy look.

Instructions for the Volcano: I baked six 9 inch round cakes and one jumbo cupcake bundt pan. I stacked each cake on top of each other glueing each layer with chocolate icing; tooping the 9′ rounds with the cupcake. I then shaved the cake starting at the bottom of the cupcake and moving down moving outward until I reached the top of the bottom round cake to form the volcano shape.

I was worried about not getting the right shape; however, this turned out to be the easiest part because I realized that it didn’t have to be perfect to look like a volcano…volcanos aren’t perfectly-shaped either. Once I had the shape I placed it on top of the iced beach and iced it with a chocolate buttercream icing; again not being all that concerend with perfection.

Once I had the volcano completely covered with icing I got down to the details. I started by crumbling the red velvet cake left over from trimming and placing that around the bottom of the cake to create a fire ash look. I then used Cocoa Puff cereal balls and sprinkled them on the volcano and around the beach to make the falling rock effect. I took orange and red decorating icing and created fire and lava at the top of the volcano, flowing down the sides onto the beach and into the ocean. I also had purchased a few palm trees and a treasure chest and placed those around the beach. The entire cake was placed on a wooden board covered in tinfoil which I had iced with blue icing to create the ocean and I placed gummy sharks swimming around. The cakewas a HUGE hit with the kids and adults and it was so much fun to create.