Volcano Cake

So my now 4 year old told me a few weeks before he wanted a volcano cake for his birthday. And he wanted it to erupt… real. So the planning began. I did a dry run. It didn’t turn out so well… 

Plan B, with input from the little man: The cake itself needed to look more like lava (I was trying for red velvet but couldn’t bring myself to use all that food coloring that the recipe called for). The cake needed to look more like a volcano (admittedly, I didn’t decorate for the dry run – who has time for that? Need to leave a little room for surprise). And the cake should ERUPT REAL. We all loved the frosting, although I missed a critical step in the recipe that I would be sure to address on the big day. 

I could do this! I didn’t want to go out and buy new pans so I decided to work with what I had. I basically made a double batch of cake. I made a basic white cake flavored with orange juice and zest. I dyed it bight orange using Wilton food gel. Similar recipes can be found here or here (minus the food coloring). I used a 9″ round, a pie plate, and a bundt pan to get the desired shape. If I had to do it over again, I might just do two 9″ rounds, the idea behind the pie plate was that it would angle into the bundt pan to make more of a natural mountain shape. I’m not sure it made a huge difference. I buttered and floured the heck out of the pans to ensure the cake wouldn’t stick this time around (it didn’t!) This time around, we shaved the sides of the bunt cake to make it look more like a volcano and less like a bundt cake. We saved the shavings and placed around the bottom. I made the cakes a week in advance in case there were any issues, I’d have time to regroup. I wrapped in plastic wrap then foil and stored in the freezer for the week. 

The cakes thawed out great. They were not dry or soggy or any of the things I feared when I decided to make-ahead and freeze. As you can see from the picture, underneath the frosting, the cake doesn’t really look much like a volcano.