Volcano Cake Decorating Instructions

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Add a little water to dry ice to make a smoking volcano effect on a cake. You can use red jello or tinted icing if you want 'lava' to flow down the sides of the cake.
Add a little water to dry ice to make a smoking volcano effect on a cake. You can use red jello or tinted icing if you want ‘lava’ to flow down the sides of the cake.

It’s easy to decorate a volcano cake. This is a great party cake for birthdays or a mad scientist theme party.

Bake the Cake

  1. Select your favorite cake mix. Red velvet cake probably looks the most like molten lava, but you can use any flavor. You can get a nice effect by adding red food coloring to a yellow cake mix. Preheat your oven (350° F).
  2. Spray a glass or metal 2-qt mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray.
  3. Sprinkle the pan with flour. Shake out any excess.
  4. Bake the cake. It will take about as long as if you were baking a bundt cake… probably around 35 minutes.
  5. Allow the cake to cool completely.
  6. Remove the cake from the bowl and set it on a plate. If the cake sticks, you can use a rubber spatula or butter knife to help release it.
It's easy to decorate a cake to resemble a volcano.
It’s easy to decorate a cake to resemble a volcano.

Decorate the Volcano Cake

  1. There are two ways to go here. If you have access to dry ice, you can hollow out the top of the cake to accommodate a small cup and frost all around the cup. When it’s time to serve the cake you would add a little hot water to the cup and drop in a bit of dry ice. This makes a spectacular display! (Here’s a video of what to expect.) You can use colored icing or red jello instead of water if you want lava to run down the sides of your cake. If you don’t have access to dry ice you can use lava-colored fruit roll-ups to simulate an eruption. It’s not as cool-looking, but it tastes great.
  2. Frost the cake with chocolate frosting. If you like, you can stir in a little red and yellow food coloring to give it more of a red-hot look. If you don’t like chocolate, you can swirl lava colors into vanilla, cream cheese, or lemon frosting.
  3. Use orange frosting to make rivulets of lava running down the sides of the cake.
  4. Sprinkle red crystal sugar onto the orange lava to give your cake a red-hot glow.
  5. To make a fruit roll-up eruption, unwrap two lava-colored fruit roll-ups. Fold them in half and re-roll them. You may want to tear the edges of the fruit to make them jagged. Set the fruit roll-ups into the frosting on the top of the cake.

Make the Volcano Cake Really Erupt

A simple way to make the cake smoke and appear to erupt is to set a small container of warm water on top of the cake. Add a pellet of dry ice when it’s time to serve the cake. If you want flowing lava, substitute syrup dyed with red food coloring for the warm water. If you fill the container completely full and add the dry ice, the lava will flow down the side of the cake.