a customer of mine is ordering a grooms cake. The groom would like for smoke to come out of the center of the volcano cake. And he would like the smoke to be red. I really need a little help with this a suggestions?

Thanks

Ok, can't really help you with the red deal. But i did a volcano and hollowed out the top of it and filled it with foil(u could use wax paper) and then i added some dry ice which you can find at special hardware stores.
Hope this helps!

For the volcaono cake that I made my son, I just cut a hole in the middle , put in a shot glass with some hot water and then a couple chunks of dry ice. When I was researching to make my cake I found this, but didn't want to do it...Maybe it will help you though....

When you are ready to serve the cake, make the "lava". Separate a cleaned egg and discard the yolk. Put the egg white in a small mixing bowl with one and one half teaspoons sugar and two or three drops of red food coloring. Beat until the egg white starts to thicken. You don't want stiff peaks to form, just a thick, foamy texture.
Now place two or three small chunks of dry ice into the foil-lined well of the cake and pour in the red egg mixture. Nothing much will happen yet. Now fill your juice glass with hot tap water and take the Volcano cake and water to the table where your guests are. When you are ready to produce the special effect, simply pour one or two ounces of the hot water into the egg and dry ice mixture and your realistic Volcano cake will erupt large quantities of orange, foamy "lava" and white "smoke" for several minutes.

For it to smoke longer, you may have to cut a deeper hole in the middle, so you have room for more ice and hot water. Hope this helps.

Wow ... talk about turning decorating into a science, and I was thinking something lame with sugar. I didn't realize it was real smoke they were after, and if that's not enough he wants it red! I would love to know how well this works if anyone tries it. I have all kinds of ideas running thru my noodle if this actually works well. Please be sure to let us know what, and how you accomplish this, allways up for a challenge!

Krystal gave a great idea...but I would be concerned...isn't dry ice toxic. How would you keep the "lava" which has the dry ice, from touching the cake, once it starts to do it's bit?

On a seperate note, the doll cake pan, would give a great shape for a volcano, which you could carve out to make more realistic if you wanted to

This just in about dry ice... It doesn't sound like the stuff oozing will actually be the ice... just the smoke
I just googled "dry ice"

It is OK to put Dry Ice into beverages for drinking as long as the dry ice is food grade. Use 2 to 4 pounds of Dry Ice for each gallon of room temperature punch. Use large pieces of Dry Ice not small pieces. The Dry Ice is heavier than ice and will sink to the bottom. Do not use any regular ice! The Dry Ice will do the cooling and must not be eaten or swallowed. Too much Dry Ice will freeze the beverage so have extra standing by. It will bubble and give off the most fog when the beverage is room temperature. When most of the Dry Ice has sublimated, it will surround itself with ice and float to the top. There is still a small piece of Dry Ice in the center of these ice pieces so do not serve or eat them. Carefully ladle the beverage into drinking glasses without any Dry Ice. Add regular ice to glasses for cooler drinks.

**(Food grade means the CO2 used to make the dry ice is the same quality CO2 as used for soda fountains and also the dry ice can be used to transport food and produce.)

I think as long as you put in in a container, it should be alright and won't touch the cake. I put mine in a shot glass and in didn't touch the cake at all. I would do a google search using "volcano cake" and see what you come up with. That's what I did when I made mine.

short of very bright red light under the cake and shining up through hole in the cake or shining on the cake---

the only other methods i know for getting red SMOKE all involve combustible materials that are toxic ----

as in smoke bombs, smoke powders, etc

hopefully he'll settle for the dry ice fog which is, as chefcindy pointed out, perfectly safe.

for longer lasting effect ---

put cake on table that has hole cut in it. cut matching hole in cake. run large plastic tube of about 1inch diameter through cake and table to 5 gallon food grade white plastic bucket that has a lid w/ an opening. attach tube to opening. fill bucket about 1/3 full of hot water and then drop in dry ice -- only about 1/4 lb. put on lid but NOT tight -- best to hand hold in place so some fog can escape as if tight run risk of explosion. most of the fold will go up the tube and make an nice eruption. (if the bucket is under the table ... the excess fog and seep out to complete the effect.)

final WARNING --

dry ice fog is a WATER vapor -- therefore -- take care around ANYTHING electrical as can cause short circuits, etc. (one had a student get a shock from his electric guitar when he insisted on fogging the stage waist deep in dry ice fog ----

AND --- as it is a water vapor it will also condense out onto the FLOOR -- as in SLIPPERY!

totally out there thought...

and what if you took a chocolate fountain, removed the bells leaving only the upright delivery tube and stuck that up through a cake so you could have chocolate lava?

would that work????

(would require strong board under cake w/ hole in it size of the tube)

Thank you sooooo much for all your help and ideas!!!!!!!!