Can anyone tell me how to get a good lava effect on a volcano cake? I would like for it to have a little sheen, and ideally some variation in color - red/orange. Thank you!

I have 2 suggestions - depending on your skill level...

One is to "mold" your lava flow out of GP or fondant. You could even form some "blobs" (I'm thinking like elongated varying teardrop shapes) onto several skewers, and insert them into the top of the cake to look like an eruption. Once those are dry, you could airbrush them to get the color variation you want. If you don't have an airbrush, then you could use some Wilton color mist. Steam them when dry to get the sheen effect, or spray them with luster.

The other suggestion is pretty much the same process, but instead use sugar or isomalt. A company called Cake Play (nope, I don't work for them... lol) came out with some isomalt sticks that you can melt easily in the microwave. I know they carry red and clear. You could add some orange color to the clear and then dip the cooled formed pieces into the melted red.

OH!!!!!!!! and ! if you use the sugar or isomalt - you could even sink a small LED light into the mouth of the volcano, and it would shine through the sugar "lava" and make it glow!!!! Now I want to make one!!!! LOL

Good luck!

When I made mine I used piping gel and colored it orange and then added streaks of red in it with a toothpick.

I used red and orange candy melts for mine. We put a shot glass with dry ice in the hole to make it smoke.

I used a thin-ish royal icing for mine. I put red on one side of the piping bag and orange on the other. They kinda swirled together on their own as it ran down the cake

I did one not too long ago with regular white sugar, butter and red and yellow coloring. Just mix it until it is the right consistency and pour it on. It was so delicious and it looked great.