There is a very sad story associated with this cake, will share momentarily. I write tonight because I need some advice on something I want to try to do.

A little background: His mother was a friend in our playgroup who just passed away last week. Her funeral was last Wednesday. She was in a car accident in June that left her paralyzed from the neck down, but she went into a coma and eventually developed an infection that left her brain dead a couple weeks back. We saw her the day they pulled the plug.
This boy is turning 4 this weekend, his dad is out of the country and not being permitted to come here at this time, he is living with his maternal grandparents who are in a 55 and older community and are barely making ends meet as it is. Our playgroup moms are throwing this party for him to give them all a day to just relax and enjoy and forget all the tragedy that has hit them recently.

I am making a half sheet cake with a volcano and jungle theme for a little boy who turns 4 this weekend. As I want his birthday to be very very special, I wanna do something totally cool that is perfect for a boy.
I was told he is in love with Dora and wants to marry her someday so he would love Dora on his cake, but also I know he likes things all boys do,
so.... I wanna make the volcano ERUPT for him!
I have an idea of how I wanna do this and just want your input/see if you think it will work.

I have a styrofoam ring and ball that is slightly smaller that the ring to stick on the cake (wrapped and covered with icing of course) that can serve as the volcano. The reason I have a ring is because I need to make sure that there is a place for the lava to "pool" that wont touch the actual cake part. Will decorate with chocolate icing and crushed oreos, etc. to get a good look, carve out a small bit of the top of the volcano.
When comes time to light the candles, will add a bit of baking powder in the top part carved out (the "cup" in the styrofoam ball) and after he blows out the candles will pour a bit of red food colored vinegar into the baking powder to make the thing ERUPT.

Soooo..... waddya think cakers?
Will it work?
Any other ideas or advice?

Let me know your thoughts.
I appreciate any input you have to offer.

Sorry I don't have any help for you, but I wanted to say...That is an AWESOME thing you're doing for the little guy. I'm sure he will LOVE that cake!

Don't worry, the Doctor has a cure for this one. Here it is:

http://www.cookingcache.com/dessert/eruptingvolcanocake.shtml

And give him a hug and a kiss for me.

Theresa

may god bless you all tri fold for making this day for that little one

I think that is a wonderful idea for a cake. I think you are a angel sent from heaven above for doing this for the little boy. GOD BLESS YOU!

What a touching story. I hope the family heals from the tradegy. The only suggestions I can think of to make the volano erupt is baking soda and vinegar with brown/orange food color added to give it color or alka seltzer and colored water mixed can make the eruption. You may have to put the volcano in the corner of the cake and set it in a plate covered with brown fondant to make a moat to catch the volcano flow. Hope this helps and God bless all of you wonderful people for being so thoughtful to this little boy.

Ebony.

How wonderful you're doing this. I'm sure he will absolutely love it!

I'd say the best thing, would be to do a couple of test runs at home, before doing it on the cake. Just to make sure you're getting the effect you want, and to see exactly how much foam and flowing it's going to cause, so you can make sure the ring to catch it is large enough, or maybe you could make an indentation all the way down one side, line it with aluminum foil, cover that with fondant to look like lava, so when the mixture foams up it can pool in the ring, then flow down the side of the cake into a sort of mote at the bottom. Then it can still go down the side of the cake, without acting touching it and harming the taste.

The little boy is truly blessed to have so many caring for him, during such a hard time in his life. You're a true angel.

Hope this helps,

Holly

Here is another link to a volcano cake recipe, along with a diagram for constructing it:

http://www.finkbuilt.com/blog/?p=61

I think dry ice is the way to go, that way it's still "erupting" but you don't have any liquid to mess up the cake or for little fingers to touch.

It's awesome that you are doing this. I am in a large playgroup with my kids, and the other moms & children are just like family to us. I can only imagine how heartbroken you all must be. I hope the party is a huge success - surely it will brighten a dark time for this little boy.

Bec

Thanks to everyone for posting with the great suggestions - the links are especially helpful and I can't wait to test these.
I think I am going to go with the jello/lemonjuice combo, I think that is probably going to have the best effect and least damage to taste.
I also like the idea of the extra pool on the side of the cake to catch extra lava.
I will be sure to post when all is over to let you know how it went and show the results. I hope I can pull it off for him.
Thanks for all your help and kind words.

You have such a good heart to do this for this little boy. I can't help you with this volcano, but wanted to say you are such a good person. Thank you for doing this for him. I know he will appreciate it. My thoughts are with you all.

dang it, it's not even 10 o'clock and i'm already crying!! this is such an amazing thing you are doing for this little boy, kudos to you and all the other mom's in the playgroup. there are truely angels here on earth, and yal are living proof. good luck w/ the cake it sounds fantastic.

~chris~

Thanks for all of the kind words - really you should know that it is the mom that organizes our playgroup that deserves the angel title - without her none of this would be happening I think. She is truly a blessing to us all and one of the nicest people I know. She is hosting this entire thing at her house and has opened her doors to them and all of us. She has organized donations for the family and has even approached the grocery stores about either a credit or donation for the family, some of which have actually agreed and done same.
I am happy that I can do this much at least, but I wish you all could know how wonderful this friend is that has organized it all. MAJOR kudos to her!

It went well and the cake turned out nice, not as nice as I hoped but it was a rough week and I was up all night on Friday with a last minute party at our house too, LOL...
I posted in my pics, its the Dora Volcano Island cake.
I got the hut idea from someone else on here, but I can't find the photo now in the gallery, so if anyone else can find it, please let me know as I want to give credit.
Thanks to all of you for your advice and suggestions and kind words. Everyone loved it, tasted great and the birthday boy was thrilled.
Thanks again.

I agree with I_heart_pastries. Dry Ice would be less messy I have worked with it I have never tried adding red dye to the water. I do know only add the ice once, more than once it doesn't seem to smoke good. Maybe place a cup down inside so you could refresh if you want to do it more than once. Hope you guys can give him a wonderful day, you'll be in my prayers.

The cake turned out great! How did the volcano do?? The little boy and his family will be in my prayers tonight.

Just looked at the cake and it turned out beautiful. I bet he loved it.

Thanks everyone - he was happy and everyone enjoyed it, tasted great too so that was a big plus, LOL...
The volcano worked out really well actually, I used the idea in the link from PLayingwithsugar about adding the jello mixture and it really did fizz up and bubble over like real lava - which of course made him really smile and was a big hit. Didn't affect the cake either, as it was covered in the oreo crumbs so it didn't stick to the cake at all and I didn't put too much lava anyway so it was just enough to bubble over and run down to the board.
If anyone else is gonna do it, I highly recommend that method (see Playingwithsugar's post on the first page of this thread) and if you can get dry ice that would be just an awesome extra effect. Unfortunately I couldn't find it and was pressed for time to run around too many places looking or it would have been completely incredible. Take care all.