It's a cake!

Every year I ask the kids what they want for their b-day cake and most of the time they get what they want. I have become more adventerous over the years and get into it more now. So, Jerrud turns 10 on tuesday and we are having a family b-day on sunday for him. He asked for a volcanoe cake. Now for those who know my boys, you know it can't be just any volcanoe cake! The two youngest are very much into detail! So, he told me I needed to get gumpaste and make it so it looks like the lava is coming out of the top. Can you tell he has been around while I do my cakes :) He's 9 and knows what gum paste is and what it's used for!! Anyways, after looking for inspiration online, I decided to go for candy lava. I know just enough about candy making to make a mess. So I did a soft set candy for the lava down the sides of the cake. Basically that means it's more like a really thick, very sticky caramel. The parts on top I poured shapes using hard set candy. All that means is it gets hard, like a lollipop. I was just going to stick them in the top, but they kept falling over. So I made a ring to stick them into. Once that set up, it held nicely. I placed my cake topper of squirting lava on and viola! It didn't quite look finished yet. So my mom was headed to the store so she looked for palm trees. I was going to use candy rocks. But I forgot them when I was out the other day and wasn't about to drive 20 mins. just for those. So she found a palm tree and tootsie rolls and caramels. So I melted them together for the swirled affect and formed rocks. Considering I was flying by the seat of my pants to figure this all out, I think it came out good! What's just going to top it all off is tomorrow when i add the dry ice to the center for the smoking affect. I feel like a little kid waiting for christmas morning!! So here is the picture of it today w/o the smoking affect.