Erupting Volcano Cake

Make six 8" round cakes using your favorite mix or buy cakes from a bakery. Buy two or three dollars worth of dry ice from an ice cream store the day you will need it. Keep the dry ice in freezer. Be sure to handle the dry ice with gloves or tongs just to be safe. If your ice cream store doesn't have dry ice just look in your local Yellow Pages telephone directory under "Dry Ice". Now use your juice glass or cookie cutter and cut out a hole in the center or the top two layers of cake. This hole will form a well in the center of the cake and hide the special effect. Now construct the Volcano cake, round pyramid style, on a cake platter or large dish. Trim each layer into successively smaller rounds and stack and frost them into mountain shape using the last two layers with the holes as its top. With a small piece of aluminum foil, line the well in the center of the volcano cake. Use the juice glass as a mold and form foil around the glass. Now frost the cake, smoothing out the small step-like ledges. Use chocolate frosting for the whole cake first. Then use green frosting as highlights around the mountain to resemble vegetation. When you are ready to serve the cake, make the "lava". Separate the cleaned egg and discard the yolk. Put the egg white in a small mixing bowl with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and 2-3 drops 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 the 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 or orange, foamy "lava" and white "smoke" for several minutes while you serve your delighted guests pieces of genuine Erupting Volcano Cake. Alternate Foam Generating Technique: If you can't find dry ice in your area, you can still produce the foaming "Lava" effect. There will be no smoke, but you will have plenty of foamy lava. You will need a small, short juice glass or a shot glass that will fit snugly in the center of the Volcano Cake (a glass 3" tall and 1 1/2" in diameter would be perfect). You will also need one small box of Jell-o, one small bottle lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. Make Jell-o according to package directions. Let cool 15 minutes. When Jell-o is still (not hot), fill juice glass 1/2 full with the warm Jell-o. Pour in enough lemon juice so that the glass is almost full, or about 1/2" from the top. Place glass down into hole in the cake so lip of glass is flush with top of cake. You are now ready to produce the effect. When ready, put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into the glass and briefly stir (1-2 seconds). Jell-o foam will immediately pour out the top of the glass and flow down the sides of the cake.