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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Nathan's Birthday Cake

So, Nathan's turning 6 on Thursday.  SIX, can you believe it?

I asked him what kind of a cake he wanted and he said 'Thomas the Train'.  I was like "SERIOUSLY?"  We've had like 3 Thomas the Train cakes now (you can see two of them here).  So I asked him "If Mommy can come up with something else really cool, can we do something different?"

He said sure.  

So what did I come up with?

AN ERUPTING VOLCANO CAKE 

(thanks to Grandpa Converse who assisted with the idea)

I worked on the cake and finished it today.  Marion's comment was "I was expecting something less than awesome...but that is just AWESOME!"  (seriously...ask him...that is what he said)

So here is a picture of the final product:

Dinosaur Volcano Cake
I asked Nathan what kind of volcano he wanted ... a mountain, an island, a dinosaur land ... etc.  He picked a Dinosaur Volcano Cake.

So are you curious as to how I made it...here is what I did.

I started with making one cake mix in my Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl and baking in according to the directions here.  

 

Then I make a second cake mix and filled my Pampered Chef Deep Dish Pie Plate about 1/2 full and put the rest into a round cake pan that I had.


While I waited the 3 hours for the batter bowl cake to cool, I made lava candy (or glass candy).


When it was ready, I made a lake.  (It kinda turned green on me cuz I let the temp get too high when cooking, but it tastes fine and Nathan commented  'cool, my pond had moss'. So, I guess it turned out okay.)


SIDE NOTE:  While I was busy with the lava candy and trying to get it the way I wanted it before it hardened...my littlest one was being his early 2 explorer and this is what we ended up with:




Truly the pictures don't do it justice because they were taken AFTER we washed him up...but he had gotten a stool, crawled up to the counter and gotten the blue food coloring!  It was EVERYWHERE!

Okay...back to the cake:

After I took out the portion for the lake, I colored the rest red and made several strips in an effort to make lava trails.  



While they cooled, I was able to start working on the cake.  I took the two round cakes and put them together sealing them with some homemade fluff (or marshmallow cream).  Nathan requested strawberry flavored fluff.

Then I placed the batter bowl cake on top and cut a hole in the top to insert a jelly jar.



The Lava Chamber!
Then I started making the decorations.  I mixed the chocolate fluff for the 'dirt', crumbled some shredded wheat and added green food coloring to make a 'brush' looking substance, crushed up some Oreo cookies for boulders and cooled lava, and I colored some sugar brown for sand.



sorry...i forgot to take pictures after this...but you'll see it all on the cake...lol
I took a small amount of the chocolate fluff and smeared it around on the glass to create dirt.


Dumped the remaining chocolate fluff on the volcano both inside and out and covered it with the crushed Oreo cookies and shards of the lava candy.


Next I placed the pond on the board and sprinkled the board with sand and brush.


Here's a closer look at the pond/lake:

Lava Candy lake with colored sugar sand

Brush and Boulders

Finally, I added in the Dinosaur Collection we got at Alco for like $4 and wallah!



And because it is just so much fun...here are some additional views:

  



On his birthday, we will add in 6 candles around the rim of the volcano and if the dry ice comes in, we'll add that with the lava fluff for a smoking eruption.  I'll try to get video of that and post it if I can. 




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