The Incredible Edible Erupting Volcano Cake

My sweet baby K just turned nine years old. I asked her what kind of treat she would like me to bring to school on her birthday to share with her classmates, expecting to hear cupcakes or cookies, or whatever. Here's the conversation:

Me: So K, would you rather have me bring in cupcakes or cookies for lunch on your birthday?

Her, with no hesitation (obviously she's already thought about this): I want a chocolate cake shaped like a volcano that shoots out chocolate frosting and edible confetti.

Me: What? A cake that shoots frosting out the top?

Her: Yeah. First it just looks like a cake and then boom! The frosting shoots out and oozes down the sides and the edible confetti blows out.

Me: Do they even make edible confetti?

Her: I don't know, but they should.

Me: Cupcakes it is.

No way was I going to attempt to construct an erupting volcano cake for the class but I was curious to know if such a thing was possible so I did what any self-respecting person did when in search of credible information: I Googled. Who knew how many varieties of edible erupting volcano cakes existed?!? I was well and truly floored.

Once I picked myself up off the floor, I formulated a plan. I decided to attempt to cobble together a few different recipes to create my own EEVC (I'm tired of writing it out already) but as a backup plan I would reserve the right to use the chocolate fountain for the molten lava. And I would serve this astonishing display of culinary magnificence at her birthday party.

The original conversation I had with K about the cake was just so cute I couldn't resist sharing it with anyone who would listen, and after that I *had* to make the cake to preserve my reputation.

On party day I put the cake together. It involved two chocolate cakes, one baked in a bundt pan and the other baked in a 2 quart glass bowl.

Then I stacked the bowl cake on top of the bundt cake. So far, so good. It does have a mountain-ish shape.

I took a glass out of my cabinet and cut a hole through the middle of both cakes then inserted a clean glass into the hole. It would have worked better if I could have found that skinny glass vase I just *knew* I had, but oh well.

Then I frosted the whole thing with a big batch of chocolate frosting, being especially generous between the two cakes to fill in the gap. And also to glue together the rather large "fault" I made in the top layer when I cut the hole in the middle. I even had enough frosting left over that I could have eaten some if I wanted to, not that I did. And if you believe that, I've got a beach house in Arizona I'd like to sell you.
You can see my lovely fruity glass in the middle, just waiting for showtime.

To simulate lava bursting from the top and oozing down the side, I followed one site's instructions to make lava drips from sugar, water, food coloring and corn syrup.

And then it was off to the store to buy dry ice. I had to do a trial run with the dry ice outside just to make sure it would work. I'd never played with dry ice before. Why did no one tell me about this little marvel?

I brought the marshmallow fluff "lava" along to the party. After the candles were blown out I put the dry ice in the glass in the middle of the cake and added some hot water to make "smoke". Then the "lava" went in with a little more hot water and we had our own miniature Pompeii. The birthday girl was thrilled and her friends were pretty stoked too! Check it out!