My friend’s son was turning 5 and wanted to have a science class party focused on geology and fossils. What better way to celebrate than with a volcano and dinosaurs?
The cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting and the trees were made with green tinted rice krispies treats on pretzel sticks. I melted jolly ranchers in the oven set to 225°F on foil covered cookie sheets. If you want to get the bubbly like appearance, crush the jolly ranchers into smaller pieces and place them side by side in the shape of what you want. Then, watch as they melt and take out before they are completely melted. If they are completely melted, they will become very “liquidy” and will pretty much pool into a thin, flat shape. I used strawberry and orange jolly ranchers to give the volcanic eruptions some color contrasts. You can also make your own hard candy, but I didn’t want to bother with the thermometer, food coloring, etc.
Here is a picture of the semi-finished product before heading out to the party. I was going to take a picture of the finished product (complete with crushed fudge oreos for volcanic rocks, cotton candy for volcanic plume of smoke, and dinosaur nest with eggs), but didn’t get a chance to as the kids happily swarmed the cake.
I was actually considering putting in a small well at the center of the volcano for a small cup of water, so I could put dry ice in it for a real smoking treat. However, the cake was not large enough for this…I guess I’ll have to save that for next time!
