Cake Explosion

I've always liked to bake. During Louie's first year I never really thought about whether to make or buy his birthday cakes. My cake experience involved the cake staying in the pan and me spreading frosting on top of it. So when my hubby's Aunt Jo volunteered to help me make Louie's first cake (a replica of the cake she made for James' first birthday) I was excited. Since then Louie has had a couple store bought cakes, but the majority have been done by me. This year he wanted a volcano. Dum Dum Dummmmm (scary suspenseful sound inserted here.)!

I started with three round cakes (chocolate was his choice this year). I left one whole and gradually made each other one smaller. I used leftovers for the top and fourth level. I frosted each with chocolate frosting and frosted in between layers.

Now it was time to add the cascading lava. For this I used some extra strawberry frosting I had on hand. I added no-taste red food coloring. I loved this cake in that you couldn't mess it up, because volcanoes are already a mess!
A good exploding mountain needs rocks and boulders. I used CoCo Puffs for rocks and chocolate donuts for boulders.
Finally I needed something to explode out the top. I Googled homemade lollipop recipes and found one that wasn't too hard. Sugar, light corn syrup and water. I added red food coloring to half and yellow to the other. Then, instead of filling a candy mold, I drizzled it on top of greased wax paper. I only burned myself once (and in the process I learned that a meat thermometer is NOT the same as a candy thermometer)! It hardened overnight and was ready to insert into the top of the volcano (or Mt. Wanna-Hawka-Loogie as I fondly think of it) the next morning.