Volcano Cake

Cooking Instructions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8 x 2-in. round cake pans, one 9 x 2-in. round cake pan and one 8-oz custard cup. Prepare both boxes of cake mix together as box directs. Put 3⁄4 cup batter in custard cup, 3 cups batter into each 8-in. pan and remaining batter in the 9-in. pan.

Bake cup 25 minminutes, cakes 30 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes before inverting on racks to cool completely.

Tint 1 cup white frosting green. Put 1⁄2 cup white frosting in each of 3 microwave-safe bowls. Tint red, orange and ­yellow. Cover with plastic wrap when not using.

Trim one 8-in. cake to a 61⁄2-in. round; reserve scraps for snacks. Place 9-in. cake on serving platter. Frost top and sides with green frosting. Place 8-in. cake on top, lining it up with back of cake underneath. Trim sharp edges; coat top and sides with chocolate frosting. Center trimmed (61⁄2-in.) cake on top; frost as 8-in. cake. Repeat with custard-cup cake. Fill crevices with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate until set.

Lava: Microwave the red frosting 5 to 10 seconds, or until just pourable. Spoon over cake, creating short and long drips. Repeat with the orange and yellow frostings.

To assemble: Insert a toothpick near base of each Palm Tree; insert other end of toothpick into cake. Set Dinosaurs in place.

Planning Tip: The cake can be made through Step 5 up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The cookies and trees can be made 5 days ahead. Store cookies airtight at room temperature. Assemble a few hours before serving.

Dinosaur Cookies & Palm Trees

Makes 12 dinosaurs and 3 palm trees

Active: 25 min/Total: 54 min (without decorating and drying time)

roll (18 oz) refrigerated sugar-cookie dough

⁄3 cup all-purpose flour

Royal Icing (recipe follows)

Blue, red, green, violet, orange and yellow paste (icing) or gel food colors*

Purple, red and green coarse (crystal) sugar

Palm Trees: 3 plain 73⁄4-in.-long breadsticks (such as Stella Doro),

gumdrop spearmint leaves

You also need: dinosaur cookie cutters* and 12 qt-size ziptop bags

Heat oven to 350°F. Have baking sheet(s) ready.

Knead together cookie dough and flour until completely blended. Roll out with a rolling pin to a scant 1⁄4 in. thick. Cut out cookies with cutters; place about 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheet(s). Reroll scraps and cut into 2- to 3-in. squares (depending on height of cookie cutters). Cut squares in half diagonally to make triangular stands to prop up cookies.

Bake 8 to 12 minutes until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate: Spoon 1⁄4 cup Royal Icing into a ziptop bag. Squeeze out air; seal bag. Spoon 1⁄2 cup into each of 4 bowls. Tint blue, red, green and violet. Spoon 1⁄3 cup into each of 2&&#-35;8209;bowls. Tint yellow and orange. Put yellow icing into a ziptop bag and a small portion of each other color into bags; seal bags. To thin icing for coating: Add drops of water to icings in bowls until thin enough to spread. Cover with plastic wrap when not using.

To pipe outlines before coating (keeps thinned icing from running off cookies): Snip tips off corners of bags with tinted icing and pipe outline for each color on dinosaurs. Let dry about 5 minutes. To fill outlines: Spoon thinned icing into bags. Snip tip off corner; pipe icing on cookies. With a toothpick, spread to piped border. Let dry before adding another color or details. For areas with colored sugar, sprinkle with sugar while wet. Let dry completely, about 3 hours. Snip tip off corner of bag with white icing; pipe horns on blue dinosaur. With yellow icing, pipe eyes and feet.

Cookie stands: Pipe a line of white icing on 1 long edge of each triangle-shape cookie. Press 1 or more triangles on back of each dinosaur. Let dry.

Palm Trees: For each tree, slice 2 spearmint leaves horizontally into 4 leaves. Press wide sticky end on end of a breadstick, pressing more leaves on top (see photo on page 122). Store in a tall glass

until ready to set in place.

*Paste and gel food colors and dinosaur cookie cutters can be found in cake-decorating, party-supply and crafts shops. The dinosaur cutters we used come from a set of 10 (from 53⁄4 x 11⁄4 in. to

x 2 in.), available at Williams-Sonoma.

Royal Icing: In a large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat 1 lb confectioners’ sugar and 3 Tbsp Just Whites (powdered egg whites, see Note) until combined. Add 6 Tbsp water and beat until very well blended. Increase mixer speed to high and beat 8 minutes, or until icing is very thick and white. Makes about 21⁄2 cups.

Note: Just Whites (powdered egg whites) is available in supermarkets nationwide.