Whether your luau is for a birthday party or just for fun, there are several impressive cakes that you can make. Celebrate the magic of the islands with an edible lei or a volcano cake, or recreate the entire geography of the islands with frosting. Does this Spark an idea?
Hawaiian Islands Cake
You can recreate the entire Hawaiian Archipelago, in frosting. You'll need to begin with a sheet cake, frosted in blue, to represent the ocean. Trace or sketch the Hawaiian Islands onto the shiny side of a piece of waxed paper. Mount the waxed paper onto a cookie sheet or a piece of stiff cardboard. Apply brown frosting from a piping tube to cover the islands, building them up into mountains where appropriate. Freeze your islands, so that they're solid and easy to peel from the waxed paper, to transfer into their rightful position on the ocean of sheet cake. Add green frosting or shredded green coconut shrubbery to the tops of the islands. You can even place toy dolphins swimming in the ocean.
Volcano Cake
Won't your guests be surprised to see a real steaming volcano cake? You actually need to bake three layers for this, but it's worth it. The base is a sheet cake and the mountain itself is carved from two round cakes. Press an inverted 6-inch tall drinking glass into the top of the sheet cake, to form a sturdy base for the secret inside steaming chamber. Make sure that there's room for the rest of your "mountain" before you place the glass. The glass should align with the center of the volcano. Use a same-sized glass to cut holes in the center of each of the round layers.
Stack the round cakes and trim them into a conical shape, to create your mountain. Leave at least an inch around the rim of the crater, for strength. Frost the sheet cake with blue frosting, so that it looks like the ocean. Lay one round layer into place, being careful to align the hole with the drinking glass. Frost, with whatever color you want, since the frosting will not show. Add the second, smaller layer, positioning it carefully as well.
Use a piping tube and black frosting, cover the top of the volcano with enough blackened "lava" to cover the cake. Decorate with streams and pools of red lava frosting if you wish. Insert a clean drinking glass, of the same width that you used before, and drop a chunk of dry ice into it.
When it comes time to make it steam, add a few drops of water to the dry ice. In an 8-oz. drinking glass, you want no more than 1/4 cup of water. Allow 5 to 10 minutes for the "steam" to begin billowing out of the volcano.
Real Flower Lei Cake
Cover the edges of a simple round layer cake with edible flowers for a lei. Drape a smooth layer of white fondant over the cake, like a blanket and trim the edges. To secure the flowers, squeeze a stiff white frosting from a piping tube around the bottom edge of the cake, where it meets the serving tray and press the stems of each flower into it. Day lilies have a tropical appearance, as do nasturtiums, hollyhocks, marigolds and pansies. There are hundreds of edible flowers you can use but it's important to make sure they're organic. When in doubt, use fake flowers. They'll look the same in pictures. Lay a few petals or a ring of candied pineapple on the top of the cake, for decoration.
Tags: sheet cake, drinking glass, piping tube, waxed paper, cake with, edible flowers