Homemade Volcano Recipe

Here's the recipe for making the volcano and lava, for all of you who asked.

Baker's Clay

Mix together:

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water

Knead until smooth. Add food coloring if desired (we left our dough white and then painted it with acrylic paints once it was cooked and cooled). Make shapes (we shaped our volcano around an empty spice container then removed it to bake) then bake on cookie tray at 300 degrees until set and golden (1/2 to 1 hour; it depends on how thick the walls of your volcano are).

Once your volcano is ready to go here's what to do next:

• place volcano on cookie tray
• place spice container (or other container) back in volcano, if it still fits (it will work just fine without anything in the middle; however, the lava shoots out more with a narrow passage way- we do it both ways)
• fill center of volcano with baking soda (I didn't measure I just dumped some in- probably about 2-3 Tbs depending on the size of your volcano)
• pour in vinegar (once again I didn't measure I just dumped it in- probably about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) colored with red or orange food coloring (I've also heard that you can use water and dish soap, but we haven't tried that yet)
• Enjoy the pure delight on your children's faces!!!

Note: after several eruptions, we rinse off our volcano, let it dry and then store it for another day (it's a great distraction on those days when you've just "had it")

Happy Volcano Making!