Has anyone used dry ice/water to make steam? A CC search turns up every post with "dry" and "ice"! I'm doing a to-go coffee cup cake and want to make it steam like Frostine did here:

http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2011/12/giant-coffee-cup-cake-hot-chocolate.html

1) Her cake is huge, though (8" rounds). Mine will be scaled to actual size. I could maybe fit 2 test tubes in the cake. I'd really like a way to not be able to see the tube holding the dry ice since a coffee cup doesn't have marshmallows in it to camouflage the holes. Ideas?

2) How long before adding the water can I fill the tubes with the dry ice and still have it "smoke" when water is added?

Thanks!

I have used dry ice to make a volcano smoke. I didn't do anything fancy with tubes (it was a last minute surprise party for a friend), I just put a bowl in the top and plopped some dry ice and water in.

Once it is smoking you won't be able to see the tubes anyway. You could always make it look "foamy" on top. Or you could make a to-go lid and put the tube in the drinking hole.

The dry ice will last a while, at least a couple of hours.

I would love to do something with dry ice. Where can I buy it? Can it be stored for a long time and how must it be used?

I just made a volcano too - my niece's request was -- get this - natural disaster, So I made a volcano and an overflowing lake and shook the whole thing using two remote controls underneath for any earthquake. Anyway, I digress!! I didn't want to use dry ice because I didn't want anything that spilled out over the cake to make it inedible. I was unsure if any liquid that spilled out of the crater (you know - lava) that came into contact with the dry ice would mess up the parts to eat. So I used wisps of cotton candy sticking out of the crater, filled the crater (ice cream cone in the middle of the wonder pan) with caramel sauce and put 19 candles around the top. So I had fire, wisps of smoke and caramel lava spilling out. Hey - it wasn't at my house haha.
PS I think you can get dry ice at a beer-soda-ice type place. long story for short answer! hope that helps! Theresa

You can get dry ice at many local supermarkets. It is usually in a cooler at the front of the store, just ask for it. You buy it by the pound. Buy it the day of or maybe the night prior, otherwise there may not be any left when the party starts.

Dry ice looks great, it floats over the icing/fondant but over time it will make the frosting sticky, doesn't ruin it for eating just makes it sticky (wet).

The ice sublimates rather quickly so you'll be adding pieces every few minutes. Eventually though, the water will get cold and you'll want to replace the water with warm water too. Unless you only want it for a quick wow, then no worries, throw in some ice and you're done.

It would be easier to have water in test tubes and then drop small chunks of dry ice into the water. If the ice sits in there by itself, I would worry that the ice would either sublimate before I was ready or freeze the tube and crack it when the water warmed it up.

Just a note, one way I've done the dry ice was to run tubes from a tupperware to the cake. I added water to the tupperware and then ice and put the lid on. The pressure of the gas in the tupperware forces the gas through the tube. I'm not suggesting this method since I had to use a larger tupperware so that I didn't get water splashes into the tubes but it's an alternative.

Will

Cake using water and small pieces of dry ice dropped in:

These are good videos to watch about dry ice.