I made a cake this weekend using Rice Krispy Treats (first homemade, then when that fell apart...store bought) as the 3D figure popping out of the cake. Elmo to be exact. Everything went great with the store bought treats up until I put his face on at the party. He lasted for about an hour and then the entire Elmo fell apart. I made his face with mmf. What went wrong? What should I do next time with the Rice Krispy treats to keep this from happening? The customer was still happy with the cake, but I was very disappointed when he fell apart. Thanks!

Did you squish the RKT together really well? Like as hard as you could push to make the ball for the head?

When I made my Elmo, the front of his face wanted to cave in from the weight of the MMF eyes and nose. I had to stick a wedge ofr MMF n his mouth to prop it up.

Since then, for modeling I would use RKTs that don't taste as good, but work a LOT better for holding their shape... Use the regular recipe, butreduce only use about 3/4 of the marchmallows, and only 1 T of butter. and before mixing it, I crush the Rice Krispies with my fingers so about half of them are more ground up. They lose maybe 1/4 of their volume... This makes a much sturdier (though less yummy) RKT.

I jus made a 3D full body elmo out of RKT's and had no problem. I did let the body and head sit out uncovered and they got really, really hard. I think that help alot. As for the arms and legs, I cover them immediately since I knew I had to position them they way I wanted them after I attached them to the body.

I used meat skewers to attach the head , arms & legs and he was very sturdy. I had to travel like 25 miles to the birthday site and I was nervous about that, but he held up perfectly.

I'm so sorry to hear that happen to you.

Store bought are too soft for such a large piece - though I've never tried it myself, it's just speculation

When I use RKTs I use a little more RKs than the recipe calls for, crush them slightly, and omit the butter. After I make my figure I put it in the freezer to harden faster.

My family does snack on the leftovers, so they can't be too bad! Another CCer (I can't remeber who) does the same thing but she adds butter flavoring.

Your cake was awesome, BTW!

The head of the elephant in my photos is RKT. I actually put a plastic cake plate in the support system to support the RKT for the head. The chin, under the plate, was also RKT but it would not hold it's shape and kept falling down. I knew it wouldn't survive 7 hours on the road so I ended up having to use modelling chocolate for the chin and neck.

when i've used rct for figures, i make sure that i push them together really tight. then i pour melted white chocolate over them. 2 layers that also fills in the gaps that you have with the rct and makes it a little more smooth. then in the freezer for a couple hours. i also find that when i start to put the mmf on the figure, the condensation from being out of the freezer helps the mmf to adher good. just made an abby cadabby this weekend (will post pics later computer at home is on the fritz) she was about 10 inches high and didn't budge. finished her up friday night, delivered saturday by 1 and she was still sitting pretty after the party was over that afternoon.

With my first try with the homemade rk's I squished them together as hard as I possibly could. I even put them in the freezer for a while. I didn't even think about the recipe for them. I will have to try it again with less butter and mm's. The store bought treats actually held up pretty well as long as I didn't attach his face, but I thought a faceless Elmo might freak out the kids! Thanks everyone for the great comments and advice!!!!

i uploaded pic of my abby cadabby it's in my photos. let me know what you guys think.