Hi, I am going to be making a monster truck for my nephews birthday. I'm wondering how early I can make the rice krispie treats (for the tires)? I've never used them before so I want to make sure I don't make them to early so they don't taste stale.

The cake is for Sunday.

Also, if I will be putting fondant over the rice krispies, do I put icing on first? I assume so, but thought I would double check.

Thanks for any help!!

I'm really anxious to hear what everyone has to say about rkt. I tried working with them over the holidays, and found it nearly impossible. What's the trick to working with rkt?

If you are making the rice krispie treats, I would hold off until later in the week. Actually, if I only needed the rkt for the tires, I would buy one of the large rkt treat bars.
I do not use any icing on the rkt prior to covering with fondant. It sticks nicely. The only problem you may encounter is the bumpiness of the rkt.
Hope this helps.

I have only ever used RKT once (for a ladybug head) but I was not concerned with it still being edible. I packed the RKT into the form I needed then smothered it with Crisco to fill in any pockets or rough spots. The Cisco also helped the fondant stick & form around the RKT really well. Wouldn't eat it though even if you paid me!

I made rkt tires for the monster truck cake in my photos, I made them the same day I decorated the truck.
I just formed tire shapes and then glued them to a 6" cardboard cake board (for stability) using royal icing and chilled them in the fridge . Then I iced them with butter cream and rolled them smooth, covered in fondant and that was it. They were my first tires and turned out easier then I thought.
I don't know if others have used a cake board with their tires but I didnt want to take a chance of them losing their shape , and it worked out for me.
Good Luck!

I usually mash the rice cereal a bit to make the pieces a little smaller. It helps with the bumps, but it dries them out. To be honest, with the RKT figurines I am usually more interested in look than taste.

thanks for all of your help! If I could find the large rkt bar I think I'd try that, but I live in a small town now and there are a lot of things I can't get here! argh!

I used RKT on my Halo cake and I did them the night I needed them. I did some of my shaping by hand and with cutters, and while I was shaping I tried to smash the rice krispies a bit so they wouldn't be so bumpy under the fondant. As loucarp posted, I didn't use any icing under the fondant either. I think if you wanted a smoother texture you could try the icing. I found them to be a very easy medium to work with.javascript:emoticon('')