My son's 2nd birthday was this weekend so I decided to do an Elmo cake. I read on here that most people sculpted the head, arms, legs out of RKT. I have never used them but decided to give it a go. Everything was working out great until I stuck the eyes and nose on and the face started to sag. I decided to take them out and turn the head around so that I could work with the surface on the back that I had not stuck the eyes into. This seemed to work. Once I was done with the cake I put it in the fridge thinking it would firm it back up. Well then we left for the hour drive to my parents house. The head started splitting and the entire back came off on the drive. I tried to fix it once I got there but it was no use. By the time the party started his leg and arm were also falling apart. It was a mess =(

Then I wondered if this happened because I didn't cover the RKT with anything other than the butter cream. I never read that you have to but I am thinking that was the problem, or putting it in the fridge, not enough marshmallows (I followed the recipe on the box). Any ideas what caused this? I guess it could be a combo of problems.. Thanks

i'm no pro anf have only used RKT a few times, but when I do use it I cover it on a thin layer of BC, and then a thick layer of fondant, that way the fondant dries and helps support the RKT. I'm sure putting it int he fridge caused it to get "mooshy" so to speak, and didnt allow the RKT to dry, which it needed to dry...

I think tat may have been the problem, but i dunno, i'm not a pro.. (yet... haha)

For the few RKT items I have made I usually let the shaped piece dry for a day before coating with anything. I have coated with royal icing, which hardened very well, and then fondant (magic cake). I have also coated the RKT with modeling chocolate (zombie hand), which is more expensive but the easiest to "mold" once on the piece. The chocolate hardens very nicely as well.

I never seem to be able to get my RKT to harden, they stay somewhat soft so I've found that covering with materials that harden are easier to keep the pieces in tact.

Hope that helps!

I don't know why it never dawned on me to cover them. My husband said that when it started to collapse and it was like duh! I should have covered them. I just read what other people did and they didn't mention covering them but it might just be a given.

I making my first rkt cake topper tomorrow and I'm so scared this is going to happen. I'm making a 2010 camaro....gulp...I'm really hoping I didn't take on more than I can chew!
So sorry this happen, it sucks when things down't work out the way we pictured them...sigh

Hey fellow cakers, being a beginner, I really dont have any qualified advice to give, but just wanted to add that this too happened to me at the weekend.

I made a cat in a gift box cake for my neice's 7th birthday, and I modelled the cat out of RKT after picking up the tip for that on here. It worked really well (or so I thought!) and I covered it with BC piped with a grass tip for fur. I covered it with the BC immediately after sculpting, and as this was the last part of the cake to do, it was then immediately wrapped up and into the car we all got for the party, me with the cake on my lap, DH driving, and the 3 kids in the back! The journey SIL's is 20 mins. 5 mins into the journey I could see that kitty's nose was starting to crack and come away, a mere few minutes later and the whole damn thing was falling off, at which point I was yelling "STOP THE CAR NOW!!" I had to remove the nose and sit with it in my hand the rest of the way.
It was soo disappointing as its my first cake of the professional kind that the in laws have seen, and I so really wanted it to be perfect and to have that wow factor when I walked in with it.
I learned a few lessons that day,
1 - I should have used royal icing not BC
2 - I should have left the RKT to sit and set before covering
3 - I shouldn't have inserted the florist wires for whiskers, I think these definitely contributed to pushing the nose section off.
4 - I need to keep a bag of decorating stuff for such emergencies with me when travelling with a cake. It would have been so much easier to fix if I'd brought the piping bag with me.

In the end I managed to salvage it, but it wasnt nearly as good as I wanted it to be. The family on the other hand still said wow, and they all loved it.
Silver lining to the cloud? It tasted fab!

I always press my RKT together fairly firmly...and I always do let it firm up in the fridge for awhile. I also try to lessen the butter (enough to taste okay but not so much that its soft) in the recipe.

Also I ice it in buttercream, which also I let chill...and then cover in fondant...by the time its chilled overnight in a completed state, so far I have not had it break or sag on me.

I learned the hard way, but when making RKT for carving, or sculpting, you use more cereal, less marshmallow, and little to no butter. The cereal makes it stronger. It you want it smoother, you can crush your cereal, but this will also make it much heavier (learned that the hard way too!). And I think it was Indydebi who said she brushes hers with white chocolate - I did that and it was smoother. HTH

I just made my first RKT car last week. I made sure to crunch up my krispies a bit and then let them sit before I scupted the car. I then let it sit for an hour or so to get hard. I covered it in BC and then MMF, I made it two days in advance just to make sure it was firm enough...it was more for decoration than eating. I'm happy with the results.
I think it's funny I could sculpt this car but I tried to draw it...it looked like a banana boat lol.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for all the helpful tips!

Looks Great!! Love the tires around the bottom also!

when I make rkt figures (like the penguin pic. below) I get rid of ALL the butter in the recipe, and I crush the rk a bit so they stick together tighter. I melt the marshmallows and then add butter flavored extract (so you don't miss the butter flavor) and then add crushed rice krispies (I don't pulverize them, just kinda take a handful, squeeze, drop in bowl, another handful, squeeze, drop in bowl, etc. until I have enough that the marshmallows coat everything but don't look white. If you have too much marshmallow the figure will never firm up completely.

I coat them in candy melts and then fondant, or buttercream and then fondant.

HTH

I read an extremely useful post previously where the person said to use melted white chocolate. marshmallows, and rice krispies (crushing half of them to make a less lumpy figurine) It dries rock hard and worked perfectly

I made a 'Bender' cake yesterday out of RTK for my son. I HATE that show but that's what he wanted.....LOL.....anyway here is my recipe for RTk for sculpting......I used 3 double batches for the cake......
This recipe is for a double batch:
12 cups of rice krispies (using gloved hand crush rice krispies... I just grab a handful and squeeze them in my hand crushing them a bit)
4 Tablespoons real butter
72 large marshmallows
Heat butter and marshmallows in microwave until marshmallows are almost completely melted. I used buttered, gloved hands and mix the rice krispies with the melted marshmallows. I press in large sheet cake pan until firm....

I found out yesterday that you CAN warm them in the microwave just a bit if they harden to much before your finished sculpting. By crushing the r.k. it makes the RTK's much denser and smoother and my cake held together very well. I'm trying to upload a photo from my phone but I'm having difficulties.

Like the pp said you need to reduce the amount of butter and the amount of marshmallows. I did cover mine with fondant but I sculpted the entire cake the day before (never refrigerated it) and it held together very well without any coating or icing. My fondant also looked very smooth because I crushed the r.k. like Tina said she does. They still tasted great btw