Yesterday I got an order for a 40th birthday cake and she wants it to look exactly like her husbands lap top. At first I though oh yeah... this will easy! But then I got to thinking about the lid of the lap top being open and that's where I'm running into problems Can the "lid" portion even be done out of cake? How will I get it to stand up? It has to be relatively thin and the only thing I can think of is using carboard and then covering it in fondant - but I REALLY hate using anything on my cakes that isn't edible. Any suggestions on how to do this? Thank you so much!!

Sorry, maybe this should be posted in the "how do I" section?

have you got a picture of the lap top? if the top screen is really thing i would make it out of gum paste left to completely dry and use some wooden sticks inbetween scrren and lid and straight into cake board if its thicker you may be able to use cake but you run the risk of it falling
just a thought not sure if it will work in practice as ive never tried but that would be what i would try first

For an open laptop, I'm thinking if you cut a cakeboard for one side of the open screen (and cover it when you do the rest), and then maybe a thin piece of cakeboard for the part that the cake will be resting on... I think I'm explaining this very poorly.

If you had a 'L" shaped piece of cardboard and you rested your rectangle cake on it, and then coated all that in fondant to seal it together, I bet you could make it stand with some dowels. You would just need to make sure it was very secure, and not standing up until it got to the location it needed to be.

Does that make sense at all? (besides in my own head??)

If it's thick, maybe rice cereal treats? My only other "edible" thought was the gumpaste, like Mandyjb74 said.

Okay I tried the rice crispy treats and it worked out PERFECT!!!! YAYYY!!! Thank you so much for all the great ideas, I was really stressed out about how to make it all edible, and for some reason rice crispy treats never even crossed my mind! Thanks again

Glad the rice krispy treats worked!
I was going to suggest candy melts for the lid. You pour some melted candy onto wax paper on a cookie sheet and let it cool for the lid. Two ideas on how to make it stand:
(1)Pour a second one for the "base". Attach the lid" to the "base" with more melted candy and support it (maybe with books?)until it solidifies. Then you could place the cake "base" on top of the candy base, being careful not to jostle the "lid".
(2) While pouring the candy melts, place 3 or 4 dowels (or cake pop sticks) on the bottom side of the "lid", so that they stick out like sucker sticks. When the "lid" dries, you can stick it into the cake like a giant candy sucker. Just make sure the sticks are long enough to support the weight of the lid.

Like katj012, you'd need to make sure that the lid is secure and not put in until at the venue.

Oh yeah! Glad it worked out so well for you.