I started working on my daughter's first birthday cake today...her birthday is Friday. I was going to use the 3D cuddly bear pan to make a little girl. Long story short the bear started to crack and it just wasn't going to work. Luckily I was going to put it on top of another cake that is the right amount of portions for the amount of people we are having over. So, I had made some MM fondant to use to mold some ladybugs. I kneeded that stuff for an hour, microwaving it for 10 seconds every once in a while...adding shortening to my hands often (to keep from sticking)...I also added water. Well after an hour of back breaking kneeding the fondant still was not plyable. I would roll it out and it would just break into pieces. So, I thought ...maybe I need some more marshmallows in it...or maybe I put too much powdered sugar in it (I followed the recipe). I added some more melted marshmallows (thanks to my DH that went and bought me some more. That didn't work.
What did I do wrong? Help.
I now have a crumb coated cake without any ideas of what to do with it.
AHHHHHH!!!! 
The water is where you went wrong. When the MMF is hard to work with, add Crisco to it and it should go back to normal. Although it does take a while to work enough in. Try makeing a regular crusting BC and icing the cake in girly colors like pink, purple and white or of coarse you can always make another batch of MMF and use it strait out of the bowl... at least you know the stuff won't crumble up on you with it being so fresh.
I found out by accident that the recipe has too much powdered sugar. I only had a 10 ounce bag so I followed the recipe using 10 ounces of marshmallow and 20 ounces of sugar. What I forgot was to lower the amount of water, but I ended up with perfect mmf that was very easy to need and use. So, when I later made it with a 16 ounce bag I used 3 TBSP of water instead of 2 and it came out great.
Don't underestimate the amount of crisco that gets added in. I would say that at least a 1/4 - 1/2 cup gets kneaded into it by the time you're done. I would scrap the batch you're working on and just start fresh. Are you adding flavoring too? That teaspoon of flavoring is extra liquid so don't forget it.
Koolaid - which MMF recipe are you talking about? I want to try it out soon, and I would like to keep your advice in mind...
It's the regular mmf recipe. If you go to the recipes there's also a link that has detailed directions and pictures for making it and putting it on a cake.
Thank you. I'm going to scrap my batch and start over. If that doesn't work I may just have to go with the old clown cake standby 
The first time I made MMF I didn't have any problems...ever since each batch has become worse. Let's pray that the new batch works.
Well, I made a new batch, it looked much better. I rolled it out and tried to put it on the cake. It stuck together, then it started to tear, and then some stuck to the cake, so it had crumbs in it. Luckily I still had some and it was still workable enough to use to make figures. So, I am buttercreaming the cake and putting the figures on it that way.
I have used MMF before and it worked well for me. I just don't know what was going on with this batch (and the batch for the last fondant cake I did). I may just have to buy some Satin Ice and try with that or I may just give up on trying to cover cakes with fondant...you professionals make it look so easy!
I'm using the one from this site. I'm hoping it is just a fluke...maybe it's because I'm in a time crunch...that seems to happen to me a lot. Oh well, I'm going to try my hand at a purse cake next week (maybe) for my MIL. I might try the fondant again. Could I be kneeding it too long?
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