Lauren did an amazing job of shaping the Rice Krispy treat into the wobbly hat. The picture above is a very early, almost uncut version of the hat.

This is the near-finished version.

Next it was time to make our book. Rather than make a ridiculous amount of cake, we decided to make the book base out of fondant-covered styrofoam. The styrofoam also provided some extra support for everything above it. Though it is inedible, that didn't really make the styrofoam any easier to work with.

At this point Lauren started decorating and icing the cake. We obviously chose The Cat In The Hat for the book, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for the cake.

I feel like I don't yet have the words to describe everything that was done to make this cake. I may do a follow up as we get further removed from it because I feel like the words in this blog entry aren't doing it justice. Perhaps I'll reorganize my thoughts and type the descriptions in the style of a Dr. Seuss book.

If I can convey just one thing with this post, it is that this wasn't as easy it might look.

If you or your children ate any of the cake this weekend, you may want to grab the phone and put your dentist's number on speed dial. Sorry, but there just isn't any other to make these things.

Alright, marshmallow fondant is kind of fun to work with. The thing is I hate buying it (even though we've only used it once before this, and I don't think I paid for it) because it costs about $22 for 5 lbs. The store-bought fondant is also pretty hard and mostly flavorless. So we remedied all of those issues on Friday night by making our own. 

First thing you need to do is rub a large bowl with shortening, and then figure out how you're going to melt the marshmallows. Some people do it in 10 second bursts in the microwave, but I felt more comfortable with all the marshmallows being in the same bowl so I chose to use the double boiler method. Put an inch or two of water in the bottom of a stock pot and bring it to a boil. Then cover it with your greased stainless steel mixing bowl. Let the steam provide the heat to melt your marshmallows and water. Stir regularly with a greased spatula until it you see no lumps. If you know what color you need this fondant to be, add the food coloring/coloring concentrate now. Keep in mind that you're going to add a bunch of white (in the form of powdered sugar) to this mixture, so if the color seems a little dark or "off" don't fret. It will change in a few moments. Just keep in mind that you can always knead in more color later, so its better to err on the short side when adding your color. 

At this point, you should have your tag team partner dump 6 cups of powdered sugar in the (greased) mixing bowl for your KitchenAid stand mixer. Using the (greased) dough hook attachment, pour your liquid marshmallow into the mixing bowl, add the vanilla and turn the mixer on low (2 or stir). Once the powdered sugar has stopped coughing out the sides, turn the speed to 2 or 4 and let the dough form.

When the dough has formed turn it out on a surface sprinkled with powdered sugar and knead it by hand, checking for desired elasticity. You can add up to 2 more cups of powdered sugar at this point, but we found that anything beyond 6.5 - 7 cups makes the fondant very brittle and frustrating to work with.

When you're satisfied with the consistency, rub the ball of fondant with shortening and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let it rest overnight. Refrigerated, this fondant will keep for a couple of weeks. If you're going to use it the next day, I'd recommend you refrigerate it for an hour, maybe two hours tops and then let it sit out overnight. Fondant hardens significantly in the refrigerator and takes several hours to soften at room temperature. We made that mistake, and paid for it with our palms and forearms.

Repeat as necessary.

One last thing, no matter what you do, I don't think you'll get it to be as workable as Play-Doh. You could, by adding less powdered sugar, but you'd probably end up with fondant that is too delicate for covering cakes.

The second part of what we we needed for the this endeavor were Rice Krispy treats. In case you've been living under a rock for 15 years, here is a recipe for those:

Heat on low until melted, then turn off heat and add 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal. Stir thoroughly (with a greased spatula) and turn out into greased baking dish of your choice. Let cool, cut and serve.

For the purposes of making the Dr. Seuss hat we pressed the hot Rice Krispy treats into a high-sided 4-6 quart sauce pan. I think we made 4 batches like this, then Lauren cut them down to and fro until we had a wobbly looking Dr. Seuss hat.

Lastly, we needed buttercream icing. Sugar, sugar and more sugar. I don't know how much this recipe makes. I think its 3 cups, but we made so much of it that it has all blurred together.

Put the butter and shortening in your stand mixer bowl, and beat on low speed until combined. Add vanilla, continue to beat on low speed and then slowly add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Once all the sugar is in you should have a very dry paste. Add the milk and beat on low speed until the milk has been worked in.

In the picture above you can see our Rice Krispy hat and 2 quarts(!!) of buttercream icing.