Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Cake

This cake is based off of the science fiction comedy book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  

There have been many different covers for his book, but I happen to have the one with this crazy little green guy on it, so that's what my "art" is based on.  For those of you familiar with Deep Thought, this design happens to be pretty funny for anyone turning 42 who is familiar with the book.

Cake
Baker's choice.
Frosting
Baker's choice.

Note - I always frost cakes before adding the fondant for the following reasons:
1. it gives the fondant something to stick to
2. most people (like me) don't like the way fondant tastes, so this way they also get frosting.

Fondant
Ingredients
1 bag marshmallows
3 tbs water
Crisco solid - at least 1/4 cup
powdered sugar - about 2 lbs
food coloring

Other things you'll need
large microwave safe bowl
wooden spoon
Fondant mat, wax paper or parchment paper
Fondant rolling pin
Fondant cutter/knife

Use Crisco to grease large microwave safe bowl.  Add marshmallows and water.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Use Crisco to grease the wooden spoon (you'll want to grease all the way up the handle and you'll most likely want to grease your hands once you've laid out your fondant mat, gotten out the rolling pin, and opened the powdered sugar).

Stir marshmallow mixture with wooden spoon (it should be liquidy).  Add powdered sugar by the cupful, stirring well after each addition, until batter is no longer sticky - it's going to take a lot of powdered sugar and you'll want to keep testing it with your hands to make sure it's not sticking to you.  Once complete, you'll have a giant bowl of white fondant.  Approximately 2/3 will be used for the initial covering of the cake.

Before moving on, grease your hands.  It prevents the fondant from sticking to you.

If you want to color the fondant, take the amount of dough that you'd like to color and stretch it out slightly.  Add a few drops of food coloring to the center and fold dough in on itself (this prevents the color from getting all over you).  You'll end up with a ball of colored dough to work with.  Set aside.  Repeat process with white fondant until you have all desired colors.

On to the messy part..

On your fondant mat (or wax/parchment paper) cover with a layer of powdered sugar.  Roll out the dough so that you have enough to cover the entire cake.  To pick fondant off of the paper, drape the edge of the rolled fondant over your rolling pin and loosely "roll up" the dough from the mat.  Basically, it will end up looking like you've hung a towel over a rack.  Carry over to your cake (or put your cake directly under the draped fondant and smooth the fondant over the cake.  Using a fondant cutter remove the excess fondant from the bottom of the cake. 

If your cake looks a little powdery, all you have to do is get your hands damp and brush the top of the fondant.  The powdered sugar will dissolve into the fondant.

The decorating is easy - just cut out the designs, shapes, etc that you'd like to add to your cake.  Add them to the top and lightly press down so that they adhere to the base fondant.


Note: Since this fondant is made from marshmallows it can be a little bit melty.  It's best to store in the refrigerator if you aren't going to serve it within a few hours.  Also, this fondant is 100% edible although it is incredibly sweet.