Mario Cupcakes!

This probably dates me but I'd say the Nintendo (NES) was pretty much the most influential electronic item of my childhood. And for me, the most mind numbingly played game was Super Mario Brothers 3. It's easily 8+ hours of your life to just play it through continuously but it never worked like that. There were always interruptions even during summer vacation like 'lunch' or 'dinner' or  'clean your room' or 'you should go outside and play'. And in those hours away from the TV, you were still thinking about the game BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SAVE.... oh the number of times my hours of progress was lost because of things like "oh I had to unplug it because I had to plug in the vacuum cleaner" or "oh I just knocked into it and it turned off/knocked the cartridge/reset the system" and I had to start over again. Hours of my life were invested in this game.
In grad school surrounded by others who spent their mis-spent child hood playing SMB3, we came up with a variation. "Drunken Mario". People rotate in and out of control per level, every time you die you take a shot. Of course you have to start early because of the number of hours required but the real challenge of this game is that as the levels get more difficult the drunkenness also goes up exponentially. So when Nicole (always ready to take a few shots for the team in world 7 with the infinite coin room trick) and I saw various Mario cakes and cupcakes on the cakewrecks.com blog we were inspired. 

Testing Phase

Of course we couldn't just jump head first into it so actually we made a separate batch of cupcakes to 'test' that the large project was even possible a month before the actual try. The most important thing to test, what kind of fondant! We crossed out store-bought fondant before we even started. Google turned up a couple likely prospects, Buttercream Fondant and Marshmallow Fondant. After testing, we concluded:
 
Buttercream Fondant: Glossy Sheen, Easy to add color, Tasted good, Strangely Sticky
Marshmallow Fondant: Matte Finish, Hard to add Color, Tasted like sugar, Easier to work with
 
Between the oddly sticky nature of the Buttercream and the slightly easier preparation of the marshmallow we decided to go for the marshmallow fondant for the final phase. We also established that it would probably take about 3 days to complete all 50 of the planned cupcakes, and that the fondant does in fact store fairly well. 
We spent the next few weeks planning. ~6 cupcakes per world... One Mario in each world... because of course we had strong feelings for each aspect of Mario (especially boot Mario). At least all of the major enemies. Mushrooms... Blocks? So much to do! But then further inspiration struck! Mini Cupcakes! Even more possibilities! Even more work! Crisis! So we recruited another helper/slave. 

Production Phase

So finally diagrams made, colors decided, fondant started, we set to work. Nicole volunteered to do all of the Marios so Serina and I divided the monsters and other quintessential items. It was indeed quite the adventure, but probably no one felt the sting harder than Brian who was not allowed into the kitchen during the hours that we were working in it (it was a surprise for him after all) and couldn't even get water. 3 days, 2 packs of funfetti cake mix, unaccountable pounds of powdered sugar later, our masterpiece was complete!
For some reason the Blooper Nannies were the most 'coo'ed over monster... who knew... 
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