Futurama Cake With Cake Pops!

The cake of the future! Or at least of Futurama.
I made this cake for a fan of the show Futurama. If you haven't heard of it yet....go look it up silly! It's entertaining.
This cake is based on a screen from the opening credits and also includes some of the main characters in the form of cake pops. And this Instructable will show you how it's done!

You'll need:
2 9-inch Round Cakes
1 8-inch Square Cake (Though shape doesn't matter because this becomes cake pops!)
Icing (Enough for the layer, to cover the cake once, and for making the cake pops)
Rolled Fondant (Bought or Made!)
Chocolate Melts (Red, Purple, White, Yellow, Orange, Gray - If you can't find these colors you'll have to make your own as I did)
Food Coloring (Blue, Black, and whatever other color you might need depending on the melts you were able to find.)
Lollipop/Cake Pop Sticks

Tools:
Something to put the cake on! Preferably a stand.
Bowls
Rolling Pin
Something to stick the pops in while working on them. I used a bit of foam.
Knife
Food grade paint brushes
Paper Towels

Start by taking one of your 9-inch round cakes and placing it on your chosen stand.

Ice a nice, thick layer on top of it, then place the other 9-inch round cake on top.

Cover both the cakes in a coat of icing to seal it, then stick it in the fridge for the icing to harden a bit and hold its shape.

While the cake is chilling, start making the character cake pops!

Grab your 3rd cake of whatever size, mine being the 8-inch square cake, and a bowl.

Break the cake into pieces then crumble it until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add about a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of frosting and mix well. You want a consistency of play-doh so that it holds its shape and doesn't fall apart.

The shapes I used for each character are a bit hard to describe, but I provided photos of how they looked. Bender and Zoidberg have the same shape of head, Leela and Fry were each different though. Don't forget to make a little pony tail shape for Leela that we will attach later.

Melt some of the white melts in a small bowl to use as glue for connecting the cake to the pop.

Just dip the end of a lollipop/cake pop stick into the melts then push it about halfway into the formed cake heads.

After doing this, I stuck them in the freezer for a bit to chill and harden so they were easier to work with later when dipping into the chocolates.

Take one of your packages of fondant, or your home made fondant and apply some generous dabs of blue food coloring to it (unless you get it blue already!)

Knead the fondant until the color is a smooth and even shade of blue.

To roll the fondant out in a round shape to go over your round cake, start it as a round ball and flatten it a bit til it resembles a disk shape with a mound in the middle.

Then take your rolling pin and roll down the mound from various sides to keep the circle shape.

Once you have it rolled out thin, use the rolling pin to roll the fondant over your cake.

Smooth and cut the fondant to fit your cake, giving it a clean appearance.

Next, grab one of your food safe paint brushes and some dark blue food coloring.

Figure out what will be the center of your cake and sketch out some lines.

Continue the lines up and around the cake.

Next go back and thicken the lines.

After your lines have been painted, go back in with a dampened paper towel and blend the lines.

The finished product should resemble the Futurama opening credit screen.

After your pops have chilled for a bit, you can take them out to dip them.

I started with Zoidberg and melted some red chocolate and put it in a glass to make it easier to dip him.

Dip the cake pop and gently tap the stick against the side to get any drops off.

Set him aside to dry.

I ended up having to make my own flesh tone for Fry and Leela. If you look at the picture of the bowl with the melts you can get an estimate of the percentage of each color (White, yellow, red) I used to make it.

I also melted down some purple to dip Leela's pony tail in. Didn't get a picture of that though.

For Bender, I just used white melts and a touch of black food coloring. Too much food coloring will mess with the chocolates consistency, so add it slow and careful!

After the pops have dried, I reheated the little bowl of white chocolate I used to glue the pops together. I then used a tooth pick to apply the eyes to each cake pop character.

After using the white melts to make Bender's eyes and mouth, I grabbed my food safe paint brush and brushed on the black detailing of his mouth and eyes. Remember, his pupils are square, not round like the others!

After finishing his black detailing I also added pupils to all the other characters and mouths on Fry and Leela.

To finish Zoidberg, I just needed to attach his mouth. I took a knife and cut strips out of two red chocolate melt wafers. Then I used the best looking 4 to put on his face. I attached them with melted red chocolate and set him aside to dry.

To finish Leela, I used some left over red from Zoidberg to make her lips. Then I melted down some more purple chocolate in a ziplock baggie, cut the corner and piped on the first layer of her hair. I then placed and held her pony tail on her head for a bit until it stuck.

To finish Fry, I made some orange chocolate with some red and yellow melts. I then gave them some time to cool and harden a bit until it was at a consistency where I could mold it into the shape of his hair. I also used this method to make both Fry and Leela's ears and nose with the flesh tone chocolate I previously made.

To finish bender, pipe some of the left over gray chocolate around his eyes. You may want to let it cool and pipe another layer to build it up a bit as well.

So the writing in the opening sequence is red outlined in yellow, I kept that and used left over melts I had. You could also use colored frosting or fondant as well if you have left overs of those you want to use.

I also kept the little running theme Futurama has where below the title there is a different message each time in white text such as "Filmed in front of a live audience." Even though it's a cartoon. So I wanted to do a little something like that pertaining to the person's b-day. You of course don't have to follow that, you can write whatever humorous message you would like!

No, it is.
Well there you have it! Stick the cake pops into the cake and serve it up. Or stick them in a container or piece of foam next to the cake. Eating them works great too. Hope you enjoy!