I made a cake with fondant (for the first time) and I think I know where I went wrong. BUT I may be wrong or there may be more to it than I think.
Here's what happened: When I sized and rolled out the MMF, it was EXTREMELY hard and took me FOREVER to roll it out to as big as I needed. And also, it rolled out really thick. I tried so hard to get it thinner but it would just not stretch any thinner. So After I put it on my cake, it showed signs of cracking... I panicked. Then it happend, it cracked here.. then I tried to "mend" it with water... then it cracked there. I was almost in tears. THEN I tried to smooth it down but it was SO THICK and hard it would NOT smooth. I could not get it to just lay nicely. I ended up really panicking and bunched it up to make it seem smoothed down. Meanwhile It was looking terrible like a sloppily folded blanket. Plu the cracks...ugh. The instructions told me to use cornstarch to roll it out. Could that have dried it too much? I used a whole 2 lbs of powdered sugar (to 16 oz marshmallows, and 2 Tbs each vanilla and water). I know I should have used less sugar now. But is that the only place I went wrong?
Here is the picture of all the mistakes...
DOn't worry, it's your first time..since I've done Fondant a "million" times, only becasue it is the only icing I love to do..here is my diagnosis:
next time when you knead it and it feels so dry, try reheating it, BUT, add a few drops of water and 1 tsp of Crisco (after heating) as you knead until it reaches the consistency like play dough..stretchy, flexible and easy to rolled out. Knead it for a good 5 mins or more..the cure to hard fondant is liquid..but only add water right after it's heated.. heat it up for about 2 mins. BUT power (microwave) of about 6..I use corntstarch when rolling out, so don't blame cornstarch, and I'm sure your instructor knows what she's doing, as long as you didn't use cups of cornstarch.. keep practicing and trying..you'll soon get the hang of it..practice makes perfect..thank God Fondant ingredients are cheap.
good luck 
Yep, probably too much sugar. luvfondant has some great suggestions. I've never been able to use the whole 2 lbs of sugar. The amount you need will vary however due to humidity. Fondant should have the consistency kind of like playdoh, maybe a little stiffer. But it should be easy to work with and not crack. After sitting, it will get a little hard. I just microwave it for 20 sec. at a time to make it easier to work with. Be careful - it can get hot in spots - don't burn yourself! I've never used cornstarch to roll it out, just a light film (very very little) of crisco on the mat and rolling pin. Try it again - you'll love it!
That's what I do too, if it's too hard I pop it in the ol micro for bout 10-20 secs. And if it's still too hard I
"grease" my hands with the ol crisco and knead that into the fondant. Also, where I live it's very dry. So I add and extra 3 TBS of water into the marshmallows. I figure it this way, if it's too wet I just add more sugar. Too dry, knead in the ol crisco.
I discovered this one day when I was tired from stayin up all night making cakes and got confused on the water amounts for bc and fondant.
Made the best fondant that day. It was nice and soft and pliable and worked very well for what I needed it for.
p.s.
BTW here's a little tip that may help when you want to cover an odd shape in fondant (like the cup for instance) cover it upside down and fold over the extra fondant onto the top of the cake (o bout an inch should do) cause that's gonna be covered by the "coffee" anyways and eliminates the problem of trying to make all that fondant "smaller" Still love the logo on there that is beautiful. And ya done good for your first try at fondant.
OMG! You want to laugh? My husband suggested to me that I cover it upside down and I just laughed at him and said, "Ok that would just not work, you don't understand anything about decorating cakes". LOL! Please understand I am not mean to my husband....but that day, I was FRUSTRATED at my fondant! I could not accept sugar defeat so my defense mechanism was haughtiness. Wow.. should I admit to him his idea was right? Hahahahahahaha!
the first time I made fondant I dropped it on the floor and hit my son's toe and he started to cry. (way to hard and I added all the sugar it said to on the instructions) The second time was better but I found out that heating helps but my teacher taught me this week to knead in crisco and that helps with the elasticity and when rolling it to use crisco and it will never stick. AND it worked. I finally iced my first cake monday and it looked good. Still cracked but it was cause she said I didn't knead it enough.
By the way I do love your coffee cup cake, your logo is perfect.
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