my idea is to slice a round cake into six pieces and then arrange five pieces on parchement to that the corners touch. i would then draw the middle hexagon shape onto the parchment and cut it out of another round cake and then assemble.

has anyone tried this or have an opinion as to whether or not it might work?

tia

I actually did my own template for a star last year, I was trying to remember how I did it LOL!!! Your idea sounds like it would work - it certainly wouldn't hurt to try!

Wilton sells a star shaped pan. Do you need one larger than that?

Why don't you make a template of a star, lay it over a round or square cake and cut out the shape? You won't have lots of joins in the cake then which might make it unstable.

i was at michael's earlier today and didn't see a star shaped pan. my concern with a shaped pan would be that the points of the star would bake and brown very quickly and the center wouldn't be done.

it's a group birthday cake (free cakes for kids) so i was going to make the star's "arms" different colors and have a child's name on each. i do need a large cake as there are 25-40 kids.

i really appreciate everyone's input - thanks!

That does seem like it would work...(I just played around with my kids' scissors and paper! lol!) Be sure to post a pic here to let us know how it turned out!
Good luck!
And I think it's a great idea for a group cake - each point being for a child. That's a wonderful thing you are doing for those children!

Just last week my sister asked me if I could make my niece a small star shaped pillow for school (it was to be decorated in class).
I don't sew, but she can't even thread a needle .

After realizing that a simple star shape was much more difficult than I thought, I looked on-line and found many helpful sites...the easiest was this one: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/paper/ss/5pointstar.htm

A piece of paper, a bunch of folds, and a final cut later...I ended up with a perfect paper star. I then traced it onto cardboard and used that as my template to cut the fabric.

Of course during the process I kept thinking this would be perfect to make a star shaped cake someday....

Depending on where you make the final cut, your star will have thicker or thinner points.

Here's a photo...the small star was just a practice.
I taped 2 papers together to double the size to 17"x20" for the bigger one....
I was storing them folded...a couple heavy books would flatten them easily.

I just did a star cake for christmas. I did what the OP said...I baked 3 - 8"x2" rounds, cut them into 6 pieces. Arranged into 5-star pattern using 15 of the 18 pieces. the other 3 pieces I crumbled up and filled the middle of the star with. I also mixed with my icing to make a sort of cake ball consistency. I had a raspberry filling so I topped it off with fresh raspberries. I iced the whole cake with IMBC and it smoothed over well in the middle.

and if you check the templates gallery, you find this:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_663133.html

not just one but several great ideas! thanks everyone.