I will be making the groom's cake for my niece's wedding in April. It will be the Florida "Gator" head on top of a football field made with those horrible silocone pans- seriously-who thought of that?? I do not want it to have the "star" finish that I learned in 1982 on top but smooth instead. I'll be wrapping the side in fondant. I don't know if I should try to use a "flood"method with the different colored sections-maybe outline the "bumps" and flood or can I somehow use fondant pieces ? I can't get a picture to attach so hopefully have described what I'm looking for! Thanks!

I would do the fondant pieces. Use your pan to get the sizes and look before putting it on the cake.

I agree...I was just looking at my 50+ character pans (I inherited from an aunt) I have wondering if I will ever use them. This sounds like a great way to do it!

I don't know if I get what you're trying to do but I've done the star method in buttercream and used the Viva paper towel to smooth it down. I think I left a little room for between the stars so when I smoothed it out they flowed together nicely. That way I got the color combination without the bumps.
I did that on my Penguin cake and the blue baby cake blanket.

I flat refuse to buy character pans. I do own the race car and the wonder molds. That's it. But for characters I either do fondant cut outs, BC glaze, BCT or CT.

I don,t have a pic. but i did the purse cake (wilton pan) and covered it in fondant and decorated it with fondant deco's. I used pink and green fondant. It was really cute.So, no, you don,t have to use b/c stars.

I, too, inherited two garbage bags FULL of character pans probably 15 years ago - we're talkin from Hollie Hobbie foward - I think I've used Mickey Mouse twice. I will try both methods beforehand - thanks guys! - The good thing about doing cakes as presents is they really can't complain!!!

My dh made me sound like a complete cake snob the other day. A friend of his sent him a pic of a mickey mouse cake (done with the character pan) and asked if I'd make it for his 4 year old's b-day. First my dh chuckled and then showed me the pic. I looked at it and said, I'll make a mickey mouse cake for him, but I'm not using that pan (I also don't own that particular one). I didn't mean for it to sound snobby at all, I just like to be more creative now. When he told his friend, he made it sound like I was above that kind of thing.

I too have several of those pans and have made them for my kids and grandkids many times over the years. But I've just learned so much more in the last year, I don't want to use them anymore.

Using fondant instead of the star tip could take those pans to a new level. I've actually seen someone on here, can't remember who, made a 3d doll cake using one of those teddy bear character pans. She decorated it in fondant and it looked amazing.

*edit to add, I found the doll cake I was talking about. I was wrong, she used the cabbage patch 3d pan not the bear pan. Here is is if you want to take a look. It was done by anamado here on CC and she did an awsome job. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=611152&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

http://melcakewalk.blogspot.com/2011/02/gator-color-flow-cake.html

She pressed the fondant into the pan to get a good impression and then only filled with stars the hair and the bikini top. I think it made for an awesome cake.

https://cakecentral.com/gallery/354793