So i know this question has been asked before, however I'm not a professional...I'm just a mom!

My son's birthday will be on a Saturday. I don't have a "cake fridge/freezer" to store the cake in for days. I'm making a simple Monkey cake from a mold with frosting (I'm not sure what kind but i know i need to learn piping pretty quick!)

How far in advance can i make the cake. Would it be ok to make it Friday, refrigerate it and ice on Saturday morning? then should i leave it in the refrigerator until ready to serve or is it ok to be out so everyone can see it?

is there a certain type of frosting that works better for piping?  the cake i want to make is shown below...

last question...I'm going to also make cake pops covered in chocolate/candy melts. Can i make them completely the day before and refrigerate until the party. or do i have to decorate them the day of as well??

thank you so much! and yes....I'm getting help to do this! I'm a great baker....just testing the decorating piece!

AI'm a home baker, too. But I lurk all the time, reading threads to learn. Here is what I think the experienced cakes will say: baking well in advance is fine, wrap in Saran Wrap or press and seal, then a freezer bag or foil. I did this a few weeks ago when I had my son and mother in law's cakes the same weekend. Most people don't seem to recommend refrigerating the cake, it dries it out. Buttercream is your best bet for piping, those type of pans come with a recipe, a list of how much if each color you need and the tips necessary to decorate it. As for the pops, I have only done them once, but I thought the directions actually recommended the fridge. But unless it is super hot or humid, the day before should be fine for everything. You can search the site here under recipes for the buttercream, and I bet there is a tutorial on cake pops( I'm on my phone and haven't figured out how to add a link yet). Good luck!

I'm a home baker too, I have made that very cake we put a curious George birthday hat on it and called it a curious George cake, I have also made many other caricatures I just used Wilton's butter cream recipe that comes with the cake be sure to whip it good though this will help make sure the shortening is mixed well and cut down on the coating in your mouth, Here is how I do mine.
I bake the cake the day before a party I make and color all my buttercream and put it in the icing bags, then the night before the party I decorate, after the kids are asleep so they won't be getting into any of my stuff (if your kids will stay away from it you could do this the day before), I most the time store overnight on the cake board under a fan box I have saved a few fan boxes just for this, they sit on the table or on the washing machine at room temperature, if your going to Wait until the morning of the party you may end up with a lot of cornstarch on your cake, because the area on the monkeys face and eyes is done by smoothing with your finger dipped in cornstarch, over time this will dissolve into your buttercream that the only thing I can think of that might be an issue....

I have never made cake pop's so can't advise on that..
 

For brown you can use coco powder, or make chocolate butter cream  http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Chocolate-Buttercream-Icing a lot of times I just cut out some of the powdered sugar and replace it with coco powder
 

Thank you for the cornstarch tip!

I actually didn't know these pans came with a recipe for the frosting and instructions on how to make it! The eases my mind quite a bit.

So unless its pretty hot outside (his bday is september 21st so it could go either way here in NH) I can probably store the finished and frosted cake on the counter. If I store it in the fridge for only one night, is there anything i have to worry about such as drying out?
 

mermaidcakery - thank you. i think i will do all the cake pops the night before and store in the fridge until party time.

Yep you can even read the instructions now http://www.wilton.com/downloads/paninstructions/2105-1023Monkey.pdf and get an idea of what your in for, it tells you how much of each color you will need but I will say they tell you to make twice what you need, so don't do what I did on my first one it was Dora I made twice what they told me LOL.

I did store my first 2 in the fridge over night and they were fine, if you want to store it in the fridge before decorating wrapping it in saran wrap will keep it from drying..