I want to make my son's cake for his first birthday. I have ordered a wilton shaped pan. I grew up wih my Mom making cakes and using the star tip, etc. is not unfamiliar to me. How long should I plan for it to take me to ice the cake? I'm getting scared that maybe I am taking on too much.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

I am sure you will be fine! How do you plan to ice it? Is it a character that you have to use a lot of different colors? Just putting the crumb coat on will not take long at all but I always let it set for a bit after so that it settles and all the air pockets are "pushed" out. And a final coat takes a bit longer to get it smooth... If you are using a lot of different colors to "draw" the character I bet it will take awhile! I have never done that because so far I have mostly been doing fondant. I suppose if you have enough pastry bags for each color and they are filled and ready you could cut your time down a lot so you don't have to clean and re-fill for each color! That would take forever =) I say give yourself plenty of time so that you don't feel rushed. I mess up when I am in a hurry! So then if you need to re-do anything you will have time...and if you don't use all the time you gave yourself....realx and enjoy some free time =) Good luck!

I agree with everything the PP has said. You're gonna do great! Post pics when you're done.

you will do a great job and your son will love it! have fun with it!

Start out using a mix for both the cake and frosting. It is ok for the first time because it will give you an idea how long star tipping takes to accomplish.

When I first started I new nothing about decorating except from what my mom did in the 70's.

Have fun!

You'll do fine other than find yourself with a sore wrist from piping a gazillion stars!
Don't worry about having your base coat of icing super smooth like the PP mentioned, as you're going to be covering your character shape with stars anyway. I think the PP thought you were going to draw the character on your iced cake. Then you need smooth icing.

Have fun, give yourself enough time so you can take you time piping, and not be rushed. Rushing is to hard on the wrist. Also, have whatever colours you need mixed up ahead of time, in piping bags if you can so you're ready to go. And the board. Have your board covered and ready to go ahead of time too.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone. The pan is a jeep. I'll be using the star tip for most of it. Can anyone give me any idea of the time? 1 hour? 6 hours?

Dixie, I did the buzz lightyear character pan in my photos using the star tip of course, and it took about 3 hours to decorate and one REALLY sore wrist. It might take a bit longer or a bit less, just depends on how quick you are. I'm pretty slow.

I forgot giving a time besides saying give yourself lots of time. Agree with the PP, 3 hrs or more if you can, as you'll want to stop and rest your wrist off and on. Star piping gets tedious and usually does cause wrist pain from all that constant squeezing.

I copied a comment a person posted on another cake board for you to read. This person made the wilton victory lap car for the first time. The victory lap car is pretty close to a jeep in design. Anyway, you can get an idea of what you'll be dealing with from reading her comment.


"This cake was very long, hard and tedious work, but it came out BEAUTIFUL! I made the candies a couple days in advance and had everything set for the last day when we were going to celebrate my nephew's birthday. It took a long time because I don't have much experience building something like this, but it was definitely a crowd-pleaser and a huger hit with everyone! I think what took the longest was making all the different colors of icing and filling the bags. I highly recommend trying this cake out! I think that being very organized and starting a few days in advance helps out a lot!"