IF I WANT TO PUT A CAKE IN THE FREEZER AND ICE IT ON SATURDAY... HOW DO I PREPARE IT? DO I WRAP IT UP IN SARAN WRAP??

Yes...I first wrap mine in saran wrap and then wrap it in freezer paper, I swear that freezing the cake actually helps make/keep the cake moister.
***Hint when defrosting your cakes, I leave mine wrapped up sitting on the counter while I get things ready for icing. Doing this helps retain the moisture in the cake. I once left a cake unwrapped so that it would defrost faster and the cake was too dry for my taste. I did not realize it had been a bit drier until after I had iced it and served it at the baby shower that I had made it for. I was not happpy with myself.

good to know....

how soon after you take it out of the freezer can you frost it, and then how soon can it be served? ( without breaking anyones teeth that is)

You are really really best off letting the cake completely defrost before icing it if you need your icing to be smooth, trust me on this one, haha!
I don't do it often, but occasionally I have iced a cake with stars or something like that and not had an issue, even when the cake was frozen. But duh, one day, I decided to flat-ice a cake while still frozen. Big mistake, the icing kind of set as soon as it touched the frozen cake and did I have a of a time smoothing the cake afterwards.
For some larger cakes it can take as much as 4 hours to defrost completely. So give yourself plenty of time.
What I usually do while it is frozen is fill the cake though. Unless the filling requires refridgeration, I fill it as soon as it comes out of the freezer the loosely cover the cake with plastic wrap and let it defrost. I can do this because I crumbcoat the cakes with thinned apricot glaze before I freeze them. Otherwise I would keep them tightly wrapped.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Unless it's a cake I'm having to do start to finish all in the same day I usually freeze my cakes at least overnight. I just feel this makes the larger ones a lot easier to handle to stack and center on the boards. I don't worry about their being completely defrosted before icing but they most generally are. I'll sure keep in mind what Squirrlycakes said and not attempt to ice one completely frozen. See how we can learn from others mistakes? Oh yah! Anyway I wrap them with stretch plastic wrap, from Wal Mart, one way then the other to cover then one more time to seal all the ends. I've never bothered with foil. I haven't noticed any difference in the moisture with freezing and it doesn't affect the taste.

Even when a cake is frozen it isn't likely to break a tooth, they don't get that hard!

Squirrelly, tell me about this "thinned apricot glaze" crumbcoat, that sounds like something I'd like to try. Janice

Hi Janice,
Well, here you can buy apricot glaze already made up from a local bakery, it used to be easy to come by but not anymore. So if you cannot get it, you get Pure Apricot Jam. Incidentally, most commercial bakers use this for crumbcoating all of their cakes.
Well the trick is, if you don't want the taste of the apricots, either you get the glaze already made and you measure it out and add 1/2 that measured out amount in water. In other words, 2 cups glaze, one cup water. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes and it is ready to use. I keep it in a container in the fridge, it lasts for months, then I re-heat about 1/4 cup at a time in the microwave until it comes to a boil.
Can't get the prepared stuff? Well get some Pure Apricot Jam. Bring this to a boil for 3 minutes or so. Remove from heat and force it through a fine sieve to get rid of the pulp but to get all the juice. Measure it out and again pour half the measured amount in water, so 2 cups heated strained jam, 1 cup water and return to a boil and boil for 3-5 minutes. Again use while hot and refridgerate the rest until you need it.
Now generally the bought prepared glaze is a lot more gelled or thicker than when you do the jam one, but it works fine.
I level my cakes as soon as they come out of the pans, so I am brushing the hot glaze on a hot levelled cake. Generally most people level their cakes when they are cool, but still, heat up that glaze before you apply it. It takes about 25 minutes to set on a cooled cake, on a hot cake you will wait until the whole cake is completely cooled before icing it with your buttercream.
You are using a pastry brush to sparingly brush on this glaze, you are not soaking the cake with it, just enough to see that it was brushed on. So that means that about 1/4 cup will do a 14 inch round layer or so, so I do mean sparingly. The joy is that it takes only seconds to do this and you don't have to worry about smoothing your buttercream crumbcoat because the glaze doesn't need smoothing and you go on to actually icing the cake as soon as it is cool and set or you can cover it with plastic wrap at this point and wait until when you are ready or freeze it this way.
Commercial bakers do not add water to it as they also use it to flavour a cake slightly. Either way, it works great!
Why do I use it, well generally because I have a whole bunch of cakes waiting for a crumbcoat and this means I can crumbcoat them immediately and not have to worry about them drying out or setting an alarm clock to get up and cover them or crumbcoat them. Plus it works really well to seal in the moisture and the crumbs and it also means I don't have to put on nearly as much buttercream icing.
However if you are doing a cake with say, basketweave sides, well you will still need to apply a thin coat of buttercream before doing the basketweave so that the cake does not show through. But for anything else, well you just do your final icing over it, once it is set. I generally do character cakes with the stars directly over the glazed cake, I do not put buttercream first and then the stars.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Thanks a lot, Squirrelly. I've been trying to find a way to crumb coat without adding so much icing, and especially for when I'm doing one of the shaped/character pans so that I can see the design lines. This sounds like exactly what I need...I'll be looking for the supplies, don't know what might be available, but I've got a lot of territory to choose from!

Thanks again, you may have solved what was a big problem for me. Janice

Great Janice, just use it sparingly or you will soak the cake. As I am sure you know, you still have to make sure that when you do ice it, that you load your icing on and that the spatula is always working on top of the icing and not touching the uniced cake or you will get crumbs.
I also sometimes use the simple syrup sparingly as the crumbcoat or any other pure jam that I heat and sieve first, but the apricot is the old standard.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Great, thanks for the extra tips. This probably will also help keep the "stars" or whatever, on the shaped cakes when you only have one layer of icing.

I tried thinning bc and adding some corn syrup, it just stayed sticky and wouldn't set-up, was as bad as crumbs in the bc icing.

I'm anxious to try it! Thanks again, Janice

Janice, just wanted to add that I use the half butter, half shortening recipe and this may well make a difference as to how stars hold up when used directly on top of an un-iced cake.
I have a friend that uses the all shortening one and I find that the stars want to come off the cake easier when the cake has set. I find that recipe tends to dry out more. It is especially bad when she freezes an iced cake. However she doesn't use the apricot glaze.
If your stars don't want to stick, sometimes you need to make the icing thinner too. I generally do. By thinner I mean add more liquid which in my case is more cream and milk.
And sorry if I am telling you something you already know, I don't really know how long most of the folks on this site have been decorating, so sometimes I give too much information.
I know when my daughter worked in a commercial bakery they used the glaze for all of their cakes, it is pretty standard bakery practice here. And they also used an all shortening icing, not butter.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

I haven't been here very long, and after reading the forum am going to try the butter/Crisco combination icing for the first time this weekend. I have been using all Crisco recipe and wrestling with my icing drying and falling off, and not just the stars and piping! I am loving the forum and think everyone here is really great with helping out, and I don't mind getting information more than once, helps me remember it! Janice (I have a pretty bad case of CRS...that's "Can't remember stuff".)

Oh heck, I can relate to that being "mentalpausal"!
I just always worry that people are going to be insulted if I go into too much detail and yet if you don't, sometimes it is no help either, haha! Yes, the butter and shortening recipe doesn't dry out the same way likely because water evaporates more so than milk and/or cream and also the meringue powder that some folks use in the all shortening recipe is also an issue.
When I do a starred character cake, I box it and immediately bag the boxed cake and keep it at room temperature. I find this helps a lot with the stars. Now as the cake gets older and the icing is exposed to the air, well when you cut it, sometimes you may get a few stars coming off, but it isn't the problem that the all-shortening one can be, where you literally get rows of stars coming off the cake.
The biggest difference between the two icings, besides taste is that the all shortening buttercream crusts whereas the half butter, half shortening ones, well the icing sets, rather like a rolled buttercream, but it doesn't actually crust. Personally I find this makes it easier to smooth, as long as you mix it mainly, with the paddle, on low. You don't want to incorporate a lot of air in it. If you refridgerate the icing being using it, well bring it back to room temperature before mixing it again as you don;t want to again, put too much air into it.
When I say it sets, it can then be smoothed exactly the same way that the all shortening one can and it doesn't stick to your parchment or paper towel or whatever you use for smoothing.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes