The question describes an Nx1 cell array but the example shows a 1XN cell array if I'm interpretting the indices correctly.
More importantly, the cell would not display like the example in your question.
% Create the array
c = {
{'*****'};
{'* *'};
{'* *'};
{'* *'};
{'*****'};
};
size(c)
% ans =
% 5 1
% Display C
>> c
% c =
% 5×1 cell array
% {1×1 cell}
% {1×1 cell}
% {1×1 cell}
% {1×1 cell}
% {1×1 cell}
% Display cell content
>> celldisp(c)
% c{1}{1} =
% *****
% c{2}{1} =
% * *
% c{3}{1} =
% * *
% c{4}{1} =
% * *
% c{5}{1} =
% *****