I do freeze them if possible. It seems to make them more moist, easier to cut, saves time if you have several cakes to do. I don't freeze them to far ahead, but I do thaw them at least partially before I decorate them w/colored frosting. It fades out from the moisture if frozen hard. They also expand when they thaw, so that is why I let them partially thaw or do a crumb coat and let it set. People rave about the taste, so I don't believe it effects the taste.
If I have more than two cakes for that week then I bake and freeze them with no problem.
You should be fine if you crumb coat after they thraw.
I always make a point to freeze it at least for a short period of time, even if it is overnight. I find it makes it more moist. Since they thaw quickly, it doesnt seem to interfere with the timing of the events.
I have been freezing mine and icing them straight out of the freezer. That was what I was taught. It is supposed to keep the moisture in and make icing it easier. I recently finished a course with a professional cake decorator in my area. (Meaning she owns a shop and sells lots of cakes. 
) She ices all of her cakes while they are completely frozen and they look beautiful. Her buttercream is so smooth, it almost looks like fondant. Now, I haven't done that many cakes since I finished the class, so I don't have the experience or knowledge that some of you have, but I haven't had any problems so far.
What are the reasons why many of you partially thaw your cakes? What problems could you run into?
once i froze because my order changed last minute...and then when i used the cake it was so moist...i'll be doing that from now on
I will freeze if I have to carve a cake. Also, if it needs to be torted several times. The really large sheet or round cakes, well if I have to stack them, I sometimes will freeze the top layer because it is easier for me to handle since I broke my shoulder.
I will fill the cake while frozen but not ice it but only if it is filled with buttercream. I find it hard to get a good smooth finish when the cake is frozen but then I don't use the hot water method to smooth. I find I need to do a lot more smoothing because the icing sets immediately on the frozen cake and makes it difficult to smooth. It may have something to do with the fact that I use butter, cream and milk in my icing also. If I don't need a smooth finish, I will. I won't if I am doing a basket weave on the sides though because I find that when the cake thaws sometimes the weave will have issues.
Since I generally crumbcoat with watered down apricot glaze, I freeze the cake that way.
I leave my cakes covered in the original plastic wrap to defrost so that the moisture from the wrap goes back into the cake. So I honestly do not see how icing a frozen cake will make it any more moist than icing a defrosted cake.
I generally am freezing a cake for less than a week, never frosted because I find that this makes the frosting a drier texture which makes a difference if it is a starred character cake, more significantly when you use the class icing made with water.
I don't freeze cakes all the time. More often than not, I don't freeze at all.
Hugs Squirrelly
So if you need to torte, do you freeze first or after you torte?
I freeze first especially for larger cakes and torte while frozen. I like to torte using a serrated knife while the cake is frozen. I mark the cake at the top and bottom with a toothpick and cut through the centre. The reason I mark with toothpicks is so when the cake is torted and filled, I can line up these toothpicks and replace the top layer exactly where it was before it was cut. Some people also pipe dots of icing at the line where they want to cut so they can cut straight across.
I have both cake levellers and have also torted using dental floss or fishing line in the past. But lately this is my preferred method. I get very few crumbs and the cakes are easy for me to handle and I don't have to worry about sliding a board in and such. I have some nerve damage in my left hand since I broke my shoulder so I am awkward now when I handle certain things on certain angles.
Hugs Squirrelly
squirrelly....so you prefer to use dental floss/fishing line - how do you keep it going straight. I have a small cake leveler, but I'm doing a wedding cake in April and I need something that will work on a larger scale.
Well, I am told that the Agbay leveller is the one to purchase if you can afford it, not sure how big the biggest one is though.
I have used the large Wilton leveller before but on a defrosted cake, haven't tried it on a frozen one. It worked ok.
I would only use the fishing line or dental floss on a defrosted cake.
I think you just get used to doing it. I measure out the middle of the cake or where I want to torte it. I insert my toothpicks so I can line them up afterwards when the cake is filled. I mark off a few holes in the side or use a writing tip and icing so I can see the straight line. Then I take the fishing line or dental floss and follow the line as I wrap it around the cake, not cutting yet. I bring the two sides of the string together in the middle making an overhang in the centre. Then I gently pull the two ends that are still overlapped so basically the strings look like this 
You keep pulling and as you do you will be cutting the cake and getting more and more string in the middle until it comes out clean. Does that make sense to you? Try it on a cupcake or smaller cake. You just have to keep an eye on your floss or fishing line to make sure it stays put as you pull. This is actually how I started out torting or levelling cakes because I didn't own a leveller back then.
I have this old cheapo fake pearlized handled Bride's Knife that I tend to use mostly now for torting a cake. It has a serrated blade and I like how it tortes a cake when the cake is frozen. So this is my preferred method. If your knife blade isn't long enough, then you just make a slight incision all along the outside edge of the cake at the marked line. Once the incision is there, you insert the knife at the side and make sure you do not change the level of your knife and keep eyeballing the cake all around to make certain you are still cutting levelly and it works great too.
I think we all find one method we really like to use and stick with it but all methods work well.
Haha, for the dental floss, well some people use waxed, some unwaxed. Just go slow and gently with a sort of pulling, gentle sawing motion when using the floss or fishing line.
Hugs Squirrelly
If anyone was dubious of freezing cakes, it was me. I just wouldn't do it at all because I felt they would be dry or just have a frozen taste... Then I read on here where so many others were doing it and how moist the cakes where... if properly frozen, you cannot tell the difference if it was freshly baked or frozen. As a matter of fact, I have to agree with the ones on here that stated the cakes actually taste more moist when frozen, because they do!! I cool mine completely (several hours sitting out on a cooling rack)... then I wrap them well in saran, then in aluminum foil... I freeze them on a cake board. After frozen, I have stacked as many as 3 high on top of each other. This is the only way I will torte a cake now. When the cakes are completely frozen, it is so much easier to handle them, and as SquirrelyCakes stated, larger cakes are a breeze to torte when frozen.... I torted a 12' x 18" with pineapple filling last night and when the cakes are frozen, it makes it so much easier to handle and align the top part of your cake... I prefer to bake two thin layers so I don't have to cut them... I just hate cutting through cakes for some reason... When I have several cakes to do, there is no way that I could get them all done (I work a full time 40-hour a week job, besides the side job with cakes) if I didn't bake ahead on my weekends off from work and freeze them, I just couldn't get all my cakes done without pulling an all nighter (who am I fooling! I do these all the time trying to keep up w/the cakes!! )... I get rave reviews on all my cakes about how moist they are... so freezing cakes, definitely, YES for me
I am the odd one out here. Never freeze them....I can "taste" if a cake has been frozen. (my friends did a taste test thing on me because they said I was nuts....and I guessed the ones that had been frozen EVERY time.) I prefer to bake my cakes and do them so they are fresh....makes for some long hours decorating though on occasions.
You know you can taste them if they were frozen for a long period of time. Also if they were frozen in a fridge top freezer as opposed to a chest freezer. The taste is actually freezer burn though, so it has a good deal to do with how they were frozen, where they were frozen and how long they were frozen for.
You get the best results from a chest freezer that is not frost free. This is because the fluctuations in temperature to keep a freezer frost free affects the shelf life. Although a commercial type of stand up freezer has a lot better controls for humidity levels etc and generally are not frost-free.
According to freezing studies done, there should be no noticable change in taste until after one month's freezing time.
If you are going to freeze a spice cake that contains cloves, reduce the amount of cloves you use. Cloves get stronger once frozen and can result in an overpowering clove taste.
Hugs SQuirrelly
I freeze large layers just because they're easier to handle if they're stiff as a board. (There's no sound more eerie than the shriek of a woman whose 16-inch layer has split during filling.) the only caveats I would offer are 1) make sure your freezer is stink free no fish!) or the cake could pick up the taste of stink. and 2) make sure you have room for all of your frozen layers and nothing is going to sit on them or bend them. The second most eerie sound in the world is the shriek of a woman who just realized her 16-layer was frozen with a dent caused by 4 lbs. of hamburger.
ive never frozen a cake before, but i see that it could be useful for large sheet cakes...i have some questions...
- do you freeze before or after you torte
- if before, dont you have to let the cake thaw before you can torte -- because then you would still have the have to lift off a layer to fill and how is that easy to handle. hope this makes sense. so confused, because ive been told to thaw a cake while it is still wrapped becasue of condensation. so confused. 
Thanks Squirrerlly! I am sure the freezers that they used were a home refirgerator freezer compartment and an upright freezer unit. I don't think I will be going out and buying a chest freezer so I can freeze my cakes anytime soon though......I will just stick with making them fresh for now. 
ive never frozen a cake before, but i see that it could be useful for large sheet cakes...i have some questions...
- do you freeze before or after you torte
- if before, dont you have to let the cake thaw before you can torte -- because then you would still have the have to lift off a layer to fill and how is that easy to handle. hope this makes sense. so confused, because ive been told to thaw a cake while it is still wrapped becasue of condensation. so confused.
Well, I use a serrated knife and I torte while the cake is still frozen stiff. Then I fill, replace that top layer and put the original wraps back on, the plastic wrap that is still sweating and has condensation on it. It is easier to work with while frozen, especially those bigger suckers. Sometimes if the filling will take awhile, I just return the top torted cake to the freezer in the meantime, wrapped of course.
I wouldn't do this with a whipped cream filling though, just in case.
Hugs Squirrelly
I freeze large layers just because they're easier to handle if they're stiff as a board. (There's no sound more eerie than the shriek of a woman whose 16-inch layer has split during filling.) the only caveats I would offer are 1) make sure your freezer is stink free no fish!) or the cake could pick up the taste of stink. and 2) make sure you have room for all of your frozen layers and nothing is going to sit on them or bend them. The second most eerie sound in the world is the shriek of a woman who just realized her 16-layer was frozen with a dent caused by 4 lbs. of hamburger.
Hhmn, has my hubby been delivering your hamburger, haha! Try a 28 pound turkey on top, makes a neat impression if you like that sort of thing, grrrhhhhhh!
Hugs Squirrelly
Thanks Squirrerlly! I am sure the freezers that they used were a home refirgerator freezer compartment and an upright freezer unit. I don't think I will be going out and buying a chest freezer so I can freeze my cakes anytime soon though......I will just stick with making them fresh for now.
The freezer portion of a fridge is the worst in a frost free fridge. I think the thing that gets gross the quickest is icecream. It gets this awful taste fairly quickly.
Haha, only one problem with a chest freezer, don't get one big enough for the hubby to stash your body in ok?
Hugs Squirrelly
Once again thanks for the wonderful info...I don't have a chest freezer and was about to put my cake in my regular old stand up freezer! This is only my second paid cake and someone who is promising lots of business if it is good.....glad their cake won't taste like veggie tale chicken nuggets!!!!
Once again thanks for the wonderful info...I don't have a chest freezer and was about to put my cake in my regular old stand up freezer! This is only my second paid cake and someone who is promising lots of business if it is good.....glad their cake won't taste like veggie tale chicken nuggets!!!!
Sorry kiddo, if this is an actual freezer, it will be fine. Just meant that the freezer section of a refrigerator is not meant for long term storage, but it should be fine for shorter periods. A stand-up freezer just means that they are normally frost-free which means that the temperatures fluctuate. Which results in a bit of a shorter freezer life. That is all.
Haha and yes if there are stinky things in the freezer, the food odour can transfer over. Just like the garlic and onions in your fridge can transfer over odours to your icing or whipping cream and milk.
I think icecream is the thing that will make people more aware of the way the different types of freezers freeze. It will go rock hard in a chest freezer, pretty hard in a stand-up freezer and not so hard in a refrigerator freezer.
Part of the issue with stand-up freezers is also the way the door seals because it will always have a somewhat better seal when the seal is downward than vertical. But the biggest issue is the frost-free factor which results in some fluctuation in temperature and actually shortens the freezer shelf life of products. Of course commercial freezers do better in testing.
Hugs Squirrelly
I use an upright freezer and wrap well. I only freeze for a short time. I work full time so as someone else mentioned the only way I can get my cakes done some weeks is to freeze them. I have had trouble w/the cakes expanding and leaving little cracks when they thaw. It is usually larger sheet cakes and wedding tiers. I crumb coat and let it crust and then frost the second layer. Otherwise I let them partially thaw especially if I am decorting or frosting w/colors. This keeps them from fading. Has anyone had trouble w/color fading when decorating them frozen?
I use an upright freezer and wrap well. I only freeze for a short time. I work full time so as someone else mentioned the only way I can get my cakes done some weeks is to freeze them. I have had trouble w/the cakes expanding and leaving little cracks when they thaw. It is usually larger sheet cakes and wedding tiers. I crumb coat and let it crust and then frost the second layer. Otherwise I let them partially thaw especially if I am decorting or frosting w/colors. This keeps them from fading. Has anyone had trouble w/color fading when decorating them frozen?
Do you mean the cakes themselves are cracking or the icing?
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
I mean the frosting. I doesnt always happen! It is always on top. If there are no decorations you can press them out pretty easy.
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