Hi Everyone,
I was just reading another post about when to bake and when to decorate. Some do the baking several days before actually decorating. Some freeze the cakes, some don't. I've seen on Ace Of Cakes that they will have hours and hours worth of decorating to do so obviously the cake has been baked, frosted, fondant is on, then detail work. By the time the cake is done and delivered, it's been at least 3 or 4 days if not more since it was actually baked.

I know I've made cakes for my own family and we're still eating them 4 or 5 days later with no problems with freshness but I've not actually taken days to finish it before it's eaten.

Which brings me to my question. Do you have any issues with freshness if it takes you more than 2 days ( 3-4 days at least) time from baking to completion? How long is the longest it's been that you finished a cake before it was eaten?

Thanks for your input!
KimAZ

I never decorate a fresh cake its more difficult to handle I always freeze even if its over night to help make it firmer and moister easier to ice no crumbs.
Firmer for stacking also.

I think if the cake is filled with non-perishable filling, iced and covered in fondant, it has a longer life than a typical buttercream cake.

The more elaborate cakes are often fondant. so, if it is moist and fresh when you start, it should be ok for a few days.

Also, many of the very elaborate designs are on heavier dense cakes and even fruit cakes. They have the half-life of plutonium. (kidding)

It was explained to me years and years ago that once you ice the cake, the cake is sealed and the freshness is sealed. Just like when Wonder bakes a loaf of bread and they put it in a plastic bag. It then sits on the store shelf and then on your pantry shelf for days and days. The icing does the same as the plastic bag.

I've baked wedding cakes on a Wednesday and iced them on Wednesday, for a Saturday wedding. When I tasted the cake on Wed (I stay at the wedding to cut the cake), it tasted just great. (This was before I got over my anti-freezing views, so the Wed cake was never frozen either.)

I made a cake for my friend on a Saturday, froze it, decorated it on Tuesday and gave it to her on Wednesday. She said it was the moistest cake she has ever had! Her husband went crazy over it too!

Right now, I have a cake in my freezer that will be used for my Wilton class on Tuesday. The cake was made over a week ago, so it will be interesting to see how it tastes.


Lisa

So, when you freze the cake, do you then decorate it while it is still frozen? And is it frozen with filling in? When it defrosts, does it not lose it's hight and therefore damage the icing? Sorry for these many questions, I am a novice

No, you don't ice it and decorate it while it's frozen, it must thaw first or cracks will appear in the icing. You can fill it and crumb coat it while it is still frozen/mostly frozen, but you should wait until it has thawed to ice it.

I frost and decorate mine while the cakes are still frozen. It makes them SOOO much easier to work with, and I'm convinced that the moisture is then "locked in" as they thaw, because with the icing already on the cake the moisture has nowhere else to go! My cakes are always very moist, and I haven't had a problem with cracking, although I haven't been at this very long. I bake my cakes, let them cool for a few minutes, torte the layers, wrap each layer in plastic wrap, and pop them into the freezer while they're still warm. Then, when I'm ready to decorate, I assemble the layers with the filling and frost them before they have a chance to thaw out. hth

I freeze my cakes and take them out about 15-30 minutes before I'm ready to start decorating. I dam/fill and frost the cake in that stage and haven't had problems with the icing cracking so far.

I baked on Sunday and froze some cakes which I will decorate on Friday for a party this Sunday.