To Refrigerate or Not to Refrigerate! - Page 2  

Regular "american" buttercream doesn't *have* to be refrigerated (unless you use a perishable filling), but I prefer to as it makes them more stable for transport as it makes the icing & cake firm.  It should be served at room temp, though.

I refrigerate cakes with fondant and royal icing all the time and have never had a major problem.  You just have to take into account the ambient humidity level.  For example, I had a cake I was doing delicate piped royal icing embroidery that was going to be painted in gold.  It was July, and the cakes had been refrigerated after being iced, so they did start to sweat.  I just had to wait a while for them to euqilibrate & the condesation evaporate so the royal icing could dry to be painted.  Then I refrigerated it again and there were no problems.   I have refrigerated many fondant cakes, too, and again, if it is *really* humid they do sweat quite a bit and get sticky, so you have to account for that if you have more work left to do on them, and it does make it slightly more trouble to cut & serve, but if you have a good sharp knife and dip it in hot water & wipe it off often, it's not really a problem.

I do try to avoid refrigerating larger gumpaste flowers for fear of them "wilting" if they get to much condesation.  I suppose if you had really dark colors bleeding could be a problem if the humidity is excessive with any type of icing.

*Oops, didn't notice this was an old thread that had taken a different dirrection

seriously, where do you people get your information? Have any of you taking the FDA food safety course? Has anyone been approved by the Dept of Ag and given a license? Because if you had you would know that you cannot hold anything with dairy over 40 degree F for more than 4 hours without tossing it. And yes, that includes egg whites.

Or maybe you got an inspector who doesn't care. but mine comes thru with a temp probe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SandiOh 

seriously, where do you people get your information? Have any of you taking the FDA food safety course? Has anyone been approved by the Dept of Ag and given a license? Because if you had you would know that you cannot hold anything with dairy over 40 degree F for more than 4 hours without tossing it. And yes, that includes egg whites.

Or maybe you got an inspector who doesn't care. but mine comes thru with a temp probe.

Did you see the dates on this thread? Because you're lecturing people who posted 5 years ago, many of whom aren't here any more.

My response was to someone who had ressurected the thread today to ask about NON-PERISHABLE fillings, in fondant-covered cakes being left out of the fridge. I stand by what I said - they CAN be kept out of the fridge. Unless you want to hold onto it for days longer than it takes to decorate and deliver its going to be fine.

There is a reason people are allowed to make cakes from their homes to sell in some parts of the world - it is a LOW-RISK food hazard. Of course perishable fillings in cakes would render the cake riskier as a food hazard, Thus it should be kept in the fridge!

nope....didn't notice the dates. my bad. and yes Evoir, I did notice your response was to the nonperishable question, it was not to you I was venting.

It does however, bother me immensely that people leave perishable food out....or think its safe to do so. I wouldn't want to eat it, nor would I ever serve it, nor would my inspector let me.

Milk in the US is so homogenized that it won't curdle, it just gets a nasty smell if you leave it out too long. I have used milk 10 days past the sell by date and it was as fresh as the day I got it, but the kids weren't home, so it was promptly returned to the fridge after each use. I have even found it on the counter all warm, and popped it back in the fridge and it tasted fine the next few days, until it was gone. It just isn't as dangerous as it once was, but we still have it instilled in us from our grandmas that it is poison if it comes to room temperature. Granted you need to use your local health departments standards when you have a licensed business, or even under the cottage food laws, but you may wrest your underthings from their knot and breathe! 

And as far as eggs go, America is one of the few countries where eggs are even refrigerated in the stores. My grandma has every bird you can think of , walking around her yard, and collects the eggs. She keeps them in a basket in the pantry, where it is about 68 degrees all year long. She has them in there for months at a time, sometimes, and while I reject an omelet or scrambled eggs from her kitchen, I regularly use them for cheesecakes, pumpkin pies, puddings, cookies, cakes, and dressings while I am at her house for the holidays. The only time I ever have a problem is when I open one that was fertilized and it has a bit of blood in it. But when you really think about it, wont you eat the cooked blood of a full grown animal? We all *think* certain food safety rules are laws, but few of them are based on real science and the ones that are, are often very extreme. (Like when some egg head says that Pink Yink is good for 6 weeks at room temperature, but to be on the safe side, better keep it at 40 degrees for 10 days then toss it. )

Oh, the other problem I have with grandma's eggs are wondering how many quail eggs makes 3 large eggs, or if I could just use 1 ostrich egg... And if I m going to bust it open and find a beak or legs ;-P

My understanding is that for the ostrich egg, you'll need a Sawzall to get it open.

And as to "most other countries," well, "most other countries" don't have factory-farmed hens crammed into the sort of tiny, unsanitary, battery cages that are breeding grounds for salmonella, and powerful, well-paid industry lobbyists fighting to keep them there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annabakescakes 

I have used milk 10 days past the sell by date and it was as fresh as the day I got it, but the kids weren't home, so it was promptly returned to the fridge after each use. I have even found it on the counter all warm, and popped it back in the fridge and it tasted fine the next few days, until it was gone.

 

Ewww.

And I've seen (mostly at the office) milk turn into bad yogurt while still in the refrigerator.

EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!

(Then again, I can easily taste when milk is starting to turn, and I can also easily taste when it's been over-Pasteurized [to me, shelf-stable milk tastes more like milk of magnesia than milk of a cow, and "ultra-Pasteurized" doesn't taste much better, which is why I was so overjoyed, the first time I saw a carton of certified organic milk that made a point of stating, right on the label, that it wasn't "ultra-Pasteurized" {not that I've actually bought a carton of it; it's bloody damned expensive!}]).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tykesmommy 

 

Ewww.

Why ew? Milk doesn't go off the instant it goes above a certain temperature. You can usually smell if milk has gone off. Why not drink it if it hasn't?