I have a large cake due for Saturday - I always end up waiting too long and killing myself and ruin my weekend by being up all Friday night to finish. I don't want that to happen this time!

I am baking today, it is a 3 tier topsy-turvy on top of a dummy. I am baking today and have plenty of room to fridge or freeze. I would love to frost it today so I can start covering in fondant tomorrow, so I can decorate Thursday and Friday and be done by Friday afternoon.

Someone please tell me it is not too soon to start!! I don't wan to be Last Minute Missy this week!!

Nobody has an answer?

I think if you bake today you can fill and crumb coat and put in fridge. Then maybe frost and fondant tomorrow.

It should be fine. I had one weekend that was crazy booked and finished one cake on Wednesday and it sat on my dining room table until delivered on Saturday. It was for a friend's baby shower and I knew I would be there so if the cake looked "off" when cut I would see it right away. Well, it looked and tasted great.

I think people sometimes worry too much about the cake being made just before the event so it stays "fresh". How many days have you continued to eat a cake you have made for a dinner party on the weekend? We have had cake last over a week and it still tasted fine, but threw it out because we were tired of it.

Cookies are the same way. They last forever.

Unless you have a perishable filling do not put the cake in the fridge. It dries the cake out. If you can then fill and freeze the cakes till you have time to crumbcoat and finish. You will end up with a moisture cake. Also, cake tends to soak up any odors so you could end up with some weird tastes depending on what else you have in the fridge. At any cost wrap well. If you can have it crumbcoated and out on the counter under a dome or something to protect it (cake box will work fine too) then it would be better than putting it in the fridge. You also have to consider the cold cake problem...frosting or applying fondant to a cold cake can cause gas bubbles as the cake comes up to room temp. So once you remove your cake from the freezer or fridge you need to let it get to room temp so theres an extra hour to 3 hours wait for that. The best thing you can do is just budget your time as well as you can. I understand if you have a day job it can be quite the juggle. My best for this weekend!

Cat