I would like to make my cake batter ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator until I am ready to use it. My questions about this are:

1. How long can I leave the batter in the refrigerator (ie 3-4 days)
and it will still be good to use?

2. Cake batters that call for baking soda & vinegar and folding in egg whites.
can these be made in advance and stored and if yes how long. I am afraid
that it will not fluffy up.

Thanks

I have heard that you can do this ahead of time thing with box mixes and very few times have I run into a cake recipe that will tell you that you can store a portion in the fridge for a while. I also have read lately that it is not advisable to store cake batter in the fridge for any length of time because the baking powder and baking soda only can be powerful enough to do their jobs for a limited time. Maybe while you are baking one cake and pour the batter for another you could put it in the fridge, but I sure would not do a from scratch cake for longer than an hour. Same thing for the egg whites staying fluffy. I don't think it would happen. Unless your house is real hot I would reccommend just covering them with plastic wrap and leaving them on the counter waiting. I don't remember all that the article stated, but there were
more reasons than the rising of the cake and the timing of that as to why we preheat the oven. But hey If you want to experiment sometime when you don't have a cake to go out, go ahead and try refrigerating cake batter for different times and let us all know. That would certainly be a help. I know that if we all found out that we could do that we could save some time. But we also like to have enough time to let the cakes cool and stick them in the freezer before cutting on or icing. Let us know if you try and what the results are. Good luck.

Oh pshaw. I hold batter in the fridge ALL the time. As does probably every bakery in the country. If the batter is ONLY soda leavened, or ONLY egg white leavened, then not so much. But a baking powder batter will hold 5 days, easy.

I've actually found that my cakes rise much more evenly if they go into the oven cold, so I try to fridge all my batter now. I've done it overnight many times with no issue, but I can't speak for any longer than that.

I freeze my batter...plop it back into the preheated oven and it bakes up beautifully! ...do that for my cupcakes, too...just add 5 minutes to you baking time.

I'm just amazed at these answers. I was taught that once the baking soda and baking powder are added to wet ingredients, the process starts. I am amazed that cake batter can stay in the fridge that many days!!!

Wow, that is amazing!! Thank you for all the responses out there. This is definitely something that I will give a try to now that I know. Thanks again.

Why do people do that? I have 2 sets of every pan and 4 to 8 of the smaller ones I use more often, and i normally bake all my cakes (20+) in a few hours with my Duke convection. Is there any reason why I would do this? Is it just so you can have all your batter made up in pans and be done with it and start in on fillings and icings while you continue to bake small amounts at a time? I wish I'd have thought about that before I bought the Duke!

I assume you have a large oven or 2, Leah_s.

annabakescakes2: Well, if I had an oven that could bake all my cakes at once I would go that route also. Except that now that I know that cake batters can make it in the fridge. I would make up my cake batter, have all my pans prepared, fill them, refrigerate them and bake them first thing in the morning. That way you have the time consuming duties out of the way and you are baking first thing in the morning. You can have those cakes out of the oven and cooling, and into the freezer long before noon that way. With only a home oven unless I have 2 or 3 small layer cakes that can be baked on the same shelf I have to do it in turns and it takes a lot of time. You can save time two ways. count your blessings.

I was just wondering this today! I have lots of cupcakes to bake, about 4 different flavors....and not nearly enough pans! So, I'll get to making the batter now and baking tomorrow!

annabakescakes, It is always good to know that those that have to big ovens don't take them for granite and remember what it is like to only have a home oven. If that had been me that tripped, I wouldn't have caught it back in the pan, I probably would have sprawled out on the sidewalk for all to see and the cake would have probably plopped out of the pan and landed top down right in front of me. and of course not in one piece either. WHen I trip I do it all the way ususally. LOL!!! My daddy always said that he could tell if I had done my work because if I was still clean I could not have done it. I usually wear what I am doing. ROFL!! Miss Grace, I am not.

Sumerae, I am fortunate in that I have enough pans, but I don't have enough oven, But at least if you get one batch already to go in the oven tomorrow morining bright and early, you will be ahead of the game that much anyway.

annabakescakes: we are two of a kind, LOL!!! I manage to stay somewhat clean(my clothes anyway) when I wear an apron, but it is usually all over my apron what I am making. Today, is baking day. tomorrow is car shopping day!! Sat. will probably be shopping day and finsih up baked goods day. So my weekend is here before I know it. Someone ran a stop sign monday and I don't have a car as a result of it. She had the stop sign, I did not. So trying to get as much baking done today as possible. Still have lots to do, but I think that I may be taking a nap in there somewhere too. I had to make a foot trip to the store this morning that was unexpected. I got the benefits of the walk, but it was awful warm out there. So I think I may be napping. I have got to figure out what is for lunch real soon though. I gotta go, but had to respond. I don't know where you are concerned about your names canceling each other out, but unknowingly double named my first child and she lives up to both her names very well. I named her Melissa, which means honey bee and industrial spirit, and her middle name for some reason or another means Lively one. Well I did look up both names before I put that on the list I wanted to choose from, but for some reason or another it did not dawn on me that I was double naming her. She has always been an over-achiever.

KayMc wrote:

Me too

That is what I was taught too!! But I am certainly willing to make some experiments soon and I am going to take these girls' word that say it works and give it a spin. won't make anything fancy until I find out how well it works. But i am all for saving time when I can so am willing to give it a go.