I love decorating my cakes, but I need all your help in this sometimes I finish my cakes in the middle of the night prior to the event that I need to deliver the cake...My question is how early in advance I need to take the cake out of the refrigerator when it is made out of fondant... I notice sometimes the cakes are really hard when my friends try to cut them. if the event is a 5:00 p.m. how early in advance do I need to take it out???? I really don't want to mess this one out is for a wedding cake for my best friend... Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Why is it in the refrigerator? Refrigerating can cause cake to dry out. Room temperature is best as long as you aren't using perishable fillings.

Unless your filling is perishable, you can leave a fondant covered cake out all night. It's protected by the fondant and sugar is a preservative.

If you must refrigerate it, put it in a box and wrap that box with plastic wrap (or a garbage bag). Take it out several hours before you need to deliver, take the plastic off and let it come to room temp while still in the box. This will avoid condensation issues. But if your cake is a bit sticky...don't touch it and it will dry fine.

I always deliver cakes at least an hour before an event.

What kind of fondant are you using? Refrigeration doesn't make it hard (unless it is still cold when cut).

Depending on the humidity in your area, I take mine out a minimum of 2 hours pre-event for the condensation to dry. If it's foggy or rainy, 4 hours. If for some reason there is still an excess of condensation, a hair-dryer speeds things up quickly.

The fondant also helps keep the cake from drying out. The only time a box is necessary to protect it is if you are putting it in the freezer, in which case it should be thawed overnight in the fridge while still in it's box.

I respectfully disagree. Many cakes, if covered with a thick layer of buttercream and then sealed again in fondant, will be perfectly fine in the refrigerator. I have refrigerated both box mix cakes and scratch cakes and never had an issue. It all depends on the recipe. A lot of butter recipes don't have the same texture when refrigerated, so their texture can easily be described as dry if one were to eat it straight from the fridge.

Here's a link from Ron Ben Israel http://nyccakegirl.com/2011/08/26/there-is-a-hurricane-coming-lets-discuss-delivering-cakes/

He also delivers cakes cold. I have been following his recommendation and it works for me.

It takes approx. 90 minutes for a cake to come to room temperature. I use swiss meringue buttercream.

Every single one of my cakes gets refrigerated and I have never had issues with drying out, hard fondant, or condensation ruining anything.

You learn as you go what works best for you. It's not always possible to travel with a cold cake, so figuring out the best method of support for it's structure is key.

You can send all the links you want, CWR41, but I know what works. As I attend most of the events that I supply the cake for, I can tell you without a doubt that my cake is not dry even after being refrigerated! I learned what I know by working at a successful bakery and following what they did. Maybe shortening based frostings don't have the same kind of protection that real butter has...I don't know. I can't imagine that it wouldn't...all I know is what works for me, and I'm sure lots more CC'ers.
I've had one caketastrophe...and that was this summer delivering a topsy turvy cake in 108 degree temp. Had it been cold and hard like I normally deliver, it would have made it. Even though my car was as cold as I could get it, the heat was such that it got too soft too quickly and collapsed when I turned a corner and hit a bump. That's why I refrigerate and will continue to do so. Besides, if it's good enough for Ron Ben, it's good enough for me!

Ok just for giggles I actually skimmed those links, and ONE person in all of them (the same person) says that refrigeration dries out cakes. I believe that person also does a lot of buttercream cakes so those cakes would not have the fondant to help seal in the moisture.

Also in you list of the 35 people on cc that don't refrigerate cakes, that's all well and fine- but you could find another list just as long with people who always refrigerate cakes and they are not dry. It's funny you sent those links because in that last one people were arguing the fact that their cakes are not dried out by putting them in the fridge- and one person was arguing that they dry them out. Either way it doesn't matter- to each their own. If refrigerating dries out your cakes, don't refrigerate- if it doesn't dry them out, all the better.

Personally I refrigerate all my cakes as long as they are fondant covered. I agree with the people that said it helps in transporting. I have never had a delivery mishap (knock on wood) or anyone who has picked up their own cake, and I strongly feel that it is in strong part to the cake being chilled therefore more stable. Most people don't eat the cake at the beginning of the party anyway, so it has time to come to room temperature, and I also let the customer know just in case.

I also think that baking timeline is off- I do custom cakes out of my home- no big quick assembly line baking here, and the earliest I will bake is Wednesday. If I need a large cake, or one that will take a lot of time to decorate and I don't have much time, I make the batter ahead of time and freeze it- then all I have to do is thaw and pour into the pans. I don't think there should be any reason to bake on Monday for a Saturday cake.

Hello, just wanted to offer my two cents.

I work in a privately owned bakery that even in our down time, I'm busy with cakes. We do 90% buttercream and refrigerate ALL cakes/cupcakes. I've been there about a year and I've only had ONE person call us and say the cake was dry.

Another plus of refrigerating cakes is that it helps protect the decorations from damage if the cake gets bumped for some reason. Or if they person comes to get it and sees that I misspelled a name or something (i'm human, it happens) it's very easy to just scrape the misspelling off and fix it.

So we have no reason to change our system.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful examples. I had never left my cakes out because all of them have fruits inside to I can't afford to have that wrong. I might try to take it out a few hours before and hope for the best. Thank you all so much for your excellent advise.

Anything will dry out in the refrigerator if you leave it in there for weeks at a time. But for an over night stay, there's absolutely ZERO loss of moisture.

Hi everyone. I'm so glad I found this topic today! Tonight I am preparing a sheet cake iced with buttercream and fondant decorations. One decoration is a black ball made of RKT covered in fondant (to look like a bomb). One of the others is a flat piece of fondant made to look like a letter. Would it be safe to refrigerate it? I am concerned about the black fondant color running. I am bring it to work tomorrow for a party on Saturday. Should I tell the lady to refrigerate it when she gets home? Thanks so much for all of the advice.

I'm so happy for this thread purely because I had NO IDEA you could refrigerate a fondant cake! I had always heard stories about condensation. Now I must try this.

Also, when I first joined this site, I read Leah_s say she never refrigerates her cakes. From then on, I thought it would dry out your cake. Well, I had to refrigerate one 2 weeks ago and guess what? The cake was just as moist if not MORE moist than before it went in the fridge!

Bridgette,

I think Leah doesn't refrigerate because her fillings are not perishable. She uses high ratio shortening for her BC and sleeved fillings.

Annie

Actually leah_s clearly states in numerous posts that she doesn't refrigerate because she feels it dries the cakes out. I do not agree, but that is part of her reasoning for not doing it.

You do have to be careful when you refrigerate fondant cakes, because sometimes you will have condensation when you take them out, and as long as you know how to handle that correctly, it's not a problem.

When I lived in Las Vegas and decorated cakes as a hobby I never had an issue with condensation, after moving to Virginia I have had to adjust. I almost had a meltdown when I baked my first cake in the summer (VERY high humidity) and it had crazy condensation after one minute of being out of the refrigerator. I just let it sit, with a clean fan blowing at it (to avoid any kind of dust hitting the moist cake), and it dried fine- no spots. Now I know in the summer to make the cake refrigerator setting less cold (none of my icings are perishable), so it won't be such a drastic temperature change, but it will still be more firm for transporting than room temperature.

PR, I live right down the road from you. I know what you mean about the humidity. I hate baking during the summer!

No problem Bridgette, I just remembered her talking about the sleeved fillings so I just assumed that's why she didn't refrigerate. As a side note-you should give Leah's buttercream recipe a try. Did we talk about that already? I can't remember. It's the Whipped Cream BC in the most saved recipes section. PM me if you have any questions. I'm not sure if you are still looking at new BC recipes or not, but I just thought I would offer the suggestion since it's a unique recipe. It's kind of a hybrid between American and meringue buttercreams.

Annie

I always refrigerate my cakes. They are covered in buttercream and fondant with perishable fillings. They are never dry.