I bake at home for fun and family friends. I've agreed to bake 600 cupcakes for a wedding on 5/26. Should I bake early in the week and freeze the cupcakes?
Any ideas for storage? I'm afraid cake boxes will cause the cupcakes to dry out too much before I decorate them on Friday.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Bake and freeze in Ziploc bags (suck the air out). The large bags hold one dozen cupcakes. Take them out when you are ready to decorate and box them.
Definitely start baking asap and freezing, assuming you have enough freezer space.
Also make your frosting and make icing bullets or better/easier fill disposable icing bags. It will be fine in the fridge for the week. Or put them in the freezer if you still have room.
When you want to decorate them (say Friday 25th), get them out the freezer and put them straight into your delivery boxes, which should have lids. No need to defrost first. Have one icing bag with the icing tip in, and put a filled bag with the end cut off into the one with the tip. Decorate in the boxes, close the lid. Replace empty icing bag with a filled one as needed.
600 cupcakes is a breeze, IF you are well prepared and have enough space to work. They take up A LOT of space.
I agree - bake and freeze, cupcakes and cakes in general hold up extremely well to freezing as long as you package them properly. I have also read that you can freeze buttercream with excellent results. I am not 100% sure as I haven't tried it - I had some leftover from my last batch and put it in the freezer. It's been in there about a week now so I am going to thaw it tomorrow night and test it out. I imagine you should let it come to room temp and then maybe whip it up a little again before using? Good luck on your cupcake baking, I am sure they will be wonderful!! Just do a few batches at a time and breathe I have 3 graduations for friends/family I am baking for in the beginning of June and I'm feeling overwhelmed - but it's nowhere near the amount you'll be making!
Definitely start baking asap and freezing, assuming you have enough freezer space.
Also make your frosting and make icing bullets or better/easier fill disposable icing bags. It will be fine in the fridge for the week. Or put them in the freezer if you still have room.
When you want to decorate them (say Friday 25th), get them out the freezer and put them straight into your delivery boxes, which should have lids. No need to defrost first. Have one icing bag with the icing tip in, and put a filled bag with the end cut off into the one with the tip. Decorate in the boxes, close the lid. Replace empty icing bag with a filled one as needed.
600 cupcakes is a breeze, IF you are well prepared and have enough space to work. They take up A LOT of space.
Ok I feel dumb - what are icing bullets?? I love your tip about pre-filling disposable icing bags and putting those into your pastry bag! Never thought of that before so thanks (even though I wasn't the inteded recipient of your advice, I appreciate it all the same!)!!
This is how you make icing bullets: http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-38404.html
I find it easier to use disposable bags which I seal shut with those clippit things like you get in cereal packets - I get them from Ikea. I have a bakery so I always have tons of buttercream in the fridge this way and use a lot of icing bags though. Cheaper to use the plastic wrap but for me it's too messy.... Hope that helps!
Icing Bullets
Frosting wrapped in saran wrap in a narrow tube form. They can be preloaded into your pastry bags or not. Can be frozen, or not -
http://bekicookscakesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/icing-bag-bullet.html
I have a freezer tip for you. My husband discovered this one:
Place cupcakes on a rimmed baking sheet (cookie sheet). Invert a second baking sheet on top of the first one- like a lid. Clip them together using binder clips. Now you can stack 2 or three of them, depending on the space between the shelves in your deep freeze.
Before he figured this out, it was such a pain to find enough space. I have cupcake carriers, but they're so tall I can't stack them in the freezer very well. I got about 12 dozen in my freezer using this method.
you can also stack the cupcakes in the ziplock bags no problem....You can fit ALOT of cupcakes this way.
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