Hello Fellow CCers,

I am making my own wedding cake and want to put stenciling around the sides of the tiers. Is is possible to freeze the decorated tiers? What will happen to the royal icing decorations once it's thawed? Can the tiers be refrigerated?

Any info and help you can give would be very much appreciated

Thanks in advance for your replies...

Please....anyone???

What is under the royal icing--fondant? buttercream? royal icing all over a fruitcake?

Royal icing will dry hard in a few hours, so you have to plan the cake covering. Buttercream is not the best choice because it has liquid.

You can bake the cakes and chill them a few days ahead. They can then be put together and crumb-coated and put back in the fridge. I would suggest you use a white chocolate ganache.

I would suggest that you use a rolled fondant that will form a little bit of a crust, and then you can wipe off any royal icing mistakes you make with a damp paper towel.
This recipe but NO glycerine always works for me: http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Rolled-Fondant-1

If you do the stenciling the day before, the cake does not have to sit in the fridge or freezer, just in a cool room.

So: final advice here is PRACTISE PRACTISE PRACTISE. If you have not been married before, you don;t know how nervous you will be the last few days before the wedding...good luck.

Thanks BakingIrene,

The cakes will be covered in fondant....I need to do as much as possible with them this week as I have nine family members coming in tuesday and wednesday of next week, and they will be staying here. If i can do most of the decorating before tuesday I'll be ahead of the game and wont have as much to do the last few days before the wedding...

LOL I wish this was my first marriage....but I'll still be nervous!!

I was only wondering if royal icing stenciling will be ruined if I freeze and/or refrigerate the decorated tiers when they come back to room temperature..

I think you would have to test this. I think there could be damage from condensation if you freeze your cake. There is probably less chance of damage if you simply refrigerate.

But with nine houseguests, you would have to have a locking fridge to keep the cake out of harm's way. Do you really have that much fridge space to keep your cake in, where you can be sure that nobody will poke or shove it?

In my experience, royal icing doesn't hold up well to refrigeration. It bleeds like crazy with the condensation. It might just depend on your fridge though. I have one fridge that does great with fondant, no drying out, no condensation at all but my other one turns everything into a gooey mess. I think you'll just have to do a test run with this one.

I have not put ROyal icing in the freezer... but I did put fondant characters in the freezer and while in the freezer it looked great... but once taken out then started to melt... got very very soft. I wouldnt recommend it!

Thanks so much for all your input ladies....I will try it with one of the dummies and see what happens....BakingIrene, lol, no I don't have that much fridge space...I will be taking it to the wedding venue...boxed up and wrapped with saran and dessicant packets in the box to absorb moisture somewhat...

I'll keep you all posted!!!