What's you're timeline/schedule for multiple orders? - Page 2

To answer the question however, late on Thursday night and very early Friday if I got lazy for Saturday orders. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttshock 

Umm...that was mean. Might be why the "oldies" left. If you don't have anything nice to say...then don't.

Umm...that was unnecessary and highly ironic  .

Please address the thread topic at hand:

What's your timeline/schedule for multiple orders?

Veering off-topic in negative/snarky ways doesn't help anyone :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttshock 

Umm...that was mean. Might be why the "oldies" left. If you don't have anything nice to say...then don't.

No sweetie, that is called correcting misinformation. 

Back on topic: I try to pool what can be done together. So I would dedicate one day to making all of the SMBC I would need for a particular set of orders. I tend to make my SMBC last after everything else is made so typically I make it on Thursday for fondant cakes or the day before (Friday) for BC cakes due on Saturday. Boards and decorations are done the week before. Typically bake on Wednesday or Thursday back to back, I feel like I can save up on energy by getting all the baking done at once rather than cooling off the oven and starting all over again the next day. Besides I like to get the baking out of the way so come SMBC day, there's no hot kitchen to mess up the texture.

For each stage, I try to do all the cakes due on the same day together. Tort all cakes, fill all cakes, cool/settle each one so that by the time I'm done with the last, the first cake is ready for ganache or fondant or whatever else I need to do to it. That way I'm only cleaning up once for each stage. e.g. after torting all the layers I can clean up the crumbs and move to the next step. No coming back to set up for another torting session.

That said, this process still needs major refinement because I often find myself up almost all night caking before the weekend. I'm getting better with practice though.

You can bake up to four days ahead of the day the cake is being served, as long as you wrap it air tight.

The next day, I would base frost.  

The following day, decorate. 

Adapt this schedule as needed - you can base frost and decorate in the same day.

Lisa

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZCouture 

Yeah well guess what? Someone I "know" claims this very thing, that they bake ALL their cakes on the same day for ultimate freshness. Makes ME want to scream. None of my recipes would behave well enough for me to use them the same day, let alone how dangerous it is cramming all that work in one day, not allowing any time for potential disasters. If she's even telling the truth.

Yeah, there's no way I'm doing everything on the one day. My cakes would fall apart if I tried! I bake, leave to settle overnight, cover with fondant, leave to firm overnight then decorate. Decorations are done at the start of the week ready for placing on the cake.

The same-day baker is lying. No doubt about it.

I prep everything at the beginning of the week, bake two days ahead of when the cake is due then decorate the day before.

Do I count as an oldie? My back feels like I should, most of the time.

I'm a big fan of spreadsheets and plan out my busy weeks and try and lump together similar tasks as much as possible.

I make whatever fondant/gumpaste decorations I can far in advance. Icings/fillings are usually made on Mondays/Tuesdays. I read on here about using dummies to dry fondant on (so the pieces are curved like the cake) - genius! And for cupcakes, using saran "tubes" that you can plop into the piping bags is probably my favorite tip :)

Cakes I bake 2-4 days ahead of time, cupcakes 1-2 days ahead. I wrap tightly in plastic til I'm ready to work with them. I don't like to freeze, so the baking time really dictates the rest of my schedule (not bashing freezers, just saying I don't).

Torte/fill/crumb coat on Thursdays. Final coat/decorate/photograph/box on Friday night (sometimes Saturday morning....).

I only work nights/weekends (have another full-time job) so planning out tasks and estimating timetables is really important for me. I did 5 cakes and 25 dozen cupcakes once in a weekend. It was tough (and definitely my limit!) but do-able.