I am making a cake tonight for Friday delivery. I'm not a professional but some people think I am and this is for my kids school Principal so I REALLY don't want to screw it up. The cakes are baked and I plan to frost them tonight with buttercream made with shortening and butter.

Two questions:

1. Should I leave the cakes out (our house is air conditioned) or put them in the refigerator?

2. Can I put the fondnant decorations on ahead of time or with the buttercream mess them up?

THANK YOU for any advice, thoughts, etc.

AYou are making a cake Wednesday to be delivered (and I assume eaten) on Friday, correct? And it will be stored in your air conditioned house? You won't need to put it in the fridge, it will be just fine. (Unless you have a perishable filling, but you don't mention that so I assume not.) I would wait until Friday to add the fondant decorations, though. OT but I am just curious; what do you mean "I'm not a professional but some people think I am"?

Thanks for the reply - I really appreciate it. To answer your question, I do not make cakes professionally but I get asked to make cakes frequently anyway. In this case, it's for the school principal - I couldn't (and didn't want to) say no.

I would absolutely refrigerate. It firms up the cake and settles the buttercream nicely.  I would usually do my fondant the day before.  And again, after the fondant is on I refrigerate.