Hello Everyone,
I'm a newbie to home based baking, and I want to have a dedicated freezer for my cakes, perhaps a fridge with freezer. To all my home based bakers, what brand/type of freezer do you have? What is working well for you and what isn't? Thanks so much everyone!
MANUAL DEFROST, upright with shelves. Dedicate ONLY to cake related items and do not store any other family food items like meats or vegetables.
By having
the freezer dedicated ONLY to cake related stuff: cakes/cupcakes, buttercream, butter, chocolate/candy melts/ganache, sleeve filling, shortening, etc., you will A) avoid cross-contamination of odors or foods, and B) will minimize the number of times you open and close the freezer, thereby minimizing the "warming" of the freezer interior because of opening and closing too many times.
Never, ever get a self-defrosting freezer if you can help it for the reasons stated above. As a hobby baker, I tend to keep frozen stuff for months and months with no worries because a NON-self-defrost keeps baked goods almost indefinitely because they don't get freezer burn/ice build-up from the automatic defrost cycle.
If you must use a freezer with automatic defrost, plan on a maximum of 1 month for any goods placed in the freezer.
I use the freezer to store pre-baked cupcakes and cakes as well as finished cakes/cupcakes with buttercream. (I rarely do fondant cakes, although you can freezer fully-decorated fondant cakes as well--you just need to take more care.)
If I have a large hobby project coming up, I make sure to clear 1 or 2 shelves days ahead of time so I'll have space to place the larger cake layers. Once the layers have frozen solid, then, I can stack them later.
I got this old freezer on craigslist for $150 about 5 years ago and it is my one of my top 3 cake tools:
1) 6 qt KA 600 stand mixer (also have an Artisan lift-type that I rarely use anymore)
2) CAKE FREEZER !!!!!!!
3) Agbay for large cakes (Although rarely used, it is worth every penny of the $230 paid to avoid cursing and frustration and tears while trying to tort larger cake layers.)
I also freeze nuts and pudding mixes and sometimes cake mixes to "stop the clock" on the expiration dates. During times when I'm not doing a lot of baking (summer), I will fill the empty spaces in the freezer with frozen bottles of water to keep the interior cool against the outside heat. When I start baking again, I just take out the frozen water milk jugs, pour the water on plants, and recycle the milk jugs.
I hear--and have heard before--what has been said about self-defrosting freezers. Personally, I have no time, or inclination, to deal with having to manually defrost a freezer anymore--ever.
I've had my Kenmore for over 8 years and I've never once had an issue with cakes that I've put in it. As long as the cake has been properly cooled and wrapped before being frozen, I have no issues with quality or texture when I defrost.
For short term freezing--overnight up to 3 days--I wrap in at least 2 layers of heavy duty plastic wrap. For longer term freezing, I wrap in 2 layers of plastic wrap and a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil.
I have had cake layers frozen for over 6 months--that have looked, and tasted, as though they were just made. The same goes for frozen buttercream and various fillings.
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