I had extra batter today so I baked a 6 in. to use next week. Here are my questions:

1. Do I cool it completely before wrapping it for the freezer?

2. What's the best way to wrap it for the freezer to avoid odor absorption and freezer burn?

3. How long do I thaw it before icing it next week? Should it be room temp. when I ice it?

I have never frozen a cake before! Scary, huh? I know there's a right way to do it though. TIA for your expertise.

Unless you have a really crummy freezer, a coupld of wraps of plastic wrap will be more than sufficient for a week in the freezer.

It will need to thaw about an hour at room temp, for such a small cake.

Thanks!

I always freeze my cakes. I bake them 1 week in advance. Cool completely, wrap in saran wrap or press-n-seal, then freeze. I take out my cake the morning I want to fill and seal it. I let it thaw at room temp, tort, fill, and crumb coat. Next day I frost and decorate.
Freezing it helps seal in the crumbs and makes it SUPER easy to ice.

Do you let the cakes thaw wrapped or unwrapped?

Vonda

i actually have a question about freezing "cakes" as well.
I say "cakes" cuz i actually mean batter.

do any bakers in a larger work environmnet with ample freezer space every make their mixes/batters in advance and freeze them?

when i worked in a bakery, the froze their muffin batters all of the time, we didnt bake our cakes fresh in store, they were always (obviously) brought in, but had we been baking them i'm sure we would prepare large quantities of batter, premeasure/prepare it and freeze it until we needed it.

but am i assuming too much? are muffins and cakes not at all the same as far as structure and baking?

has anyone ever froze batter to "save" time? (i dont think it would be very time saving or beneficial unless you were making hundreds of cakes a week)

vonda let the cake thaw in the wrap

I freeze all of my cakes. I wrap them in 2 layers of plastic wrap and 2 layers of aluminum foil while they are still warm. I have frozen them up to 3 months, take out of the freezer the morning I will be decorating them and they are as fresh and moist as the day I baked them. I think that wrapping and freezing them while warm traps the moisture in the cake. People always ask me how I get my cakes so moist.

It's easier to handle them when they are still slightly frozen-- or at least cold-- much less of a crumb problem. I do a tight layer of plastic wrap and then foil. It has worked well for me.