I was SO against freezing and had my sister help me on a blind test. I baked one cake and froze it for a week. I baked another cake the day we did the test. My sister colored both the icings so only she really knew. We had our friends over and tried to guess which was frozen. Everyone of us got it wrong! The frozen ones were more moist.

I wrap mine in saran wrap also (it doens't leave that plastic weird taste) I wrap from side to side then end to end. If frozen for longer than a week I add foil for safe keeping. I defrost on the counter completely wrapped for about 4 hours. I never crumb coat.

HTH

I too am a frozen cake snob. However, after reading the posts I will definitely try and freeze cakes to help with the stress of baking then decorating and kids stealing frosting and spatulas all at the same time. I am always afraid of not giving someone fresh cake, but now I know I can. Thanks Guys!

Here's the text of the article about freezing. This comes from Cook's Illustrated.com. Its a great magazine and website for food science.


"Our testing of Olive-Rosemary Bread produced plenty of leftover loaves and reminded us once again that bread does not keep well in the refrigerator. In fact, past tests have shown that baked goods such as cookies, cakes, and muffins actually stale faster in the refrigerator than at room temperature. Yet these same items can be stored perfectly well in the freezer for long periods of time. Why doesn't the freezer have the same effect on breads and other baked goods as the refrigerator?

Staling is inevitable over time. In a process known as retrogradation, starch molecules reorganize to form crystalline structures in the presence of the moisture within the baked goods themselves. This eventually leads to a hard, dry texture at room temperature--no matter how well wrapped the item was during storage. The cooler temperature of the refrigerator speeds up this process, but the freezer actually halts it. The water molecules in the cake or bread freeze, which immobilizes the starch molecules and prevents them from forming the crystalline structures that translate to stale texture.

So if you aren't going to finish that loaf of Olive-Rosemary Bread right away, don't be tempted to pop it into the fridge. Instead, wrap it tightly, first in aluminum foil and then in a large zipper-lock bag, and store it in the freezer."

pastrylady, can you give me the link to that info? I'd like to keep it for future reference. (I've already done a cut-n-paste, but Like to have the original source, too.) Thanks!!

. . . I'm not sure if you will find an actual "link" . . . that originated in Cooks Illustrated March & April 2007 issue (page 30 if you have access to a copy) . . .

that'll work ... as long as I can tell folks where I got the info! Thanks!!

This is great news! I was actually getting stressed with the whole idea of 7 or 8 cake orders on the same day and all having to be baked/decorated! This really encouraged me to hear from the ones who have been doing this longer with success! When you wrap do you wrap a certain way or is the rule of thumb.......as long as you get it completely covered, that's the way? Lol!

thanks! I'll check that out!

we have frozen cakes undecorated up to several months....not typical. However a former bride just last week stopped and told me her 1 year anniversary cake from her wedding tasted just as good as the original cake..or course she had wrapped it in saran, but nothing else special...my cakes are covered in buttercream.

.........what/how/why do you pour the syrup over, and what is the result?.......

A mixture of 1/2 & 1/2 sugar/water boiled for 1 minute makes 'simple syrup'. This was usually used on scratch cakes to make them moister.
It is not poured on......but brushed or sprayed/misted on. It doesn't take much. This dries (sort of like the glaze on a donut) and seals in moisture.
Most any flavoring can be added.

When I froze my cakes and dethawed them they still had a lot of moisture on the outside which made me concerned to frost them. My cakes were very moist but almost fudgy.

Did I do something wrong. It was my first time doing a Choc WASC recipe. They tasted good but were not light and fluffy like a regular cake.

I did wrap them still warm. I will probably let them cool more the next time but would appreciate any insights from this great thread.

Thanks
Cristy

OK so here is stupid me! I am wanting to do a 14 inch square cake. Wouldn't it be awkward to wrap something in Saran this size and then freeze it? Would you have to have a board underneath it?

Thank you!