Need Your Opinions - Freezing Cakes
Decorating By angelcakes5 Updated 5 Nov 2010 , 9:48pm by Sweet_Toof
I take them out of the pan (after they've cooled partially) and wrap them in two layers of plastic wrap without a cake board.
Of course it depends on the texture of your cake. If you're cake is very soft and you're afraid it'll crack, you could put a cake board under it. I would wrap the cake first so it doesn't stick to the board.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LET THEM COOL FIRST!
In fact it is better if you don't.
I prep my pans with parchment or waxed paper (what I have on hand) and spray the sides generously with Baker's Joy or equivilant (whichever is on sale), pour the batter, bake then immediately turn out the cake on the PressN'Seal, wrap quickly and pop in my DEDICATED CAKE FREEZER (yes that is important). The prep is extremely important. The parchment/waxed paper keep the cakes from cracking when dumped. Do NOT wrap in foil and be careful if you have to use regular plastic wrap that you don't get one that will shrink and misshape your cake as it freezes. I have a residential sub zero but keep it at 0 degrees. Never have had the warning light for the thing being too warm come on either. I use to use a regular residential freezer and it still worked just fine (years ago). I would just remove any other food product, and put in a cooler with ice until the cakes were cool enough not to effect the other products temperature.
I created this method for moist cakes almost 25 years ago, and my method was featured in Cooking Pleasures magazine back in 2004. My advice is to ice the cakes semi frozen - DO NOT allow them to defrost fully prior to working with them. They will be too moist. They do have to defrost enough to level and torte, but once you do that get them filled & crumb coated & then allow the cakes to come to full room temp to settle prior to rechilling. You won't have issues with not being able to work with them because they are too soft if you work with them semifrozen. Then once they are settled and you have resurfaced the crumb coat, put it back in the freezer to chill again to semi frozen state again (about an hour). Put on the final icing (BC, ganache, or Fondant). If you have to stack make sure you use a great support system, and then stack them & finish decorating. Your cakes will be super moist and full of flavor.
When a cake is allowed to sit on the counter and cool the steam which provides the moisture in the cake leaves, and you get a cake that is more dry. The steam also carries with it flavor leaving your cake flavor flat. It is a misnomer that freezing cakes is unsanitary. You bake the cake at 325 to 375 degrees for 20 - 55 min (depending on recipe/oven) which is well over the 165 degrees necessary to kill bacteria. The super hot cake just out of the oven will still be significantly over 165 degrees when it hits the plastic wrap (PressNSeal) will kill any potential bacteria on the surface. The quickness with which you bring the temperature down to the safe range of 40 degrees or below happens much faster than leaving on the counter to sit at room temp. But we all know that cake is potentially NON hazardous, so basically the only thing that counter cooling does is make your cake dry and flat in flavor. Refrigerating wrapped cake will produce a soggy cake. Freezing is truly the BEST method for a full of flavor and wonderfully moist cake. It just takes some practice on learning how to deal with the cakes once frozen.
The reason frozen cakes have gotten such a bad rap is because of the fact that grocery stores may keep a cake in a freezer for months on end, and more than likely those cakes have been frozen the defrosted and then refrozen several times over before actually getting decorated. Refreezing several times after defrosting several times will do the same thing as a refrigerator does on baked good...dry it out. If you make sure you only refreeze the one time during the building/decorating process you will deliver a wonderful piece of cake.
I love CC so much! Thanks for all the info. I'm frosting a cake for Friday today and normally I put the cake in the fridge over night and then cover w fondant the next day. But I'm wondering if that will make it go dry. What would any of you suggest?
Pica, I do find that if you put it in the fridge overnight, you greatly increase the risk of drying it out. Others might have just the opposite opinion, but this is what I have found based on personal experience.
That being said, what you are doing today is actually just how you want to proceed when you have the time to make a cake and not rush it. Frost it today. If possible, the best thing to do is just the crumb coat today then add the final layer of bc on Friday before the fondant layer. If you crumb coat it, place it inside a clean plastic bag and close the bag up tight, you are not only keeping it moist, but you are allowing the optimal settling to occur. Rarely will you ever deal with bulging cake layers when you can go this route. Allow the settling to take place overnight, and simply sitting out on the counter in that bag.
Tomorrow morning, remove the bag, if there is a bulge between layers go around the layers with a thin spatula and remove the excess. Smooth it out. Add the extra layer of buttercream. THEN place the cake in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes allowing it to chill the bc layer for optimum placement of the fondant.
If you don't have time to allow just the crumb coat to settle today simply follow the same instructions, but allow the crumb coat to settle at least two hours before the final layer of bc. When you put the final layer of bc on, close it up in the bag and allow it to sit overnight in the bag. Tomorrow morning, remove the bag and smooth out any of the wrinkles that might have occurred overnight.
Hope that helps! Happy Caking!
Edited to add that your cakes are precious and very well executed. Whatever you are doing currently must be right because they look super. LOVE that stargazer wedding cake!
Thanks for the fast response!!! My god daughters birthday is this weekend and I wanted to make sure her cake is tasty and moist. I will definitely try this out today, thank you so much I appreciate it!
Whats the best way to freeze cupcakes? Given all the room they take up and then needing to be gentle with trying to avoid crushing their wrappers??
How long would you leave a cake froze for before using it?
Generally I would leave mine frozen only for a week or two but I do have s few cakes in the freezer than I haven't used yet because I baked them for emergency use!
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