I am confused as to when you need to refrigerate a finished cake with certain types of frostings and decorations.
If I use regular buttercream (butter, sugar, milk & vanilla) frosting I don't usually refrigerate. I hate Crisco frosting! When I do it sweats when I take it out! If you use IMBF (YUMMY) do you need to refrigerate? I thought if it was cooked it didn't need refrigeration? If you use fondant decorations I did not think you could refrigerate a cake? Won't the fondant run and bleed? I thought I was told in my Wilton class never to refrigerate fondant or royal icing.
With any cake that needs refrigeration what kind of decorations can you use? Fondant? Gumpaste? Royal Icing? How do you fill a cake with a filling that needs refrigeration and then use fondant to cover and decorate it? I AM SO CONFUSED! HELP!
Donna

You do not need to refergerate your b'cream or fondant cakes unless the filling must be kept cool.
If you do put them in the frig, yes they will sweat when removed (expecially when it is warm out) but if you leave the cake in the box and don't touch it until it comes to room temp that will evaporate w/o a problem.

I hold to the general rule if it has milk, or eggs products it needs to be refridgerated.

Mike

Yes Mike that is a good general rule. But can you refrigerate cakes with fondant decorations or covered with fondant if they have a filling that needs refrigeration? I thought you were not supposed to refrigerate fondant?

Kakeladi: But do you need to refrigerate Italian Merengue Buttercream Frosting?
Thanks, Donna

I use buttercream made with butter on a regular basis, I do not refrigerate but I do not put milk in it. I replace the milk with lemon juice, I find it cuts through the sweetness a little, which is necessary if you are covering in fondant, and unlike milk I am assuming it has a longer shelf life. Someone might pick me up on this but I have had no complaints. I feel safer doing this as you dont know how the recipient is going to store the cake until its consumed.

My icing has milk in it and in 30 years, I've never refrigerated it. It wasn't until recently that I was educated on the combination of milk/sugar stablizing each other, so I had no reason to "not" refrigerate other than in all of my life, I didn't know anyone who refrigerated icing or cakes. It was just something that we didn't do.

Actually ..... I've only had 2 instances of problems with my icing and both times I refrigerated the cake for some reason. So these 2 instances just reaffirmed my stance on non-refrigeration.

This was a question I was getting ready to ask!!! Next week I'm going to be making a cake covered in fondant for my mom. She requested a strawberry with vanilla pudding for a filling. I obviously have to refridgerate. Can I refridgerate this cake without having problems?

I also have a question, I have refridgerated fondant cakes but can you refridgerate an airbrushed cake that is covered in fondant? My thoughts would be that when the cake is sweating the airbrush would run, is this true?

O.k. I have never used IMBC so I can't advise on that.
As a general rule in b'cfreams the amount of sugar vs butter &/or milk is important. The sugar is a preservative so you don't need to refrig.
Now, eggs is a different story but there are no eggs in 'shortening' type b'creams.
As Indydebi has said, she has used her b'c for 30 yrs w/o problem. Many others of us have also use similar recipes for yrs. also.

Doona,
I refrigerate cakes that are fondant covered all the time without a problem. Might get a touch of sweating when bringing them to room temp if its hot out, same with IMBC. You CAN refrig. fondant. It's FREEZING fondant that bad.
Occasionally, I've frozen IMBC cakes, and may get a bit of cracking when bringing to room temp. but this can be touched up easily. It's just because of all the butter.
I've had not trouble with the colors running from refrigerated fondant, ever.

Sweetcakes23:
Finally a direct answer to one of my questions! Thank you, Thank you! Now I know I can refrigerate my cake with fondant decorations!!! I don't know why I thought I should not. I think a Wilton teacher said not too!
Donna

Sweetcakes23:
Finally a direct answer to one of my questions! Thank you, Thank you! Now I know I can refrigerate my cake with fondant decorations!!! I don't know why I thought I should not. I think a Wilton teacher said not too!
Donna

Yep, I agree with sweetcakes23. I use IMBC and I refrigerate ALL of my cakes wether it be frosted with IMBC, fondant or BC with fondant accents. In the summer when it's hot it does sweat but it evaporates and is find. No problem with airbrush colors either.

I've been searching everywhere for a simple answer to a simple question. I've heard many people store there fondant covered cakes in the fridge (especially tiered wedding cakes). However, I want to know that if the buttercream/filling does not need to be refrigerated can you leave a tiered fondant cake out at room temperature? Will the cake start to deform at all??? I am to scared to try it myself but my initial feeling tells me its fine to leave them out?

Yes, its fine to leave out, so long as your home temperature does not fluctuate too wildly. If it gets hot, you may get some deformation. So keep it at a temperate room temperature.

Regular "american" buttercream doesn't *have* to be refrigerated (unless you use a perishable filling), but I prefer to as it makes them more stable for transport as it makes the icing & cake firm.  It should be served at room temp, though.

I refrigerate cakes with fondant and royal icing all the time and have never had a major problem.  You just have to take into account the ambient humidity level.  For example, I had a cake I was doing delicate piped royal icing embroidery that was going to be painted in gold.  It was July, and the cakes had been refrigerated after being iced, so they did start to sweat.  I just had to wait a while for them to euqilibrate & the condesation evaporate so the royal icing could dry to be painted.  Then I refrigerated it again and there were no problems.   I have refrigerated many fondant cakes, too, and again, if it is *really* humid they do sweat quite a bit and get sticky, so you have to account for that if you have more work left to do on them, and it does make it slightly more trouble to cut & serve, but if you have a good sharp knife and dip it in hot water & wipe it off often, it's not really a problem.

I do try to avoid refrigerating larger gumpaste flowers for fear of them "wilting" if they get to much condesation.  I suppose if you had really dark colors bleeding could be a problem if the humidity is excessive with any type of icing.

*Oops, didn't notice this was an old thread that had taken a different dirrection

seriously, where do you people get your information? Have any of you taking the FDA food safety course? Has anyone been approved by the Dept of Ag and given a license? Because if you had you would know that you cannot hold anything with dairy over 40 degree F for more than 4 hours without tossing it. And yes, that includes egg whites.

Or maybe you got an inspector who doesn't care. but mine comes thru with a temp probe.

My response was to someone who had ressurected the thread today to ask about NON-PERISHABLE fillings, in fondant-covered cakes being left out of the fridge. I stand by what I said - they CAN be kept out of the fridge. Unless you want to hold onto it for days longer than it takes to decorate and deliver its going to be fine.

There is a reason people are allowed to make cakes from their homes to sell in some parts of the world - it is a LOW-RISK food hazard. Of course perishable fillings in cakes would render the cake riskier as a food hazard, Thus it should be kept in the fridge!

nope....didn't notice the dates. my bad. and yes Evoir, I did notice your response was to the nonperishable question, it was not to you I was venting.

It does however, bother me immensely that people leave perishable food out....or think its safe to do so. I wouldn't want to eat it, nor would I ever serve it, nor would my inspector let me.

Milk in the US is so homogenized that it won't curdle, it just gets a nasty smell if you leave it out too long. I have used milk 10 days past the sell by date and it was as fresh as the day I got it, but the kids weren't home, so it was promptly returned to the fridge after each use. I have even found it on the counter all warm, and popped it back in the fridge and it tasted fine the next few days, until it was gone. It just isn't as dangerous as it once was, but we still have it instilled in us from our grandmas that it is poison if it comes to room temperature. Granted you need to use your local health departments standards when you have a licensed business, or even under the cottage food laws, but you may wrest your underthings from their knot and breathe! 

And as far as eggs go, America is one of the few countries where eggs are even refrigerated in the stores. My grandma has every bird you can think of , walking around her yard, and collects the eggs. She keeps them in a basket in the pantry, where it is about 68 degrees all year long. She has them in there for months at a time, sometimes, and while I reject an omelet or scrambled eggs from her kitchen, I regularly use them for cheesecakes, pumpkin pies, puddings, cookies, cakes, and dressings while I am at her house for the holidays. The only time I ever have a problem is when I open one that was fertilized and it has a bit of blood in it. But when you really think about it, wont you eat the cooked blood of a full grown animal? We all *think* certain food safety rules are laws, but few of them are based on real science and the ones that are, are often very extreme. (Like when some egg head says that Pink Yink is good for 6 weeks at room temperature, but to be on the safe side, better keep it at 40 degrees for 10 days then toss it. )

Oh, the other problem I have with grandma's eggs are wondering how many quail eggs makes 3 large eggs, or if I could just use 1 ostrich egg... And if I m going to bust it open and find a beak or legs ;-P

My understanding is that for the ostrich egg, you'll need a Sawzall to get it open.

And as to "most other countries," well, "most other countries" don't have factory-farmed hens crammed into the sort of tiny, unsanitary, battery cages that are breeding grounds for salmonella, and powerful, well-paid industry lobbyists fighting to keep them there.

And I've seen (mostly at the office) milk turn into bad yogurt while still in the refrigerator.

EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!

(Then again, I can easily taste when milk is starting to turn, and I can also easily taste when it's been over-Pasteurized [to me, shelf-stable milk tastes more like milk of magnesia than milk of a cow, and "ultra-Pasteurized" doesn't taste much better, which is why I was so overjoyed, the first time I saw a carton of certified organic milk that made a point of stating, right on the label, that it wasn't "ultra-Pasteurized" {not that I've actually bought a carton of it; it's bloody damned expensive!}]).

A

I'm sorry if it sounded like I over reacted, SandyOh.

A

I'm sorry if it sounded like I over reacted, SandyOh.

A

The thought of warm milk alone makes me queasy. The smell of milk, whether straight of the shelf or after sitting out, makes my stomach turn. She is a lot braver than I am!

AWhen I was a little girl with insomnia, my mom would make me warm milk with honey. I make my hot chocolate with milk, too.