I work as a nurse at my regular job, and I used to work 3-11 five days a week with every other weekend off. I was able to do cakes because most of them are needed on weekends. I was able to work on them at any time during my weekends off, and during my work weekends I just worked on them during the day or during the night after work.

Due to some matters in my life, I've recently had to switch to working 12 hour shifts friday, saturday, and sunday. I will work 7pm to 7am, and I will be working every single weekend. I don't want to give up cakes! I have four days off every week to do lots of prep work. But a cake that is due on Saturday, I could bake on Thursday and perhaps work on decorating during the day on Friday before work, but this is time that I could be using to sleep to prepare for my midnight shift that night.

Do you think it's ok to decorate a cake on Thursday that you aren't delivering until Saturday? How would you store a cake for that long? Would the cake dry out? I would hate to give up cakes especially now that I have all of this time off during the week to make fondant decorations and do cake planning. And would I have to completely give up making cakes that are due on Sunday? I can't imagine I could decorate them on Thursday. I'd have to decorate during the day before work on Saturday. Any tips or suggestions?

Well, whether or not your cake would still be good really depends on your recipe. Personally when doing a wedding cake i bake on Wed or Thurs, depending on how much work is needed to be done. I do use box mixes because i find they will keep longer for me then the scratch cakes i have tried.

My advice, is make a cake, on wednesday take it in to work on Saturday and ask for honest opinions, and also, don't forget to try a piece yourself. You could also, bake and freeze earlier in the week when you have the time.

My biggest problem with working the weekends is delivery, so i'm limited with what i can do unless i can rope someone into doing a delivery for me.

I bake from scratch and my cakes would definately be ok if I baked them on mon or tues and decorated on wed or thurs for saturday delivery.
The madeira cake I bake is good for about 2 weeks, even though I wouldn't bake 2 weeks in advance and I do only bake as a hobby.

Good luck

So how would you store a cake that you decorated on a Thursday that is due on Saturday?

I only cover my cakes in fondant, when they ar finished I store them in a cardboard in a cool place...no the fridge, I don't know about buttercream cakes but someone on here will be able to tell you.