I am making a cake for a friend, whose daughter's party is on a Saturday when I will be going out of town. I figure I will bake the cake on Tuesday, ice on Wednesday, and finish up on Thursday. She'll somehow get it on Friday, but how do I assure that the cake is kept as fresh as possible during this time?

I usually use a 75% butter and 25% shortening in my buttercream, if that makes any difference...

Thanks for the advice!

I think you're starting way too early. Is this a multi-tiered cake? How much do you have to bake? If you could bake Thursday morning before work, frost after work, and decorate it in the evening that would be best. If there is a lot of bakiing involved, start baking Wednesday night.

I do mainly sheet cakes mostly due on Saturday. I bake Friday mornings before work and stay up Friday nights until they're finished. If I'm swamped, I still bake no more than two days before due date.

But, to answer your storage question, if you have an electric oven, you can store your cakes in your cold oven. Just tape a note over the "on" switch so nobody turns the oven on!

I would put it in the fridge personally. But I live somewhere hot so I never leave anything out, things go moldy instantly.

I'm with Linda on this one.

I wouldn't start baking that early in the weeek. For any of my Saturday cakes, I bake on Thursday, decorate on Friday, and delivery for Saturday. You dont want to bake to close to delivery, as the cake needs to "settle" before decorating.

One more thing: you want your customer to be able to have the cake fresh for a few days.

I baked, filled and shapped cake on Wed, decorated on thur, deliveered on Friday fro a Sunday party. Everyone said the cake was still delisiouse even a few days after the party. It was all buttercream.

It depends on what recipe you use... I mainly use variations of the WASC, and it is Better after 3 days. Many people use pretty much the same schedule you are describing...bake Wed, frost Thur. and decorate on Friday for a weekend event. I think that you will be fine.