I'm working on my second paid cake job. It's for a 3 teired cake 8",6",4" and two other 8" cakes; all BC. The cake will be picked up on Saturday afternoon. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to work on all of them (I'm new at this and have a clingy one-year old with a cold). I baked, filled, and crumbcoated the two 8 inch cakes this evening and now reading other posts I'm worried that I've gotten started too soon. I was planning on letting them sit out on the counter but now I'm wondering if I should put them in the fridge at least until I ice them tomorrow?? I thought 4-5 days was okay but now I'm scared my cakes will taste "old". Help

The cakes need to go into the freezer at this point, not the refrigerator. What's the filling?

Filling is just buttercream. Should I wrap them somehow??? Thanks for your help.

I agree definitely wrap VERY well and freeze them. Take them out of the freezer to defrost (but leave saran ON) the night before you plan to decorate to (ie before you go to bed on Thurs if you plan to decorate all day Fri) and you'll be good to go.

Also... if they're wrapped well enough it won't affect the taste. I froze cupcakes this way around valentines day... baked a week ahead then cooled and froze/defrosted.. mainly because there was a zillion other things goin on but it works out really fine.

I'm with Leahs. Cover well with saran wrap & heavy duty foil (helps keeps other odours out). Take out the cake and let it thaw (still in all it's wrapping) before icing. I usually just take it out of the freezer and refrigerate overnight and let it thaw in there or for an hour or so at room temp (still wrapped of course to avoid condensation). After you fill your cake let it settle for a few hours before so if there is any bulging it can be dealt with before icing and or covering with fondant. Then decorate the cake. I usually like to do my cakes within a 2 day period (sometimes 3).

Hope that helps.

The longest Ill go is about 2 day. Say, if the cake is due Saturday, Ill bake it Thursday and depending on how much work involved i will either finish the cake that day or do half that day and finish the next day if its a big project. For example, the last wedding cake I did took about 7 hours of baking time alone. So in one day all I had time for was baking, filling, and a crumbcoat. The next day I finished it. I think anything after 2 days is not a fresh cake anymore. I would never go longer than that. If I have to bake it sooner I freeze it, just like everyone else said. I have done that plenty of times as well. Actually Im going to make my cakes tomorrow for my husband's party on Saturday.