I recently posted a topic about how freezing my butter scratch cakes makes them dry and hard. For those of you who don't freeze their cakes how far in advance do you bake? Do you bake and fill the same day. What if you have a large order how many days in advance do you bake without sacrificing the quality?

i dont freeze, i dont see the need.
usually i bake and crumbcoat the same day as baking, then fondant the next day.
or bake, cover, then crumbcoat and fondant the next day.
i wouldnt worry about 2 or three days sitting around as long as it is properly covered. but that depends on the recipe, not all of them are as good - i use a victoria sponge.
xx

Unless your doing a bad job of wrapping the cake. The freezer is not causing your cakes to be dry, and hard.

The freezing process will actually break down a cake's structure, making it appear moist.

This happens because when something freezes iot expands. An ice crystal is a crystal looking thingy with sharp edges. As the cakes freeze these crystals will "cut" into the gluten structure of the cake.

SO, it's either the wrapping, over baking, or a bad recipe.

Mike

I don't freeze my cakes, unless I have a huge order. I have done it few times, but I have to say that the cake were nice and soft like a freshly baked cake. Like Mike mentioned above, you may have not wrapped it well. I wrap my cakes really well with saran wrap and then in foil and then put it in a freezer bag. And when you want to thaw it, take it out from the freezer the night before and then put it in the fridge. Then next morning take it out and leave it out on the counter with the wrapping to come to room temperature. When you are ready to crumbcoat and decorate, remove the wrapping.

Other times I bake my cake two days ahead. Bake in the morning and torte and fill in the night and leave it to settle. then the next morning, crumbcoat and cover it with fondant and decorate.

HTH.

thanks for the replies...I forgot to mention it only happens with butter cakes. I've tried various recipes with same result. However, when I freeze my chiffon cakes they stay nice and moist. I wrap just like you mentioned so I don't think that's the issue.

I have frozen butter cakes plenty of times and they don't get hard and dry. I freeze my cakes in 1.5" squares for tastings and they are always moist and nice when they thaw. Are yours dry and hard when they are completely thawed? They are an odd texture when they are still frozen/really cold, but once they come to full room temp they are always fine.

I only freeze if I absolutely have to (say if I have 4 cakes in one weekend... ugh), but I always at least chill them.

I froze a pound cake just last week for 4 days and it was delicious and moist when we ate it.

I don't usually freeze my cakes...because of personal preference (I also don't bake many cakes right now..mostly cuppies and cookies). I normally bake, fill, crumb coat, and decorate on the same day.

I have frozen a few cakes in the past and I have to say that they were just as moist as if they were freshly baked. The recipes were butter recipes. I agreee with several of the other posters that said that perhaps it was your recipe.