Refrigerate An Un-Iced Cake?
Decorating By princesscatt Updated 16 Jul 2010 , 7:52pm by Gingerbread_from_Germany
I normally make my cakes a day or two in advance of decorating them and I hate to keep them in the fridge all that time b/c I feel like they will be rocks by the time they get to people. Do you have to refrigerate a cake with no icing on it or would it be ok if they were wrapped really well and kept out of the fridge?
What kind of cakes are you making? When I make a regular box cake, I flip it out of the pan on (what I call) a flour-sack kitchen towel (they are lint-free, without the regular "fuzz" of a towel, if you know what I mean). I loosely wrap it up in that towel and leave it out on the counter for a day. I icing it the next day, and it's always really moist -- never had one dry out.
If I know I'm going to be pressed for time and need to make the cakes several days in advance, I wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and foil and freeze them. I let them thaw completely before I ice them so they won't sweat.
But if it's a cake that doesn't normally have to be refrigerated, I don't think leaving it out for a day or two will hurt. Just make sure it's covered so it won't dry out!
no, no. never refrigerate cake.
ditto.
I often why when this idea of refrigerating cakes came into play. Our mothers and grandmothers left cakes sitting on the couner for days and we ate it and never thought anything about it. Somehow, somewhere along the line, people got almost paranoid about putting a cake in the 'frig.
When did that happen? What was I doing that day? 
Indydebi raised a very intriguing question... when did the refrigeration thing come about? On the farm, we baked cakes, cookies, and/or pies every day in the summer. Nothing went into the refrigerator except the pudding-type pies. Everything else got covered with whatever we had around (no plastic wrap or zip-locks back then!) When I visit my sister-in-law in England, she always has a cake sitting on the kitchen counter... sort of covered, but not the way we wrap things up tight - and never refrigerated.
Maybe this all started when the size of our refrigerators exploded and we needed to fill them up with something?
no, no. never refrigerate cake.
I know this question has been asked before, but since we were on the subject.
Why do we not refrigerate our cakes? I thought thats what kept them moist.
Last but not least, do I need to let my Ganache covered cake come to room temp before covering with fondant? (Its my first time covering a cake with ganache then fondant)
Why do we not refrigerate our cakes? I thought thats what kept them moist.
quite the contrary -- it dehydrates them.
not that you've done it, but if (gee I wonder how I know) you've left say and onion or potato in the fridge a long time - every notice how they just dry up? Cake does too, so does bread.
only thing cold air does is retard growth rate of bad buggies.
consider also -- in winter when the air gets cold-- the humidity drops -- the air dries out and that dries out everything around it -- the cake, the bread, your skin.....
Thanks girls...I just wrapped them in plastic wrap and they are sitting pretty on the counter!
no, no. never refrigerate cake.
Last but not least, do I need to let my Ganache covered cake come to room temp before covering with fondant? (Its my first time covering a cake with ganache then fondant)
Hello Messmaker ( I LOVE the name 
)
DEFINATELY DON'T let your ganache covered cake come to room temperature before covering it with fondant!!! You will make your cake making life a misery if you do that! The colder the ganache is, the harder it is and the easier it is to smooth the fondant onto the cake, without making bulges etc.
I always try to give my ganache covered cakes at least 12 hours in a VERY cold fridge (turn the temperature to as cold as possible if I'm gonna put a cake in the fridge) so I have a nice hard base to work with.
And if you have nevered worked with ganache and fondant before, if you add more chocolate to your ganache recipe than stated, it will make your cooled ganache harder, and make it even easier to cover the cake in fondant. If this is your "first time", I would highly recommend you do that! 
It works for me every time. Of course, it makes your ganache more chocolately - but is that a bad thng?!
I hope that helps and have fun baking!
Marina
no, no. never refrigerate cake.
Last but not least, do I need to let my Ganache covered cake come to room temp before covering with fondant? (Its my first time covering a cake with ganache then fondant)
Hello Messmaker ( I LOVE the name
)DEFINATELY DON'T let your ganache covered cake come to room temperature before covering it with fondant!!! You will make your cake making life a misery if you do that! The colder the ganache is, the harder it is and the easier it is to smooth the fondant onto the cake, without making bulges etc.
I always try to give my ganache covered cakes at least 12 hours in a VERY cold fridge (turn the temperature to as cold as possible if I'm gonna put a cake in the fridge) so I have a nice hard base to work with.
And if you have nevered worked with ganache and fondant before, if you add more chocolate to your ganache recipe than stated, it will make your cooled ganache harder, and make it even easier to cover the cake in fondant. If this is your "first time", I would highly recommend you do that!
It works for me every time. Of course, it makes your ganache more chocolately - but is that a bad thng?! I hope that helps and have fun baking!
Marina
Since this is my first time i have worked with ganache and fondant, i must tell and ask.
My cakes are covered with a nice thick layer or ganache, i smoothed it as best as possible (pretty smooth for my first time), can i still warm a spatula and smooth out the spots that i didnt get smoothed on the initial covering?
Hello all! Figured I'd chime in here!! I've been reading alot of posts about refrigerating cakes. Before I had my own certified kitchen, I used to rent one. I work another full time job, so the only day for baking would be on Mondays. Yes, MONDAYS!! so I used to have to bake, fill and ice all of my weekend cakes on the monday before so all I had left to do was the decorating. Therefore, mainly because of space contraints and to get the cakes out of the way I would ice them and the refrigerate unit decorating time, which would usually start on Wed. After decorating was done, I would leave them out at room temp. All of my cakes were extremely moist and all of my customers would say how fresh they were. LOL...I would always think to myself, if they only knew that sat. cake was baked on mon. The cake would sweat a bit right out of the fridge, but the condensation always worked to my advantage... making a very moist cake on the inside and me not having to worry about fondant or decor not sticking to the buttercream. Indydebi's buttercream is wonderful because it holds up to the temp change very well. Keep in mind though, I never offer perishable fillings or fresh fruit fillings when I was doing this. So it did limit filling options, but as long as the cake is iced really well and there is no "bare cake" exposed the cake will not dry out and condensation will be your friend. An old man, my mentor, taught me this method. He used to make the BEST cakes around. I asked him once what his secret was to such a moist cake, he said...."nature, condensation is your friend" He actually would ice all of his cake frozen right out of the freezer. They were DELISH!! I was always nervous about doing it that way though. Had visions of my customers trying to cut into a half thawed cake...YIKES! But don't be afraid of a little "cake sweat"!!
Hello all! Figured I'd chime in here!! I've been reading alot of posts about refrigerating cakes. Before I had my own certified kitchen, I used to rent one. I work another full time job, so the only day for baking would be on Mondays. Yes, MONDAYS!! so I used to have to bake, fill and ice all of my weekend cakes on the monday before so all I had left to do was the decorating. Therefore, mainly because of space contraints and to get the cakes out of the way I would ice them and the refrigerate unit decorating time, which would usually start on Wed. After decorating was done, I would leave them out at room temp. All of my cakes were extremely moist and all of my customers would say how fresh they were. LOL...I would always think to myself, if they only knew that sat. cake was baked on mon. The cake would sweat a bit right out of the fridge, but the condensation always worked to my advantage... making a very moist cake on the inside and me not having to worry about fondant or decor not sticking to the buttercream. Indydebi's buttercream is wonderful because it holds up to the temp change very well. Keep in mind though, I never offer perishable fillings or fresh fruit fillings when I was doing this. So it did limit filling options, but as long as the cake is iced really well and there is no "bare cake" exposed the cake will not dry out and condensation will be your friend. An old man, my mentor, taught me this method. He used to make the BEST cakes around. I asked him once what his secret was to such a moist cake, he said...."nature, condensation is your friend" He actually would ice all of his cake frozen right out of the freezer. They were DELISH!! I was always nervous about doing it that way though. Had visions of my customers trying to cut into a half thawed cake...YIKES! But don't be afraid of a little "cake sweat"!!
@Yum2010, I completely agree with you, but I understood that the question here was if a freshly baked cake, which hasn't been iced or anything yet, should / could be refridgerated - that is a totally different kettle of fish. 
@Messmaker, of course you can warm the spatula and smooth out the spots, but you would make your life easier if the cake is well cooled. You can refridgerate it for an hour or two and then take it out again to smooth any spots that aren't smooth enough for you and then put it back in the fridge. I always try to cover my cakes in ganache and refridgerate in the evening and then I leave them in the fridge overnight.
Marina 
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