Hi,

it's my son's birthday party tonight and I will be serving the cake at around 7pm. It's a chocolate cake filled with SMBC that I made yesterday and refrigerated overnight in the Wilton cake taker (I'm hoping this will have helped the cake retain moisture!)

SMBC, when refrigerated, gets super hard. I usually fill my cakes with something whipped-creamed based, but had a ganache disaster so just filled the cakes with SMBC.

I would like the cake to come to room temperature for serving. How long in advance can I take it out so that it's fully at room temp at serving (7 pm)? Can it sit out for more than 2 hours?

It's such a shame that SMBC's texture changes so much as it gets rave reviews around here - but I find the 'chunk of icing on your plate' texture kind of embarrassing.

Thanks!!

There's no reason for the cake to be in the fridge AT ALL. Refrigerators suck moisture out of cake and all baked goods. It's a relative humidity thing.

But I thought that SMBC had to be refrigerated if being left out for more than a few hours?

It's just as stable as the "regular" buttercream. And I agree--it's like cutting ice cold butter straight from the fridge.