I had a 80th bday cake due tonight for pick up and customer just called at 12:00pm and said the party girl was sick, moving party to next weekend. She is a good friend of mine, so I am not upset, BUT i do not want to lose the work i have already done. i baked 6", 8", 10", and 12" cakes and froze them. laid them out this morning to thaw for when i get home tonight to decorate. my question is : Can I refreeze the cakes after they have been frozen and thawed so i can use them next weekend? I know you cant refreeze hamburger meat, so I didn't know if the same rule applies? The cakes are not iced.

Also, while I am asking....who decorates cakes and then freezes them? how do they turn out and taste? customer told me to just make the cake and freeze it until next weekend, but i am hesitant to do that because i want it to taste good. This is my reputation!

thanks for the help!

i am more hesitant about freezing the whole can than i am to just refreeze the cake layers especially since i ate my 'anniversary' cake a year later and it was horrific (of course i am sure it wasnt wrapped right and it was a whole year later). But thanks so much for the info! i am totally putting those things back in the freezer!

You CAN refreeze hamburger meat! If it was thawed in the fridge and is still fresh (i.e. hasn't been sitting in the fridge for a week now) that is. The danger of refreezing food is with foods that are perishable at room temperature...which you have allowed to reach room temp. Once it's entered its "perishable time zone" (generally, 2 hours w/o refrigeration), refreezing it just freezes (but not kills) the bacteria that have started to grow.

Uniced cakes would not be considered perishable at room temp for a few hours; I would rewrap them and refreeze them til needed.

There is nothing wrong with freezing a decorated cake, presuming you can wrap it well! Especially when you consider that you are only talking about freezing it for a week. The buttercream seals in the cake; it's just the icing that you want to protect from freezer burn at that point. I've seen some here freeze the cake til hard and THEN wrap it while it's hard, to protect the decorations. Or, they box it up and wrap the box to seal out the drying cold air.

thanks so much! very good information to know!

I have successfully re-frozen thawed cakes. I have also done this with bread and have had absolutely no problems. I wouldn't let it sit out for days and then refreeze, but the same day or next should be fine. Good luck.