I usually finish a cake the night before a morning pick up, I like to have at least some time to fix or finish any last minute things before the cake gets picked up. However, I have heard of some that like to have a cake done a full one or two days in advance. Obviously refrigerated.....but doesn't the cake dry out? What do you all do?

I'm really interested in the answer to this question as well. Also- is it better to freeze?

i would like to know also!i have a large wedding order and work til 7pm so doing it all the night b4 isnt an option..

I do always freeze my cakes (before iced and decorated). I make them up a few days before then tightly wrap them, and stick them in the frezer, I find it easier to ice and stack when they are good and cold! BUT I have never started to decorate a cake and leave it in the fridge, more than a night before. I too have an order coming up that I won't be able to spend the night before on, and would like to know if I can do it 2 days before pick up! Hmmmmm

Once you put icing on a cake it doesn't dry out at. It's the naked cake that someone has to be concerned about. You don't have to refrigerate a cake unless it has a filling that needs to be, such as whipped cream, fresh bavarian cream, etc. especially if you use american buttercream for icing. Some fondants such as MMF don't do well in the refrigerator at all. But of course it is up to you.

Ha! I love that! Naked cake! So if I do the cake on a thursday night for a Sat. morning pick up....it should be okay? And I refridgerate at my own descretion! I do use MMF, and have refridgerated it, with mixed results! This cake has no fillings that would need refridgeration...so we should be good!

Thank you once again wonderful people of cakecentral!

I always finish my cakes the night before because i like to deliver in the morning

Good question,,, what happens when you need to do 3 or so cakes for the weekend?

Don't take any more cakes then you can handle. I won't take more then two for one weekend so that I know I can finish them. I bake them all on the same day, fill and dirty ice that night then decorate them all next day so they are finished by delivery the next morning.

I have cut back to no more than 3 wedding cakes a weekend. That said, I bake early in the week, torte, and freeze. On Thursday I pull them fill them and weight them for settling. Friday everything gets finished. Saturday they're delivered.

Amen to knowing your limits, what you can do, how fast, and if you can store all the cake you've made until delivery. I think I fall into the 3 day time frame as most have posted here, and no more. I want my cake to taste as fresh as possible and kind of think... hey, it's not the client's fault I failed at my time management skills or bit off more then I can chew... they paid for beautiful and tasty cake, and if I have to stay up all night, beautiful and tasty cake they get

Jen

I usually freeze the cake well in advance, take it out to defrost it on thursday morning, then finish any torting, filling, levelling out or ganaching on thursday night. I then spend all of friday on just decorating. I'm lucky that I have Friday's off, because it does take me the whole day to decorate...still learning...I've never had a complaint about the freshness, in fact the freezing and covering with fondant seems to keep it extra moist.

I am just a hobby baker and have to do it all after work, so I bake and refrig one day, next day I tort/ fill and ice, and then the next day I decorate. I am slow.. very slow... and I only have so much time and enegery after work (have a wee-lil-one that I have to cudlle to sleep, it's my fav part of my day and I dont like to defer that job to my hubby)

I prefer cold cake so even when I take a cake to work for a pot luck, I keep it in the frig until set up time, just b/c I like my cake cold!