I have a friend who wants a cake, but she is bringing it with her out of town (and they're driving.)
She needs to pick it up on Friday, but the party isn't until Sunday.
So I was going to bake on Thursday and decorate it Friday morning.

Will the cake still be ok on Sunday? I've never waited that long to serve it before. The cake will be WASC with buttercream filling and I will most likely cover it in fondant since I think it will travel better.

Thoughts?

I bake on tuesday, refrigerate Saran wrapped cake, defrost on Friday, ice and decorate Friday, then refrigerate final cake, deliver on Saturday. Perfect on Sunday. Bc filling is fine to keep out. And I don't use fondant, only bc icing.

You will be fine doing that. You can freeze it after baking and then defrost the day before frosting like the other poster said. Should be just fine in the refrigerator as well.

I just made a 10" double layer (my grad cake in pic). Baked Wed. cooled and filled with buttercream,crumb coated,wrapped and froze overnight took out Thur. morning and decorated Thurs. night. Buttercream and fondant decorations. Left out in cold a/c room was picked up Fri. afternoon driven 3hrs away and served Saturday night. They called, made it perfect and eating last pieces on Sunday.

I have a similar situation (picking up the cake on Friday for a wedding on Sunday) with e a three hour drive on Friday. The cake will be torted with raspberry filling and covered in fondant. I planned on baking Thursday and refrigerating until they picked up Friday morning. If I freeze it and decorate while frozen and then keep in the refrigerator, will that help keep it fresh? Thank you for any advice.

Don't decorate it while frozen. Lots of cracks, blowouts and collapses can occur as the cake thaws and releases moisture and air.

You can bake several days in advance, whenever you have the time, and freeze the cake. Take it out of the freezer well before you need to decorate it. Tort, fill, and crumbcoat (by the time you're done with that the cake will be thawed, but still cold) and let it settle, either overnight or with a weight on it for at least several hours. Then frost/cover and decorate.

A fondant-covered cake stays fresh and moist for a loooong time, and even a buttercream frosted cake, uncut, is good for at least two or three days at a reasonable room temperature. There is no need to refrigerate it unless the filling is perishable -- so in this case I'd suggest a raspberry jam type filling, not fresh fruit.

The three hour drive is a problem only if the car gets too hot. Make sure they have the A/C on and keep the cake box out of the sun as much as possible so the buttercream won't melt!

Holly