I am currently doing a cake decorating course and as part of our final few weeks we have to decorate a real cake (instead of cake dummies!). we will start decorating the cakes this week and finish them off the following week so they have to last!

During the first week we will marzipan the cakes so hopefully they should be sealed! would a simple sponge cake keep long enough to be finished the following week and then be cut open and eaten after?

I know that fruit cakes can last for months and i've heard that Madeira cakes last longer than sponge cakes (i dont know if this is true or not!) but i can't find much useful information regarding how long cakes last on the internet so i thought i'd ask you guys!

The cake's not going to be refridgerated or frozen so i just need a cake that will last! i know fruit cake will, but will madeira or sponge (or any other sort for that matter)?

Thanks very much!

Sponge cake will last fine once it's covered for over a week, I have tried this so I know. However, I wouldn't sell it, but I would definitely eat it at home with family. Fruit cake lasts the longest, but it might not be to your taste and in my opinion it should be baked at least a month before use and "fed" with alcohol daily, so you may not have time to do that now. I once made madeira cake (got the recipe from a Debbie Brown book) but it was dry and tasteless. Give me a good chocolate or vanilla sponge any day, even if it is a week or 9 days old!!

Thanks! i do love my fruit cake though but agree with you that it should be made in advance and fed! and 4 days wont give me very many chances to feed it! i do think that Madeira cake can be drier than a good sponge and thought that that helped it last!

Has anybody else had any experience with Madeira cake lasting?

Howdy from the USA. I assume you folks are from the UK somewhere. In the US we don't call stuff sponge or madeira cake; our "sponge" cakes are just called cake, and "madeira" is similar to what we call "pound" cake. The American version of sponge is a very light texture and is generally served within 1-4 days of baking.

However, like any cake from anywhere, if you cover it with American buttercream or sugar paste [fondant] or marzipan, the icing works just like plastic wrap to "lock in" the freshness. You MUST cover every single bit of the cake, especially the bottom edges; even a tiny hole will let in oxygen to start the process of making the cake stale.

I made a 4 tier stacked cake for a cake convention display hall about a year ago. It was a "sponge" [American style] crumbcoated with American buttercream [no real butter, just shortening], and then finished with fondant [sugar paste]. My family tried it after 9 days when I brought it home, and it was fine. Perhaps a teeny-tiny bit stale, but that could have been me because I KNEW it was 9 days old! If it had been served up at a church dinner, no one would have noticed.