OK so it's Thursday and I am baking cakes for a wedding today so that Saturday morning I can decorate them.
I know alot of people on here love to freeze their cakes before decorating. I was always scared thinking it dried out the cakes but everyone swears it locks in the moisture. This is the first time I have baked the cakes 2 days before decorating so I am not sure if I should try it. I am worried I won't have enough time to defrost the cakes.
So if I wrap them up in seran wrap and foil and put them in today I can leave them in for a full day and take them out Friday night to thaw overnight, right?
Do I just thaw them on the counter or is it better to just thaw in the fridge still completely wrapped up? If I did the later then I would have to take them out earlier than Friday night which almost seems pointless to put them in the fridge for 12 hours so in that case is it better to just wrap up and keep in the fridge till ready to decorate?
Sorry, so many questions. I just want to be sure to do it right since it's for a wedding.
Thanks in advance for the help.

I am confused.

A cake baked on Thursday will be plenty fresh or a Saturday wedding. Freezing the cake won't keep it any fresher.

I freeze all my cakes, but I bake them the weekend before they are needed. The size of the tier will determine how long it takes to defost. A 6" cake will defrost faster than a 16" cake. I would say from my experience I can start working on all the tiers within 1.5hrs from taking them out of the freezer. Now, the larger tiers may still be a little frozen in the middle, but I am fine with that. It makes lifting them easier because they won't break.

If I am understanding this, you plan on leveling, filling, icing, stacking, decorating Saturday morning (because you said the cakes would thaw overnight Friday night) for a Saturday wedding. That is up to you, but leaving all that till the night before it is due would scare me to death. What if you drop something?
I buy my saran wrap in bulk from Sam's Club. It comes in a 16" or 18" wide X like 1000 ft long container. I love it. I triple wrap all my cakes and place them in freezer. No foil or freezer bag. Never had a problem.

I just leave them wrapped on the counter until I am ready to use them. But once again, I think the freezing process is useless since the wedding is only 2 days away. You are leaving no time for your cakes to settle once filled.

I'm a "always freeze" person! lol I always freeze my cakes, even if they are baked on Thurday. I don't do it to keep the cakes fresh, I think they are easier to work with and they are moister.

This is what I would do with your situation.

Bake the cakes today (Thursday), let them cool completely, then wrap in 2-3 layers of saran wrap (and a layer of foil if you want to, but since the cakes will only be in the freezer for a short while, I think it would be okay not to) and put in freezer.

Tomorrow (Friday) morning, take them out of the freezer and let them thaw IN THE WRAPPING on the counter. Start decorating Friday after they are thawed. You don't want to wait until Saturday morning unless you are confident that nothing will go wrong.

I think I'm going to start wrapping the cakes in about 3 layers of plastic wrap like cai0311 cause I hate wrapping them in foil too! lol (Plus foil costs so much! I reuse a lot of foil unless it is messed up for that reason!) Unless the cake will be frozen for a couple of weeks. I usually don't freezer for longer than that anyway!

Thanks guys! I will take them out tomorrow morning then. My biggest concern was how they needed to thaw, whether in the fridge or on the counter. Guess it's not much different than what I've done and everyone is different. I work full time plus 2 home based businesses, this is partly why I won't decorate till Saturday morning... plus I want it to be fresher. The wedding's not till the evening so still plenty of time if anything does happen *knock on wood*. I've always done it this way and no problems *again knocking on wood* lol.
Plus if I fill, frost and fondant cover each tier I didn't really want to keep them in the fridge that long since they will be in there throughout the morning on Saturday till I am ready to start assembling.

Oh ok! I have a full-time job also so I've have to timeline everything! lol

Oh yea, I have a wedding cake this weekend and next along with birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, graduations! Yikes... I love my lists I make everywhere, be lost without them.

Glad I am not the only one out there going out of my mind from time to time with work and cakes. lol

I work full time too, which is why I bake a week in advance. Cakes are not the only thing in life that can cause a schedule to be thrown off - which is why I personally like all my orders completely finished Friday night.

About 3 weeks ago I had a wedding I had to supply 21 dozen cupcakes. I finished all the cupcakes but 3 dozen (each recipe makes 3 dozen so I only had to make 1 cupcake recipe and bake them, I had the frosting already made) and was so tired I decided to go to bed and bake the last batch the next morning (Saturday - same day they were due). A little before 8:00am I was finished making the batter, about to put all 3 dozen in the oven when I heard this "click" sound. The power shut off for the entire neighborhood. Thankfully it came on about 25 minutes later and I had plenty of time to finish the order. But had it not, I would of had to call a friend to ask to use their oven, drive over to the house, bake the cupcakes (and most likely I wouldn't have been able to fit all 3 dozen in the oven because I have a true convection oven at my house and can bake 6 dozen cupcakes at a time), drive home, ice the cupcakes... It would have killed a lot of time.

If you are comfortable with your time frame, that is what matters. From experience from my life, anything left last minute (I consider decorating a cake the day it is due last minute) something will go wrong.

As a side note, I am unavailable to decorate Saturday mornings from 9:00am - 1:00pm because my husband and I do volunteer work during this time. If I had that time to decorate, MAYBE I wouldn't be so determined to finish everything Friday night.

OK stop putting that possiblity out there please! lol You're making me nervous!
I know catastrophes can happen, they have before, but I have faith that it won't, I pray even more on cake decorating and delivery days. lol
If I had time to decorate the cake tonight I would, but we have plans to go out for a friends birthday. Since we get up at 4:30am on Saturdays for my husband's dialysis it's perfect time to have the house to myself to get cakes done for 3 hours. piece and quiet!
Thanks guys for all your help. I appreciate it so much! Have a great weekend!

How did everything work out?

I am telling you... everytime anyone has ever said anything negative, like what-if's, that's when something bad happens! Ugh!
But no planning ahead of time would have been able to change the outcome since it was due to the weather and the nasty humidity from the monsoons we were having this weekend.
But before even that I had a horrible time using Duff's fondant for one of the tiers. It sucks for covering cake, but awesome for roses.
Thanks again for all of your help. I am trying to post a pic.

Ugh! It won't let me post it, I'll try in my pics to upload it there. Otherwise I think it will work if I do it from home.

Which cake is it?

I havent posted it yet. It won't let me here from work.

Yay! It finally let me! Here's the link.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2115090

Very pretty!

thanks!