hi everyone,

I'm just looking for some advice on when you generally start baking for your orders, as in how many days beforehand you make the cake and how long you wait from then to decorate, or if you always bake and decorate the night before or day of for small orders?

Thanks in advance !

You can bake your cakes up to a month in advance as long as they are properly wrapped and frozen. Wedding cakes can be decorated over 3 days, party cakes decorated up to 2 days in advance. All hard non edible decorations can be made weeks ahead and those that need to form or mold to your cake sides need to be made the day you are putting your final covering (fondant or buttercream) on the cake. Do you have a specific event that you are looking at? I'm a coordinator as well so maybe I can help?

Cat

I have a rainbow layer cake to make for this Saturday and a vanilla cake covered in mmf I have to make for the weekend after

They are only two small cakes, but I think I should maybe start the MMF soon so it has time to set up?

I'm also worried that if I start the rainbow cake tonight (Thursday) that it will dry out? Or will the buttercream keep it moist until Saturday night at room temperature in a cake courier?

I usually bake on a wednesday night if the cake is for saturday, and decorate thursday and friday. This way i have an extra day in case anything happens that i need to fix or rebake. Cakes are still moist on saturday. I work a full time job as well, so this has always worked well for me.

I try to bake 4-10 days in advance.

Thanks liz do you use scratch recipes or mix cakes ?

mostly scratch, or i have a few recipes that i doctor the cake mix. Havent had any problems with either.

Thanks everyone!! Looks like tonight will be perfectly fine

Thought id jump in here. I usually bake anywhere from a week to 3 days in advance. And what i do is bake. Let them cool in the pan about 20-30 minutes then (carefully) wrap them in plastic wrap several times. Then freeze em. It works great! And the cakes always taste like they just came out of the oven! Just make sure u dont wait TOO long to wrap em up!

Once you crumb coat your cake the moisture is sealed in...UNLESS you then put it in the fridge. That will dry it out. I pull mine out of the freezer, fill, crumbcoat then let sit and settle overnight. Then the next day I do final coating and decorating. Make sure you give your cake enough time to thaw/settle (at least 3 hours) so you don't end up with that bulge/sag/bubble issue. Have fun this weekend! I'm already thru 2 cakes this week and now only have one order of fancy cupcakes to do! Whooo hoo!

Cat