Please, please forgive the redundancy of this post -- I tried to search for my answer but didn't find what I needed in the short amount of time I have --

I am making a three-layer round cake on a Wednesday for someone for Saturday (I am going out of town). I want to freeze this cake so she can just defrost it on the day of her party. The cake will be covered in buttercream only and will not have any fancy fillings, just icing. How exactly do I freeze this? I know to freeze it first on a plate, etc. and THEN wrap it, but I see conflicting suggestions on whether to wrap the cake itself or put it in a box unwrapped and then wrap/seal the box with plastic wrap and foil. Not sure which is the correct way to get the best result.

Any help would be very, very much appreciated!

There are several ways to freeze a cake, many of them work well. Bakeries often freeze products unwrapped if the product will be in the freezer for a short amount of time. Wednesday to Saturday is short. If this were my cake, I would put it in a box, wrap the box (or put in a plastic bag) and freeze. The customer can remove the cake from freezer, leave the wrap on the box, and let it defrost in the fridge or on the counter. You should have nothing to worry about.

Your cake is the perfect candidate for freezing. No filling? Just buttercream? Perfect! Freezing actually make the cake more moist, too! I used to work for a bakery. We would work on each tier of a wedding cake around Wednesday or so, sometimes take them out to work on again later, then pull them out Friday-ish to stack and get ready for a Saturday delivery. At home, I freeze 99% of my cakes even before I frost--much easier to manipulate and no crumbs pull up (wrap completely-cooled layers in plastic wrap first). As long as my deep-freezer is smell-free, I have put a completely-decorated cake in the freezer with no wrapping. A couple of days is not a problem. At the event, when the cake is not quite thawed (or at least still chilled), I seem to get the most compliments from the eaters!

Thank you to both of you for responding. I feel much more confident in this plan now. I will freeze in a box and wrap that up to "seal it."

Very grateful for your help!