I'm making a 4 tier wedding cake for next weekend. The tiers have all been baked, filled & decorated with their final coat of icing, then wrapped and stored in the freezer. The cake will be covered in lace appliques after thawing. My question is, how long will the tiers need to thaw in the refrigerator before decorating? My plan is to take them out of the freezer Thursday morning and decorate them Friday. Is that enough time for the large tiers to thaw? The largest is a 15 inch round, 5 inches thick.

Thanks!

That's more than enough time to thaw... it would probably thaw within three hours.

Since you've already iced your entire wedding cake, once it thaws you should expect to have some icing blow outs that will need to be repaired. The air needs to be able to escape from beneath the icing... to prevent this, you should poke a hole in the top icing.

There probably will be few, if any, blow-outs if the icing was applied well enough. There probably will be some sweating so be prepared to let it come to room temp before applying any decorations. That should take about an hour. Do NOT touch the cake while it is coming to room temp/sweating.

Thank you both for the responses. I will proceed as planned and be on the lookout for any problems. I practiced the freezing/thawing/decorating method with a 9 inch cake and it worked fine. I just wasn't sure if 24 hours was enough time for the biggest cake to thaw. I've read a few horror stories of cakes being served frozen & just wanted to be sure.

Exactly the time line I would use! Your cakes will be nice and cold but not frozen.

Minette

My timeline would not include completing an entire wedding cake a week in advance, storing it in the freezer for a week, and adding appliques to it the day before it's needed.

Freezing a cake layer is one thing, but I'd bet that a bride doesn't expect to receive week old frozen tiers that are typical of grocer case cakes.

Jeesh! Thanks CWR41 for reminding me why I stopped visiting Cake Central.

A well wrapped frozen tier will taste just as fresh a week later (defrosted) as it did the day you put it in the freezer. Make sure you keep it wrapped as it's defrosting.

If it tastes like a "typical grocer case cake" going in, it will taste like a "typical grocer case cake" coming out.

Your bride should have a delicious cake and as long you deliver a delicious cake, does it matter that it has been frozen or baked the day of? I say the end result is more important than the road that brought you to it.

Minette

Thank you Minette.

Thanks for your concern, but I've already done this many times with great success. By thawing in the refrigerator, the icing remains hard through the thawing process, and the wrap can be removed without damaging the icing.

UPDATE... in case anyone was interested in how this turned out... it worked beautifully! I moved the cakes from the freezer to the refrigerator two days prior to the wedding. The next morning I took the temperature inside each cake and the largest two (15 and 12 inches round) were still frozen on the inside. The smaller cakes were completely thawed. I added the MMF lace appliques that afternoon and evening and then put the cakes back in the refrigerator overnight. The cake was kept refrigerated until just before the ceremony, and was out for about 2 hours before cutting. I was there for the cutting & the cake was beautiful inside and out.

Also, the cake had fresh sliced strawberries and cream cheese icing for the filling. I left that part out of the first post because I knew I would be criticized for attempting to freeze a cake with fresh strawberries. But it worked just fine. No problems, no leaking & many compliments on the cake. I piped a nice dam of cream cheese icing. The strawberries were sliced about 1/4 inch thick & placed directly on the cake layer. I left a small gap around each strawberry slice and then came back and piped cream cheese around each strawberry to keep them from sliding against each other. Then covered all the strawberries with a layer of the icing. There was no sliding or drooping whatsoever. I kept the cake either frozen or refrigerated with the exception of the time it took to add the lace.

I know there has been a lot of controversy over many of these methods, but I just want to testify that yes it is possible I uploaded a picture of the cake in case anyone wanted to see the finished product. [/i]

Wow what a beautiful job you did.
I'm glad you posted this information. It will help others in the future when they want to do something similar