I've got a finished (BC decorated) cake in the freezer ready to take to a family party this weekend.  It's basically an 8 inch round (slightly carved into a squatty sphere) with 3 layers, filled with chocolate BC and iced with plain BC.  The cake is 6 inches tall.  I put one bubble tea straw down the center to keep the layers from sliding.  It's currently in a rubbermaid type container and I plan to not open the container until shortly before serving.

I need to drive an hour to reach the party, and cake will be served approximately 2 hours after I arrive.  I'd like to drive with it as cold/frozen as possible (bad experiences traveling with cake not chilled) but still have it thawed in time to eat.  Can anyone give advice on the minimum amount of time to allow to make sure it's fully thawed?  TIA!

if it was still a little chilled in the dead center after that amount of time--once you slice it let it stay on the plate for five minutes before serving--no worries

but it should be fully thawed in three hours--

the only other consideration is to be sure it does not condensate--

there's 10,000 ways to do this--

i would put the cake in the frige overnight--then travel with it so it defrosts gradually

but if you're comfy with your set up go for it

do you have scraps of anything leftover --you can test with?

what is your weather likely to be?

Good idea about letting individual pieces thaw if necessary, I'll keep that in mind.

No scraps leftover -- but it will be between 30 and 44 degrees F during transport and party time, with no rain expected so I wouldn't expect humidity to be a problem. 

But you're saying gradual defrosting will lessen the condensation or just that there will be more time for it to dry?  It would seem to me the total amount of condensation would remain the same regardless of the time and intermediate temp involved in thawing, or am I missing something?  I thought I understood that as long as you don't open the cake until it's fully thawed the condensation shouldn't be a problem but haven't really tried this before!

Thanks!

i never have understood the don't open until christmas part of thawing cakes

--i mean if it's not iced, the condensation is absorbed by the cake surface

--i unwrap my frozen uniced tiers immediately and brush off the ice. done.

whatever~ don't mind me ;)

--but all i meant in my previous post is that thawing it gradually ensures less condensation or avoids it all together

your cake will probably be fine

Just an update in case others find themselves with a similar question.

We ended up cutting the cake 4 hours and 45 minutes after removing it from the freezer.  It was still totally frozen in most of the middle!  Fortunately I had over-baked for the number of servings needed, so I just trimmed the outside pieces off to serve and we never had to cut into the frozen middle (like a 4" square chunk that wasn't even cutable).  I'm thinking the extra height of the cake really added to the thaw time.  That and it was only in the 30s outside so the car and house weren't summer temps but should have been close to 70° F when it was thawing.  Oh well, I'll know for next time.  Hope it helps anyone doing something similar.

Oh and no condensation issues at all -- I kept it covered until shortly before cutting