I'm doing two cakes this weekend - I stay at home with my two very young kids, so doing one cake is a huge ordeal - much less, two! I can only do them after they're in bed at night. Because of this, I need to do as much as I can ahead of time so that I'm not staying up till 4 AM Friday and Saturday nights!

The cake for Saturday will be (technically) 3 tier - 2 8" tiers and one 6" tier. Sunday's cake will be 10, 8, and 6" tiers. Saturday's iced in buttercream, Sunday's iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. Gumpaste toppers already made. Is there anything else I can do ahead of time? Can I go ahead and bake tomorrow, or make some batches of buttercream (recipe I'm using is 2 lb ps, 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup milk, flavoring)? If so, how do I properly store it (wrapped in saran wrap in the fridge? freezer?) Space in my fridge is limited - I don't have room to bake, crumb coat, and put in fridge until time to decorate. Would appreciate advice from some heavy duty bakers! Thanks so much!

AGet to baking honey! I would have everything baked and frozen by tom night...then I would make up all buttercream and torte on thursday (i wrap them in seran wrap and leave them on the counter once they have been torted) now you can either crumbcoat when you torte and then decorate fully between Friday and Saturday or you can wait to ice completely until later on...If its an all buttercream cake I like to have a crumbcoat settle overnight...Just my personal preferance...but if its fondant I would crumbcoat then cover on Friday...I hope this made sense:grin:

you can for sure make the buttercream ahead of time and also bake the cakes and freeze them

ok, so you're saying bake everything tomorrow and freeze - thursday, torte/fill both cakes, wrap them in saran wrap and leave on counter? I didn't think I could crumbcoat now because I can't put them in the fridge...I normally bake two days ahead of time and decorate the day before...doing it more in advance than that makes me nervous because I don't know proper storage to prevent drying out, etc. since I don't have much room in the fridge.

The buttercream you can store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks I think.  I store mine in tupperware

thanks - if I make all the buttercream ahead of time, do I need to leave out the milk until I'm ready to use it? I read on here that the milk could separate out and don't add it until I'm ready to use the buttercream...also would I need to freeze or refrigerate the buttercream, or can I just leave out on my counter (in a big tupperware)?

AI have always left my buttercream out at room temp with no issues...you can always remix quickly before using....icing seals in moisture to a cake...even just seran wrap keeps my naked cakes moist until iced...but I have a very moist cake to begin with...I guess it will depend on your recipe