I have been asked to make a 3 tier cake, with quite a lot of detail.  My question is, how long can I leave the fully decorated cake out ? The bottom tier is red velvet, filled & covered with Ganache and then a combination of ready to roll chocolate icing & fondant.  The top tier is Gluten Free Chocolate cake again filled with Ganache. Due to a death in the family, I will now need to prepare these cakes earlier than I otherwise would have.  Will they keep for 10 days once decorated, and am I best to store them in the fridge or leave them out?  I have read that it is okay to keep fondant covered cakes in the fridge ...  given that I liven Queensland, Australia, I am concerned about condensation during transportation if I were to put them in the fridge, the temperature is currently around 25 degrees Celsius ( 83 F)  with 53% humidity.  Should I pop the covered cakes in the fridge or leave them out? ( I have air conditioning) And will they last for 10 days?  Thank you for any help. 

Hi, I'm so sorry for you I hope you're keeping ok?

I have had a ganache recipe tested; my recipe uses longlife cream substitute and I was given 14 days at room temp 21-24C or 1-2 months in the fridge 1-8C.

If you used fresh cream and didn't add any additional sugar it does seem borderline to me and i personally would keep it in the fridge for at least a week.

Don't add any coloured decorations yet just keep it plain if you can and when you do take it out leave it alone without touching it overnight as it will quickly be covered in condensation and the fondant will go sticky, it will gradually dry out though and become perfect again by the morning.

hope that helps and best wishes to you and your family.

You could also try freezing the tiers separately (bottom tier pre-doweled)...

It would keep the cake portion fresher...

If you box them and then wrap the boxes well, and then when you remove them, allow them to come to temp without unwrapping, there will be little to no condensation on your cake itself...

Thank you for your kind words Crazy Gray, and for your assistance, also to AAtKT.  I have frozen the top tiers to decorate upon my return from interstate ... Hopefully the iced bottom tier will hold up for me in the fridge!  Thanks again for you assistance. 

AHow did you manage with your cake did it work out okay for you?

I'm sure it's a hard time but I hope you're doing well :-)

Hello Crazy Gray

Thank you again for your kind thoughts.  I took your advice and all turned out well.  Most importantly the Birthday Girl and her Guests loved the cake.

I've attached a photo of the end product.  It appears this cake has been made and copied numerous times, so I'm unsure who to credit with the original design.

Kind regards

Hello Crazy Grey  & AAtKT ... I've just come across this forum again and realised that the cake attached to my last email to you is not even one of my cakes .... not sure where it came from! 

This is the end result for the cake that you kindly assisted me with by way of advice.

Kind regards

Narelle

[postimage id="3853" thumb="900"]