I need a little help. I am doing something wrong and I was just wondering how everyone else does it. I find that I wait till the last minute and working on the cake on the day its due. I am rushing and dont even have time to take a picture. I am always worried about the cake being fresh I bake at night 10pm 2 days before its due.

Here is what I mean:

I have an order for Saturday

1.Tuesday - I buy all my supplies I make my yellow from the box with
extender, all other flavors from scratch.
2.Wednesday - I make all necessary gumpaste loops, flowers etc. I
bake the first layer of the cake.
3. Thursday- Bake the second layer of the cake, mix my buttercream
colors
4. Friday- Frost and start to decorate the cake
5. Saturday- Finish decorating, packing and deliver the cake.


1) If I baked the cake on Sunday night and started decorating Wednesday will it be safe? Going in and out of the refrigerator while I am working on it Thurs - Fri and then sitting out on the table Saturday?
2)For those that crumb coat do you allow it to set for a few hours or days before you frost? Would doing this keep the cake together and prevent shifting?

Well, IMO, I give myself a week to prepare and decorate a cake. I usually buy supplies Sunday or monday, bake Tuesday, torte, fill & crumb coat Wednesday, decorate Thursday and Friday. The entire time the cake is in and out of the fridge.

After baking on Tuesday, I cool and double wrap with plastic wrap and fridge over night. Wednesday, set out to come to room temp and prep frostings and fillings. (This works well on fillings that do not require whipping cream). Then I prep the cakes for decorating and back in the fridge they go over night. Thursday I start the decorating process and depending on how many cakes I have to decorate I usually finish the process by Friday and Saturday (most cakes are needed for the weekend and this is how I prioritize my work). When I am done decorating the cake goes back in the fridge. I try to leave it in there until at most 4 hours before the event.

This works well for me as I worry about freshness too. I always wonder how some of the more intricate designs are done when I know the work takes more than 24 hours to complete.

Ok, so if I have any gumpaste/fondant decors I try to do those the week before, depending on how complicated. I also do my shopping the Sunday the week of, bake cakes Wednesday, frost up Thursday, decorate Friday, do any potential last minute details early Saturday. I may pushed Wednesday through Friday, but I don't want to be pressed that Saturday, so I'm okay with that.

Okay, if any fondant or GP accents I try to do early on. Let them dry out.
-Wed. make the cake sometimes make the icing.
-Thurs. fill and frost the cake.
-Friday completely decorate and tier if needed after it has settled.
-I save anything that is delicate or that may be ruined until Sat.
If you know early on you may make the cake and freeze. I know placing the cake in the fridge dries them out vs placing in the freezer which keeps them moist.

HTHS

[If you know early on you may make the cake and freeze. I know placing the cake in the fridge dries them out vs placing in the freezer which keeps them moist. ]

I haven't had any problems with the fridge drying my cakes out, but I think it may be the location. Some people can't even put fondant covered cakes anywhere near their fridge as it will sweat and make the fondant fall apart. Honestly, I don't like the freezer, I always worry about freezer burn. I think this is a personal choice and what works best for the decorator.[/quote]

I wrap my freshly bake cakes while still warm in saran wrap and foil and stick them in the freezer, taking them out several hours before icing them. I do not unwrap them until they are thowed. That way I can bake them on the weekend and they are moist and fresh when thawed. I use the WASC recipies. Once I ice them 2 days before due, I do not refridgerate them, I use Indydebi's BC and it does well. Since most of the cakes I do are for birthdays at work, I do get to taste them the day they are served and they are very moist and fresh tasting.

Thank everyone for responding. I am going to try baking sooner and putting it in the freezer. But it will be before frosted since I have a small fridge

I find that is too much time spend on one cake. (one week ?)
Suppose you have 2 cake orders for during the week, 2cakes for saterday and 2 for sunday ?

Only decorations I do way in advance.
I bake 2 days in advance, fill and deco the day before.

topaz176


Hi, I hope to one day have more than one order at a time. While I am breaking it down into days I only work on the cake from 9:00pm to 12:00am after I have but my family to bed and worked a full day. While it sounds like a full week. It's really 12hrs. I work slow.

Sorry, but I would not bake a cake on Tuesday for Saturday (unless I froze it). Cakes are fresh about six days. You want your customer to have all the freshness they can get. I bake my Saturday and Sunday cakes on Fridays, make my frosting on Fridays, and I decorate them Friday evening. (Knowing that if I need more time, I can finish the Sunday ones on Saturdays.)

How big are these cakes you're baking? I ask because you're baking one layer on one day and the 2nd layer the next day? You're spending more time mixing and cleaning up the 2nd day than you would just mixing/baking both layers the same day.

Bake on Mon or Tues and freeze them. Freezing actually adds moisture to a cake and makes them easier to work with.

Why are you putting the cake "in and out" of the refrigerator? Unless you're using perishable fillings, don't refrigerate the cake. There have been many threads explaining that freezing a cake halts the "going stale" process, but refrigerating it actually increases it. So using that logic, a cake will go stale faster if you refrigerate it.

I am learning a lot from this thread and it wasn't even my post. However, I have on average 5 or more orders per week. It is just not possible for me to bake and decorate that many cakes if I were to wait until Wednesday and Thursday to get started for cakes that are due Friday and Saturday. Also, I am lucky to have an extra fridge that I can use just for cakes so I can control the environment in there for the needs of my cakes. (colder than normal)

I do all prep work on on Monday and Tuesday. Color fondant, make anything that needs to be made early, measure out all my dry ingredients, measure all my wet ingredients. I do all my baking on Thursday. On Friday I make my icing and fill, ice, stack, and decorate. On Saturday I finish anything and deliver.

Maybe I won't be so afraid of the freezer. I set my cakes out the night before and sometimes the day of, so I will start to try this.