We suddenly have an awesome chance to take a quick disney vacation and stay for free at one of the resorts with friends. The only problem is that I would get home on a Friday and the next day I have to present a wedding cake. (I would be gone from Tues to Fri). (And I want to add that this cake is a gift for some older friends - not a paid client - not that that means I can slap something together, but it's not a cake that a bridezilla ordered - I can do what I want as long as it's chocolate and feeds 140! )
Anyway, the flowers will be already done, as will the sponges. I'm wondering though if I could fill and crumb coat the cakes, wrap them well on Monday and freeze or refrigerate them until I get back on Friday eve? Then Friday eve and Sat morning I could frost, assemble and put the flowers on? Or am I being too crazy?? Please help me work this out - my son would be so thrilled to do this trip - I would so hate to miss it because of a cake!!! Is it possible?

Now, my advice is assuming your cake does not have a filling or icing that needs to refrigerated if it does then there are other steps you would need to take (like getting someone to move the frozen tiers to the refrigerator on Thursday before you come back on Friday).

A crumb coated frozen two layer tier will take at least a couple of hours to come to room temperature. While it is doing so I would unwrap it so that any condensation from being in the freezer would evaporate. Otherwise you might have issues of your final coat of butter cream adhering properly. I am assuming you will have weighted the tiers to eliminate any bulge issue before you freeze them, correct? If so, then if you take the cakes out by let's say 6pm on Friday you could make up all the butter cream you would need and get everything ready for final coating and then begin that by 8 - 9pm or so. If it were me, that is what I would do. Then on Saturday morning I would stack and decorate. HTH

Complete cake--ice, stack, etc. Place in box. Wrap box in 2 layers of saran, 1 layer foil. Freeze.

As soon as you get home, place still wrapped box in fridge overnight. Early Sat. morning, place still wrapped box on counter for several hours. Remove cake from box. Place flowers. Deliver.

Rae

Rae, that would make coming home sooooo much less stressful - but unfortunately I lack the freezer space for a fully done cake. Hmmmm.... I will be also making a groom's cake though that I might be able to do this with...

Heartnsync, this sounds like it could work. I have a friend who would be checking the house anyway, so she could move the cakes before I get back. If I freeze the individual sponges before I fill, layer and crumb coat - and then freeze again, is that too much? I'm in the habit of working with still slightly frozen sponges.... but I guess they don't have to be...

I'm so glad I have a tiny bit of experience now, but it's still far from enough... I hope I won't be kicking myself on that Saturday!

Thank you so much for your replies - at least now I know that it is possible!

I always freeze my cakes and fill and crumb coat while frozen. There's no need for anything to thaw first. AT the bakery I worked for they would bake on Tuesdays for all the weekend orders and freeze. The day they were due they would frost and decorate. It works great...the cakes are moist and they come to room temp gradually. I might add that I only do buttercream cakes...I do not cover with fondant, only decorate with it so thawing first might be necessary in that case. Just make sure your layers are wrapped well in cling wrap and they will be fine.

Hmm. All chocolate?

Not everybody likes chocolate. Not everybody eats chocolate. Not everybody can eat chocolate.

That depends on whether you achieve a hermetic seal with the wrappings. (I'd think about a zip-top bag, with as much air sucked out as possible before it went into the freezer. Of course, that might create problems I don't know about; I'm speaking strictly from a background of physics.)

If the cakes are hermetically sealed, then the only condensation inside the plastic wrap would be from whatever air is trapped inside. The lion's share of the condensation would be on the outside of the plastic wrap.

If you were to unwrap the cakes before they reached room temperature, then all the condensation would be on the cakes themselves.

Of course, if the wrapping isn't hermetically sealed, then you would want to unwrap while they were still cold, as otherwise, you would be trapping condensation.

Thanks for your insight - I'll consider that.

As far as the chocolate, that is the brides only request for her cake. The groom's cake will be spice. And if the guest don't like either, they really don't need to eat cake.

Ice crystals will form in anything that is frozen that contains moisture. Upon removing a frozen item from a freezer it is unavoidable that condensation will appear on the outside of the object thus making the outside wet. The crystals inside the cake will keep it moist long after the moisture on the outside has evaporated (a great benefit and reason why many people freeze their cakes even it if is just over night). Taking the cake from freezer to refrigerator and then to room temperature helps to decrease the amount of condensation that will occur. Thus the reason for putting the frozen cakes in the refrigerator for at least a day prior to removing them to frost.

I think variables of what type of butter cream you use, the consistency, the humidity and temperature as well as probably a long list of other things can all be part of the equation. Just think everything through carefully and I am sure it will go fine. Good luck!

You get no argument from me on ice crystal formation. But condensation forms because the cake is at a temperature below the dew-point of the surrounding air, and by keeping the cake sealed until it reaches room temperature, any condensation that forms (beyond what already formed from air trapped inside the wrapping when the cake was frozen) will form on the outside of the wrapping.

I'm so glad I saw this - I was wondering the same thing! It would certainly take a lot of the stress of the next few weeks off of me if I could fill and crumb coat my cakes and then freeze til it's time to decorate. I am putting a thin layer of raspberry pastry filling or raspberry jam along with a thin layer of buttercream between my layers. Will that make a difference in being able to freeze them ? any thoughts on raspberry pastry filling vs. seedless raspberry jam? I've used jam, but not the filling and thought I might try that this time. Thanks!