Buttercream Decorated Cake....how Long Can It Sit?
Decorating By 1234me Updated 26 Feb 2007 , 5:21am by jlmaison
I make approx 4-5 cakes per weekend for a local party place. I have been doing this for close to 2 months now and I think they got their cakes prior to me from Sam's. I do either 1/4 sheets or half sheets for them and use the buttercream dream recipe for my icing and Dh mixes for the cakes. Ok - here is my question - I am going to New York for vacation in a few weeks (so excited I got tickets the the Martha Stewart show) and I will be leaving town on Wednesday evening. They need their cakes on Saturday. Do I make them Wednesday, refridgerate them, and have my husband deliver them for me on Saturday? I have a fridge that is used only for my cakes so I have room to store them. Or do I tell them I will be out of town and let them get the cakes from Sam's for that weekend? I just don't know how well the cake will taste eating it 3 days after it was decorated.
Thanks for any help, ideas, or suggestions.
This is a tough one. I personally think the fresh taste will be affected. I can understand you not wanting to lose the order, but I think the customer can taste the difference.
If you're decorating it Wednesday, does that mean you're baking Tuesday? If you are, the cake is now another day older. I would imagine it would be too much for you to bake and decorate all on Wednesday.
I would be concerned that the cakes don't taste fresh and they stop ordering from you. I know that I would stop getting cakes from a place I didn't like, and I'm the type of customer that won't complain to you, just stop the business.
Another option my DH suggested (he's standing over my shoulder); how well does your husband bake? 
How are they being decorated? You could freeze them if the decorations were such that would hold up or you could use a method your DH could lay on the cakes after they have been taken out of the freezer on Friday.
I would opt for telling them I was going out of town and let them get the cakes from another store. Since they are good customers, you would not want to give them something that may not be 100%. Is there another decorator that you could reccommend for them to use?
Here in my town, there is another decorator that I would trust to refer clients to. We talk often and do not feel that either is trying to "steal" the customers. There is plenty of cake work in this town. A network of cakers is important...when you are booked, it is very good customer service to have a referral ready. Hope that helps.
i used to do about 30 cakes a week for a tunnel town type party place. they picked up their cakes on friday and kept them in the freezer. however, i know that in the stores shelf life for a buttercream cake is like 7-10 days refrigerated? i think they will be fine. i don't think i would tell your customer to get the cakes elsewhere for that week or they may want to do that every week.
I have frozen a few BC decorated cakes. First you place the naked cake in the freezer and let it freeze a few hours. Then you take it out and wrap it in 2 layers of saran wrap, then 2 layers of heavy duty foil. Tell the customer to let the cake thaw wrapped. Then they would take off the foil and carefully take of the plastic wrap. The few cakes I have done this way were still delicious to the customer and the decorations stayed in tact. You would have to remove flowers prior to freezing.
good suggestion tyty. Her husband could thaw them before he delivered them and they wouldn't even know she was out of town.
Do you have a relationship with another cake decorator who you could sub-contract these out for that week?
I also agree with "it's good customer service to have a referral ready". I do this all the time with my catering, and I am always surprised when the caller is surprised that I give them the name of another caterer they can call! I have a group of about 3 or 4 of us that refer business back and forth to each other all the time when we are already booked. Our customers think we are the top banana when we go that extra step to help them out.
I did the Wilton cake class and made cakes in there . I did two cakes where I froze them for and month and then ate the. For the buttercream icing I used crisco instead of butter and used a butter extact to give it the buttery taste. I thought that the cake was better after it was frozen....it was actually more moist. The filling I used was the ready made pudding cups. My teacher said if you make the cake like this you can freeze it for up to 3 months. Hope this helps Jen
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